Hotel Outlets: Another Beijing Paradox

Tamarind Indian Restaurant, Marriott Northeast

I had made an exception for Tamarind.

In my list of top destinations for CW Gourmet Month (the two best months of the year for dining in Beijing), I made Tamarind a priority even though it is a hotel restaurant.

I have nothing against hotels restaurants, I just think that for the most part, they don’t work in Beijing.

I’ll break it down for you:

With the exception of very few, hotels have one sole purpose – to provide a nice bed for incoming travelers. Now that the Beijing Olympics is history, we are left with how many ridiculously massive, not mention EMPTY hotels scattered throughout Beijing?  Regardless of the number, it’s too many.  And too many have tried to make up for their lack of occupancy with restaurants and bars targeting the masses…and still remain empty.

I know this concept works in places like Dubai, where the best venues are often in hotels, but Beijing is another animal.  With the exception of Weekend Champagne Brunches, Centro in the Kerry Center, Touch at the Westin Chaoyang and of course boutique hotels like The Opposite House & Hotel G, hotel F&B venues in Beijing are pretty weak.

Just Imagine an Irish Pub in this Hotel

Perfect example: Molly Malones in the Legendale Hotel.  It’s a newly opened, gigantic space with beautiful interior design in a ’5-star hotel’ and it just won’t work. Why? Because it’s an Irish Pub opening in a 19th Century Parisan Hotel serving Japanese sushi.  Confused much?

And from my experiences last Gourmet Month in April, I found that each and every time I dined in a hotel restaurant, it was very, very empty.  It’s just creepy to be the only customers in a restaurant.

And I feel bad because all hotels try really hard – lots of marketing, lots of advertisements, lots of promotions, and often times, they have an amazing product, and yet they still seem to fall short.  Something is missing.  That something is more of than not: People.

Having read so many good reviews about Tamarind (Marriott Northeast), I made it a point to go during Gourmet Month. I read that Tamarind’s Chef Kurly is from Mumbai (interview here), that he is Bollywood’s finest, and that this is Beijing’s best Indian restaurant.

For Gourmet Month, it was a fantastic deal: for only RMB 150 per person, you were served 9 dishes plus nan bread plus rice PLUS dessert. The food quality and quantity was great value, the open kitchen was impressive and service was attentive. But at the end of the day, it was very much a ‘hotel restaurant’ with hotel service and a hotel vibe for a typical, overall unsatisfying hotel experience.

Review of Tamarind: 2nd floor of Marriott Northeast, 26A Xiaoyun Lu,Sanyuanqiao 海航大厦万豪酒店, 霄云路甲26号, Tel: 5927-8888

Best Part:

Tamarind's Open Kitchen

• Fresh Quality & Generous Quantity of the dishes: I recommend their Mushroom Kurkure (Spring roll stuffed with finely chopped and sautéed mushroom, served with spicy tomato chutney) and Butter Chicken (Juliennes of Tandoori chicken, finished in creamy tomato gravy, flavored with dried fenugreek leaves)
• Massive Open Kitchen (pretty unique to an Indian restaurant)
• They have hired a chef from Mumbai and this is the first Marriott Indian restaurant outside of India
• They cater to vegetarians with half of their menu meat-free
• Prices are reasonable with a kebab bar special (all-you-can-eat kebabs for RMB 140, RMB 100 for vegetarian kebabs)

Comments:

• Even if the food was excellent, it was pretty empty on a Sunday night, which I guess is expected considering the Marriott Northeast is out in the boonies (North of Nuren Jie)
• I really think that if Tamarind was in Sanlitun and not in a hotel, it would do really well.

The service was attentive, but similar to most hotel service, its quite overdone and forced rather than comforting. Also, at the end of the meal, the restaurant manager Sudeep Menon was about to only give my friend his business card until I shot him a glare and even after that, he proceeded to only ask for my friend’s business card upon leaving. Not Cool.