It looks like a fairly standard Indian restaurant decorated in florid fashion and with plenty of dining covers crammed into its relatively small space, but on its ballooning reputation, Tanjore needs all the room it can get to welcome guests. Authentically South Indian in its style, the owner Boon Ganeshram’s vegetarianism has lent it a good variety of dishes for those who disavow meat as well as carnivores. Although not a specialist vegetarian restaurant, it’s still one of the best of the bunch in the city.
Although other establishments are catching up to the particular style of South Indian cooking – which is several steps away from your typical hot vindaloos and tikka masalas – Tanjore was the first on the market and it still does what it does best. Dosas, idlis and uttapams are made with crushed rice and lentils formed into a cake or a pancake for a filling and exotic treat, while paneer cheese is a popular element in the vegetarian dishes. Meanwhile, plenty of chicken, beef and seafood dishes (try the Kerala fish, the speciality Hyperabadi biryani or the spinach and lentil-augmented keema curry) are set off by a particularly vivid use of herbs and spices which lends these dishes their sense of winning originality without turning off diners who wish to explore bold flavours.