Avatar's: Ethnic Confusion

Not a lot of restaurants would have the balls to have just one dessert item in their menu, and cryptically describe the experience of tasting the dessert as: Close your eyes, and picture the sweetest concoction of dessert flavors from around the world coming full circle on one plate of bliss. Divine.

One Indian restaurant in Sausalito, California has proven that you can afford to be audacious when your dessert alone is reason enough for a repeat visit. And other items on their menu are not far behind either.

I am talking about the Avatar's restaurant, located at 2656 Bridgeway, Sausalito, CA (north of San Francisco, across the Golden Gate bridge). It was a chance find for us. We didn’t read any elaborate review or didn’t get any prior recommendation from friends whose feedback we trust. We were trying to decide where to stop for lunch on our way back home after a very refreshing camping experience at Petaluma during the Memorial day weekend, and Sausalito seemed to be a good choice. We were in the mood for Indian cuisine after two days of eating mostly campfire-grilled stuff. A quick search on Google suggested Avatar's. We automatically assumed that it would be at a waterfront (or at least an ocean view) location. But when the GPS navigated us to the address of the restaurant along an industrial back road lined with auto repair shops (with damaged Maseratis and Porsches nestled inside---after all it is Sausalito), our heart sank a little. The front of the restaurant wasn’t fancy at all, and you don’t even catch a glimpse of the ocean or the bay. Anyway, we walked in. The furniture was simple and the interior was rather cramped. I needed to go to the bathroom. I had to walk through the kitchen to go to the back of the restaurant to access the most ordinary-looking bathroom at the end of a narrow alley. Other than the beautiful black and white framed photographs of Indian village people adorning the walls, we didn’t find anything to be impressive about the restaurant yet.

I later realized that the owners intentionally build up the drama by keeping the surroundings devoid of gloss. They want you to mutter to yourself, “I hope at least the food is good.” I am sure the head chef Kala Ubhi and her brother Ashok Kumar, the unassuming smiling hosts who take part in everything from taking order to cooking and serving, rejoice their success even more when the initially-skeptical patrons like me walk away gushing about the food, and end up writing a blog about the gastronomical experience!

The menu proudly describes the cuisine as an “ethnic confusion.” The history of the restaurant, as printed on the back of the menu, tells you that the restaurant opened doors in 1989, when Avatar Ubhi, the now-deceased founder of Avatar's, envisioned the unique customizable cuisine that the restaurant has been offering. In the early days of the restaurant, a journalist coined the term “ethnic confusion,” and it stuck. Avatar's encourages you to concoct your own masterpiece. And they are extremely flexible to suit your dietary need. That may mean a dish with extremely light or no oil, a pure vegetarian dish or a vegan alternative.

We were four adults and two pre-schoolers in our group. All of us claimed that we didn’t have big appetites when we walked in. But once we tasted the soup du jour (mulligatawny soup) with the homemade parathas and chutneys, and lightly curried button mushrooms as appetizers, we kept ordering more and more parathas. We even ordered parathas and soup to take home, even before we got to the main courses. The Avatars' magic spell had started. I think I saw our host Ashok smiling at that point. He sure has seen this happen before---many times.

The Punjabi tostadas with ground lamb mixed with yoghurt and tamarind sauces served on top of mini-parathas were great as the main course. The Basmati trio (chicken, lamb and vegetables on a bed of rice) was equally good.

The teaser description on the dessert menu allured us to order at least one dessert dish to see what this divine “Avatar’s dream” really is. It was a slice of cheesecake placed on a sweet syrupy circle resembling a rising sun, and honestly, I really tasted pure bliss when I mouthed the first scoop! Needless to say, we ended up ordering a few more of the Avatar’s dreams, and even the little ones licked their plates clean.

Rarely you come out of an Indian restaurant with so much satisfaction and so little greasy feeling in your stomach. Avatar's is brilliantly successful in keeping the focus on food, and not on anything else. And yes, the service is great too. Before we stepped out, I approached Ashok, our gracious server and host, and got a menu to take home with me as a souvenir. I knew I was going to write a blog about Avatar's soon, and I here I am.

It takes confidence to make the term “ethnic confusion” stylish. Avatar's has that -- in abundance.