Chef Robert Phua moved over from the Banana Leaf and has brought his magic to another restaurant
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Chef Robert Phua (right) and owner Louis Leung at the Tamarind Hill restaurant. Photograph by : Mark van Manen, Vancouver Sun
Let me put it this way. The chef at Tamarind Hill is the same one who was behind the Banana Leaf success. There’s now three Banana Leaf restaurants in Vancouver.
Chef Robert Phua moved over to Tamarind Hill last year and is still cooking similarly delicious food, redolent with spices and herbs, only he’s trying a little fusion in some dishes.
So among dishes like the satays, curries, gado gado, green papaya and mango salad, nasi goreng and char kuey tow and other dishes, he’s slipped in Indian samosas, and Indonesian dishes like murtabak (roti wrap with choice of meat and curry dip) and mee goreng, plus an Indian black peppercorn and garlic butter seafood sauce.
Appies are $3 to $7.50; meat dishes are in the $12 range; vegetable dishes are $10 and seafood ranges from $12 to $17. (You mix’n’match 10 sauces with 10 varieties of fish.)
I go weak at the knees for Hainanese chicken and I loved it here. The Hainanese chicken rice, too, is a must. Green papaya mango salad comes in a huge mound and the nasi goreng was nicely spiced and strewn with bits of beef, shrimps, egg, tomato and green bean.
The room is a cocoon of burnt orange walls, dark blue ceiling and touches of eastern architectural details (like the antique Indian door).
Wine offerings are more than decent with good budget choices and includes B.C. offerings from Blue Mountain and Burrowing Owl.
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TAMARIND HILL
628 Sixth Ave., New Westminster, 604-526-3000. Open for lunch and dinner, 7 days a week.
Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
