I have dined at this location a number of times, so I'm confident that this 2 star rating is as high as I can go. The lunch buffet is ample, with many vegetarian options, as well as a few meat choices. Almost without exception, however, every dish I've tried here is just too spicy. Now, I enjoy spicy food, and delight in the variety of chiles that are available, from the wonderful bite of a fresh green chile to the deeper and more complex flavors that dried chiles provide. What they use here at Tamarind is cayenne, which is a fairly one note chile that delivers little in the way of nuance and much in the way of simple heat. Then they overdo it, so the spiciness of the chile steps all over the other flavors. It's boring and frustrating, and I'm over it. They even put cayenne in their raita the other day. Raita, that wonderful, cooling yogurt delight, is supposed to be the foil, the relief from the intensity of the spiciness in the other dishes. You take a bite to give your palate a respite, a soothing vacation, from the food, not to intensify it. \n\nThere were a couple of things I liked on the buffet...the Chicken Curry was very good, and I enjoyed the little fried veggie balls that they served with sambar and coconut chutney. And their mango lassi is good. I'll be moving on now, to Udipi in Monroeville, actually, which has the best Southern Indian food in town.
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