One of the great perks of having family is a family funded meal at a fancy restaurant.  My uncle notoriously takes his family to really nice restaurants, and every once in a while I get to tag along.  My mother was in town, and she loves Italian food, so my uncle took all of us out to Pazzo, an Italian restaurant in Back Bay.

You are not dining at an Italian restaurant unless you get some quality pain gratis with olive oil dipping sauce.  This was pretty standard fare and nothing to get too excited about.  This makes me wonder: have we reached the tipping point for pain gratis???

My mother ordered the beet carpaccio, thinly sliced pieces of golden and red beets topped with arugula, goats cheese, and drizzled with basalmic vinegar.  This was an interesting variation of beef carpaccio, and it was a really pleasant salad, the bitter arugula contrasted nicely with the sweet beets and the tart goat cheese/vinegar.  I really enjoyed this appetizer.

I ordered the Sicilian arancine, which were refreshingly vegetarian.  From my experience almost all Italian restaurants that serve arancini (or rice balls) stuff them with meat and cheese.  These were just cheese, and served with a saffron cream sauce.  It was a little too sweet for my liking and definitely could have used some tartness to contrast the bland fried rice and mozzarella ball.

We also ordered the warm spinach and goat cheese salad (there were 8 of us there, I’m not a glutton).  You can’t really go wrong with fried goat cheese and spinach.  Like the beet carpaccio it was a good combination of sweet and tart (which is part of the reason I didn’t really like the arancini).  Unfortunately, this is not really a dish meant for sharing, as there is limited amounts of fried goat cheese, and maximal amounts of spinach.

Finally the entrees come out (I say finally because this review seems interminable, not because it actually took very long).  I ordered the pumpkin ravioli, because ravioli is my favorite format for pumpkin, and I love ravioli.  It was served with some spinach, but was still a little too sweet for my liking.

In contrast, the eggplant parmesan was very bitter, the sauce was very sour, though it was doused with mammoth amounts of cheese.  I wasn’t a very big fan of this dish.

I did like the gnocchi however, it was quite light, though my uncle thought it was doughy.  Normally gnocchi is very heavy, but I ate all six dumplings easily and didn’t feel too heavy.  The kale and tomato garlic sauce was quite a tasty accompaniment.

My cousin ordered the potato and cheese pizza, though I don’t know why.  I’m not really a big fan of potato pizzas, as I find them very bland and uninteresting.  This pizza looks as boring as it tasted.

If you didn’t think I’d be full from all the other food, I somehow managed to find some room for tiramasu (there’s always room for tiramasu).  If this was made in-house, it was not very good, and tasted as if it was made in a central location and delivered to the restaurant.

While I love Italian food, and find that Italian restaurants are pretty vegetarian (though not necessarily vegan) friendly, I find that most Italian restaurants are not very good.  They usually are very expensive and their menus are pretty unimaginative or uninteresting.  Pazzo falls victim to this common concern, as most of the dishes I had (outside of the beet carpaccio which was amazing) were tastier at other Italian restaurants I’ve been to.  And considering the fact that we sampled almost every vegetarian entree, I think I have a pretty good idea of what Pazzo’s has to offer.  It’s pretty good food, but vastly overpriced.  If you ever feel like getting just one dish from a restaurant, I suggest coming to Pazzo’s just for the beet carpaccio, because it’s great.  Everything else, is così-così. So, I’ll give it 3 and a half cheese sandwiches.

Pazzo
269 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02116 
(617) 267-2996

My cousin, Candace celebrated her birthday the other night, and she is a colossal fan of Tamarind Bay.  When there was only the Tamarind Bay Bistro in Harvard Square, we would always go there for her birthday.  But, since Coastal Cuisine opened in Brookline, we always go there whenever she is in town, much to my chagrin (I should make it clear that I am not a big fan of the Green Line).  I do prefer coming to the Coastal Cuisine restaurant rather than the original bistro in Harvard, as I feel there are more appetizing options for vegetarians at Coastal Cuisine.  Chef Wali Ahmed (who you may remember we had dinner with at Yen Ching earlier, sorry for the name drop) has really emphasized seafood at this restaurant, though when compared to the Bistro, there are only a few more fish dishes.  So if you are a pesco-vegetarian, this place will be very friendly for you.  If you are a vegan, there are a lot of options for you as well, which are also very nicely delineated in the menu.

You may wonder why it took me this long to review an Indian restaurant, and this is primarily because I really can’t stand Indian restaurants as they all serve the same type of food that usually wreaks havoc on your digestive tract.  This is unlike real Indian food which actually is edible.  Below are just a few of the entrees which we had for dinner.

Baby Eggplant Baghara (misspelled in menu) - This dish was highly recommended by my aunt who had had this before.  However, she failed to iterate that there would only be 2 baby eggplants soaking in an inedibly spicy gravy.  I’m not saying that I would prefer 3 baby eggplants, but the dish seems less about the eggplant and more about the bagahra.  And at $14, it seems a little steep to just be paying for chili flakes and cream.

Palak Lashun? - This is technically not on the menu, but my uncle orders it every time, and it is delicious.  It is simply spinach and garlic, and while it is very tasty and flavorful, I would not recommend it if you are on a date.  If dining alone or with family, definitely ask for it (recommended by Cheesesandwich.org, if you want!).

Lalla Musa Dal - Black lentils, a traditional Punjabi dish (also known in traditional Indian restaurants as dal makhani).  This is not vegan, and you want to know why?  There is at least half a stick of butter in it (actual estimates of butter usage may vary)!  While it is very smooth and buttery and flavorful, I feel sometimes it is nauseatingly rich.

Bhindi Methi - methi is the hindi word for cumin, and like the baby eggplant baghara, this dish is also more about the gravy than it is about the bhindi (okra).  I am a big okra fan, so it was disappointing to find that this was basically five pieces of okra chopped and in another inedibly spicy gravy.

Kamal Kakri Ka Kofta - This dish is basically the same as the eggplant dish, but instead of two baby eggplants, there are two mashed up lumps of lotus roots.  I’ve never really had a lotus root before, and after eating this dish where it’s been mashed up into a ball and drowned in a spicy gravy such that you do not taste anything other than lump and chili, I still couldn’t tell you what it tastes like.

Southern Chickpeas Masala - In the south of India, there is a very popular dish called channa masala, which is basically chickpeas, onions, cumin, and coriander.  Normally, if you go to India, this dish is very spicy.  At Tamarind Bay, this dish is very creamy and rich, and in fact not spicy at all.  This was refreshing when combined with the ludicrously hot eggplant, okra, and lotus root dishes.

Tamarind Bay is typical Indian fare that is repackaged into haute cuisine.  Most of their sauces and gravies taste exactly the same, and practically every vegetable dish is drowning in one gravy or another.  While most every dish I had was very spicy, I should add that it is possible that the chef made it so spicy to appease my family who eat so spicy that they all have ulcers (or will soon).

Overall, I give this place one cheese sandwich.  The food is overpriced, and either ridiculously spicy or unhealthily rich.  Some of the menu items seem interesting, but I feel like all the choices were made by a guy who has no intention of ever eating a vegetarian dish.  The fact that they have a dish using baby corn is proof of principle.  I would only go there to placate a family member.

Tamarind Bay Coastal Cuisine
1665 Beacon Street
Brookline, MA‎
(617) 277-1752