Eating Out whilst Eating In Your Local Foodshed, San Francisco and The Bay Area # 2

Featured Restaurant: Tabla, Larkspur
Tabla, 1167 Magnolia Avenue, Larkspur CA 94939 415 461 6787


These two salads are regulars on the menu. The Smoked Wild Salmon Salad ($9) pictured here was from the Spring menu when Asparagus was still in season. Currently they have a similar salad with green beans instead. On the right are the Mixed Lettuces with Point Reyes Farmstead Blue Cheese Vinagrette ($6.50). I can't get enough of that zingy cheese.

My favourite place to eat lunch in Marin, bar none, is Tabla in Larkspur. Before now, I've seen the owner, Suzanne McGoldrick, pouring over a copy of Slow Food magazine with customers. It's quite clear her heart is absolutely in the right place. Every Thursday and Sunday they go to the Marin Farmers' Market and and hand pick the best produce with which to make the specials for the week. Suzanne is passionate about using local, sustainable and seasonal goods. She told me she despairs when people think that simply supporting the word 'organic' is enough.


Every time I visit Tabla (once a week) there is something new to tempt me on the specials chalk board. Sometimes I find a dip, like a housemade hummous or baba ganoush on the menu. These are served with huge piles of crispy cumin papadams.


The emphasis at Tabla is on healthful, fresh food with ingredients that speak for themselves. If you'd imagined a rich creamy dressing on your caesar salad, or if you expect your French Onion soup to be based on a salty beef stock and oozing with cheese, you might be disappointed.


But that's not to say things here don't taste sinfully good sometimes. If you are a fan of corn fritters, be sure to cross your fingers that they'll be serving them on the day of your visit. I think I could eat the wonderful, recent special of roasted peaches with ricotta every day of the week and never tire of it.

Tabla's speciality are dosai. Fred's firm favourite, I wasn't so keen on them in the past because of the sourdough (which I am not crazy about) starter they use. The other day, I retried the Scrambled Farm Eggs with curry spiced potatoes and spinach dosa ($7.95) and I absolutely loved it. Suzanne told me they have a different guy making the dosa mixture and it tastes less sour than it did in the past. So filling, so good, especially with the peach chutney on the side.

In the interests of transparency, I have to tell you that Tabla is the only place I know of where I have been rumbled. They found out about my blog. I wrote so many posts about them, that eventually they worked out which of their regulars was the blogger in question. I was very embarassed, the first time they asked if it was me. In fact, I was blushing furiously and I couldn't speak. I didn't want my cover blown, at all. Too late. Oh well.

Well, to cut a long story short, Suzanne told me she's had quite a few visitors because of my blog. Since then she has comped me a couple of things. I have strict morals and I absolutely don't accept bribes on this blog, but I also have manners and it would be rude to have refused the first gift of an Ultradense Scharffen Berger Brownie ($2). We don't eat dessert at lunch. Or should I say, we didn't use to eat dessert. It was so good, and a smart move by Suzanne because now I can't stop buying them. Once a month or so, I purchase a batch of these to take back for my office mates. I am pretty popular on those occasions, I tell you. Each one of them insists its the best Brownie they have ever tasted.

The second thing Suzanne gave me was a cup of the Sweet Dream Peach Sorbet ($4.00). I am not a big ice cream fan but, again, I didn't want to appear rude. Can you imagine the world's most perfect peach. Completely ripe on the outside, then hardening just the slightest smidgen as the flesh meets the stone. Imagine the taste of ripe peach with a tinge of yellow at the centre. That is exactly what this sorbet tastes like. It is pure peach captured in ice. Nothing more, nothing less. (Insert orgasm here.) Wow! Forget the softserve just down the street at Picco - if you want a seriously cold yet HOT dessert, Tabla is just the place for it.

So, well, if you hadn't guessed already. I am very fond of Tabla. Check it out, especially during Eat Local Month.



PS. Yesterday's eating local challenge went ok. Breakfast - a no brainer. Lunch - no comment. Dinner - I made Fred his first ever Toad in the Hole using Fatted Calf Merguez and a Marin Sun Farm egg. (Flour not local, unfortunately.) I made a gravy using some left over veggies and garlic. He loved the Toad, and the hole, but there ain't no way you are ever going to be able to get a Frenchman to eat gravy, believe me...

Other reviews of Tabla:Protosheigh - Gayot - Yummy Chow - LA Times

Tagged in Food Restaurants Review Marin Tried & Tested Eat Local

Eating Out whilst Eating In Your Local Foodshed, San Francisco and The Bay Area # 2