Tantric dinner

One of the things I love about Atlanta is how international it is. Well, and all the food deals available :) So one Monday night Cashew and I felt like having French food without paying exorbitant amounts of money. The solution was Amuse, a French bistro with a 50% off deal on Scoutmob. Unfortunately, on the way there, we discovered that it's closed on Mondays :( A couple of minutes of scrolling through the Scoutmob restaurant list yielded another attractive dinner option: Tantra. Granted, it's not French, but it sounded really interesting with its fusion cuisine that combined Indian, Asian and European influences.

As soon as we walked in the restaurant, we were impressed with the environment. It featured Indian-style lanterns, leather chairs and leather benches, and cute lantern-like candle holders on the tables. Adding to the good impression of the place, we were started off with complementary flatbread crackers and some kind of spread that I have never had before. The crackers were really crispy, but they were coated with a little too much sea salt. The spread, however, was incredible.  It was very grainy, so I think it contained whole grain mustard. I could also discern a little bit of the mustard taste, but most of what I tasted was olives. So, my best guess is that it was a mixture of mustard and olives :P

The menu itself was heavily influenced by Middle Eastern, lamb- or hummus-containing dishes. Case in point, original hummus with lamb and lamb tartare "pizza." We actually ordered the hummus tasting platter, but they brought out the lamb-containing hummus. I am very picky about how my lamb tastes, and I didn't care too much for the one at Tantra. Thankfully, they did bring us the other hummus options on the tasting platter: truffle and edamame (not pictured). Honestly, I loved the original chickpea flavor the best. The truffle hummus was too oily, the edamame did taste like edamame, but I found that a weird taste combination. In contrast, I did love the flavors of the lamb pizza. It was a very original dish. Instead or a regular pizza crust, it had flatbread for crust. What looks like it might be tomato sauce on the picture is actually the lamb tartare. And the white sauce is shallot yogurt.

We also ordered the crab cake based on the suggestion of our waiter, and it was worth it. It was what a crab cake should taste like: lots of crab and little other stuffing material. The salad that the cake rested on was also great. It also had an interesting yogurt sauce, this time containing orange and verjuice (type of grape juice).

After three appetizers and a complementary snack, we needed only one entree. Our first choice was the chili seared bigeye tuna, but they were out of it. We settled for the braised beef short rib with goat cheese polenta. Unfortunately, both Cashew and I were too stuffed at this point to enjoy the short rib properly. Each of us had a bite to taste it, but we ended up taking it to go. All I can remember about it is that the goat cheese taste was really strong. I do love goat cheese and can even eat it by myself, but it didn't impart a good flavor to the polenta in this case. Somehow, it made the polenta taste as if it contained lamb... The meat was very tender, and I can say that it was good even when reheated on the next day. Too bad I couldn't eat more when it was still fresh at the restaurant.

Well, despite not getting the French food we wanted, Tantra served as a great substitute for the international flare I was craving.