Tandoor Bocado — Restaurant in Rapid City

Tandoor Bocado is what the kids today would call, “mid”. As in not great, not terrible, just okay. Here is what we thought: my wife and I went in on Valentine’s Day, there was a preset menu for the day with multiple courses.

Atmosphere: We were sat at a 2-person table that was in a strange position, where we felt like one of the staff as it was behind the bar-line and had a full view into the kitchen. Not terrible, had this been for a casual lunch meeting. Definitely not a romantic spot. This is especially frustrating considering that the restaurant was never full while we were there and many other tables were available that would have been better.

Food: Most courses had several options to choose from. My wife and I chose to order different things so that we could sample some of each others dish. This, it turns out was a mistake. As luck would have it, everything my wife ordered I wish I had on my plate as well. The food concepts were interesting, but ultimately the dishes my wife had were far better in flavor, portion size, etc. at $75 a person, I would expect everything on the menu to be exceptional. For the starter I had an interesting salad concept that was flavorful, but ultimately 5 pieces of lettuce that left me wanting the cauliflower/naan starter that my wife chose (that was fantastic). Next I had swordfish with cucumber and cilantro garnish, my wife chose the spicy beef dish. Guess which one was better? My swordfish was of great quality, raw, with a bit of salt sprinkled on top, portion size half that of the beef. It was fine, but ultimately a bit boring and after having a bite of my wife’s dish left me wishing that once again I had picked the same as her. This course was followed by a pallet cleansing guava sorbet. No complaints. The main entree was lamb for me (I love lamb, was very excited for this), and snapper for my wife. The lamb was cooked to medium with a good sear on the outside, but lacked any seasoning, even salt, and ultimately was very bland. My wife’s fish had tons of flavor and was exceptional. Dessert was a sweet bread on mocha mouse. It was okay, but both my wife and I agreed that the cookie we had at Mary’s Mountain Cookies around the corner was much better.

Service: overall good. However, some of the dishes were slow to come out of the kitchen. We were not given the opportunity to sample the wine before drinking to ensure it hadn’t reacted with the cork etc, and the wine definitely needed decanting. All things that at a restaurant asking half as much per person would have been passable, but not at this price point and how the restaurant has positioned itself relative to the rest of the Rapud City market. Additionally, when my wife made the reservation the restaurant asked if we were celebrating anything, my wife listed several things to include job changes, birthday and Valentine’s Day, none of this was mentioned and was just another area where service could have...

I'm home. Harry 10/21/95 is winding away and I sink back into memories of winged pixies in the parking lot handing out tabbed vacations. The 8th street Friday night rumble calls out engine song and groups of watching folk, Lady Liberty's folk are at worship the Mustang, Charger and Hudson way. My ritual was different this evening. I am washed cleaned tonight.

An apostate of liquored fast food insanity with some sobriety 24 hours at a time, I a newbie, virginal acolyte sat at the altar of Tandoor Bocado and was charismatic in ways smiling teethed magic word man Joe would never understand. Every tiny space in between my taste buds was touch by spiritually imbrued food. My fingers held fresh tender rare mushrooms wrapped in a subtle sweet rice. Porcini Morrel a name in a off beat Italian noir novel but not so these two fungus came from the foraged old growth forest.

Hazel nuts topped a ridiculous vibrant fragrant eruption of twirling twisting flavor they called Vadouvan Hummus. Lunch for the veggie college tech student. The feta tangled with swordfish, with shreds of parsley sanguinely dripping with an olive oil on nan line that turned my tongue inside out. I was speechless. I sat there like a lump. Forced back to the end of set 1 and unable to comprehend the 2cd set. The pixie magic and the first courses enveloped me in extasy of similar sprit.

The small plate of tofu did not allow my small screen abused mind to wander. The tilt-a-whirl, the zipper, the Screaming Eagle are sad references to the uncontrolled glee, the sense of weightlessness as the spoon pushed the gathered flavors in to a sonata. The peanut sauce. Go, just for that, the peanut sauce will make you forget any previous State Side Thai experience.

The service was splendid. The decor masterful. It disappeared and reappeared only when looked at. The was no bright light in the restaurant. The light came from putting my fingers in the sand. Flooded with memories. Beset on all sides left confronting my French fried soul. I completed the service and wandered into the street. at KC and 6th I must have been glowing. Air kisses came from the cab and the wave me by. I stopped in front of the descending sun ripping Blake colors across the sky. to those who understand, "Ripple" hit play on the random algorithm. My newly cleaned pallet and me wandered under a Loving God's sky and I arrived home altered.

to say try the humus seemed not quite...

We've been here before and we were really excited to take some friends to experience what I've described as my favorite place to grab a bite in Rapid.

The food is definitely elevated, and I'll be happy to see the kitchen at Tandoor Bocado continue to be recognized. However, the service put a bit of a sour mark on most recent visit.

We arrived late afternoon, and were informed that most of the lunch menu had sold out — which is a fantastic problem to have. Our server helped us figure out what was still available to order and the food that we did order was great as it was before.

However the candor and professionalism of our service left much to be desired. We saw our server pour herself a beer and after our initial interactions, was rude to our party.

The strangest interaction was when she accused our friend of not signing the check, although there was an honest mistake made in the credit card slip he had grabbed. The attitude and way with which that was addressed just made for a very very peculiar interaction that I can only chalk up to fatigue from a sell-out day or something else going on.

I hope that others have a better interaction with the service as the food...