What I Ate: February 19, 2009 (Mehfil Indian)

After the Maharani Indian fiasco earlier this week, I've been craving Mehfil Indian. I went to Mehfil (600 Folsom St, San Francisco, CA‎ - (415) 974-5510‎) and got three of their lunch specials (intended for my lunch and our dinner). Mehfil describes the dishes best on their website. (I apologize for the pictures - I forgot to take them until I had eaten some of each dish.)

Coorgi Tarkari - (Fresh vegetables cooked with red onions, coconut, garlic, and cumin’s) "In this dish a masala is prepared by grinding fresh turmeric roots, garlic, red onions, cumin, mustard and coriander seeds, green chilies, red chilies, and fresh coconut. This masala paste is tempered with curry leaves and finally the vegetables like blue lake beans, potatoes, eggplants, mushrooms, and carrots are sautéed and cooked." $5.00

Tulsi Murg - (Boneless chicken cubes cooked in a basil leaves curry sauce) "This dish comes from the heart of India the capital New Delhi; chicken cubes are sautéed with pine nuts paste. The base sauce is prepared with, coriander, cumin, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, mace, garlic, ginger, vine ripened tomatoes, red onions and many expensive masala and then added basil leaves." $5.00

Meatball-do-piyaza - (Beef Meatball cooked in curry flavored raw mangoes, onions, tomatoes and vinegar) "The word Dopiaza means 'two onions'. Meatballs are soaked in a mixture of salt, vinegar, water and many different spices. The gravy is prepared with ginger, garlic, red onions, tomato and many more spices. After the gravy is ready the pieces of raw mango and meatballs are sautéed in it until well tempered." $6.00

For dinner, I reheated some of the dishes from Mehfil as well as the left overs we had from Maharani. Comparing the two, it was no contest - Mehfil's food was definitely more complex and flavorful. Again, Maharani's dishes were tasty to start with, but lacked depth (one dominant flavor) and after a few bites it became boring.
Mehfil Leftovers

Maharani Leftovers