Mantra Restaurant & Lounge
632 Emerson St
Palo Alto, CA
(650) 322-3500
Cuisine:
Californian, Westcoast Cuisine, California
August 21, 2007
Too expensive
Came here yesterday for the “Dine Downtown Palo Alto Mondays” prix fixe. The decor is very nice, especially the wall waterfall fountain.
Mantra serves “Californian cuisine with Indian influences”, and it’s good… just not worth $20+ per dish. You can get much better Indian food for much cheaper, though as for Californian… I can’t think of any good Californian places in the area.
Mantra’s food is interesting, but overpriced.
Dishes I tried:
"Coke" au vin lamb shank
A bit gamey, but otherwise pretty good.
Nawabi Murgh
Reminiscent of chicken makhani (aka butter chicken), but blander. The chiles are a nice touch though. Maybe I’m expecting too much since I love Amber’s butter chicken so much.
Wild Honey and Green Pepper Escolar
The fish was very well prepared- moist and flaky, but the flavors weren’t quite right. I’m not a fan of the squid ink risotto.
Lavender Saffron Crème Brulee
A nice dessert, but it’s not so much creme brulee as it is egg custard. It reminds me very much of the egg tarts at dim sum.
justin
05/21/2007Ahh max power…what a great simpsons episode.