Amber Cafe - Mountain View - TravBuddy

Amber Cafe is a new Indian restaurant on El Camino. It's owned by the
same people that run Amber India Restaurant further down the street,
which is one of the best Indian restaurants in the South Bay. Amber
India is a nice sit-down restaurant, whereas Amber Cafe is meant for
something quicker and cheaper.



I
ate here over Thanksgiving break with some friends, and we were
impressed. For the price, Amber Cafe is excellent. I ordered mutter
adrak ki aloo tikki for an appetizer, which is a small fried potato
cake stuffed with gingered green peas served with garbanzo beans and
tamarind chutney. The potato cakes were light yet still incredibly
flavorful, especially with the garbanzo beans. I sampled some of
Samir's "Spinach 'n' Cheese Salad," which was really just palak paneer
with naan and some corn. The naan was excellent, but I though the palak
paneer was a bit too watery and the cheese could have been higher
quality. We also ordered cholewale samose for the whole group, which
made a very fresh tasting appetizer.



I would avoid their mango
laasi-- mine was too thin and too sweet, and it tasted like they didn't
add enough yogurt if any at all.



Overall, I'd characterize Amber
Cafe with a very fresh, light taste-- maybe the Fresh Choice equivalent
of North Indian cuisine. Indian food can get to be really heavy
sometimes with all its yogurt and butter, but Amber Cafe is a
refreshing break from cardiac arrest-inducing fare. The menu is also
very friendly to non-Indians, describing all the items in Western terms.