David Burns Well, i learned new stuff at Ocean Palate. I have eaten in lots of Indian restaurants, not realizing they were considered Northern Indian. Ocean Palate is a southern style restaraunt as described by our super helpful server Gilna. When we sat down out table was a bit sticky, and had some sugar on it so we moved to a differnt one. After looking at the menu for 5 mins or so, Gilna came up and asked if she could answer any questions for us. I did have quite a few questions, all which she answered perfectly. My wife and i ordered a Mutton Stew, Kadala Curry, Kallappam and ghee rice. They brought out chilled carafe of water. The food was excellent. I have never had Indian dishes like this, the mutton travancore stew was delicious. It was a gentle flavour, rich and thick, I suspect thickened with rice or tapioca flour. My wife always gets a lamb(ish) dish when available, and she was very impressed. I had the kadala which is a chick pea curry, and was an excellent , predictable Indian stew (red tomato base). Exactly what you expect for a straight ahead vegetarian option. What really surprised me was the rice. That i know of i have never had a thin short grain rice served to me in a restaurant, I googled it and I think it was kaima rice. It was delicious and fragrant. I was so used to basmatti that I forgot other varieties are used in differnt regions. The Kallappam was neat, it was like a pancake, that was slightly yeasty and a great way to scoop the curries. It was a bit differnt to not have naan, but they dont have tandoor in south Indian cuisine apparently. Honestly, the dishes actually reminded me a lot of Malaysian. Unlike the Indian i am used to, my taste buds were not smacked around by onion, garlic, salt and cinnamon/clove/massala heavy flavors. Everything was delicious with no gassy repeats a hour after. We will 100% go back and try a few differnt items in the future. I was amazed by the ability to seve me a whole differnt catagory of Indian flavors, it makes me wonder why there isnt more South Indian restaraunt options.
