Ocean Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in San Francisco

IT IS AS GOOD AS EVERYONE SAYS! AND A PRETTY SPACE, TOO! ave lived in "central" Richmond all my life. Had never heard of this restaurant until this week, when I saw it had a lot of Yelp! reviews. My husband wanted to go, so we went last night at 7:30. Given the location, I was NOT expecting this restaurant to be so nice, open, airy and pleasant. A real red rose on each table. White (paper) table cloths. Not dark and dingy but light, pale pink, roomy -- really a pleasant space.

RUN to this restaurant! The food is TRULY fabulous. ORDER the vegetable Momo. After we tasted them, we thought we should've just ordered 3 servings and made them our dinner. Outstanding (I'd never had them). We had the shrimp vindaloo and said my husband (despite his white skin and red hair) likes it HOT. It was good, but not hot, though he said it did "sneak upon him" a bit (I just asked him; he said it was mild) I felt kind of bad ordering something as normal as Butter chicken curry -- but it was one of the best things I've ever eaten. super rich, delicious. We also had lamb curry (can't recall which one, sorry!) and it was also good.

PORTIONS ARE LARGE -- and unlike so many Indian restaurants, you don't get a couple of little cubes of chicken or lamb swimming in a bowl of sauce. No, this is good value for the money

The people who own it and run it are lovely. Our waiter (one of the owners) is from Nepal and won the visa lottery (literally). Came first to Brooklyn, then to SF and worked for 10 years as a waiter at the Indian restaurant on W. Portal Ave...and he and the other owners just got this space and opened the restaurant recently -- which is why I hadn't heard of it. 2 pints of lager for each of us, 4 dishes, garlic naan (also truly delicious!) and a $20 tip and it was $120.

I saw a lot of orders going out -- do it if you must, but really, they are proud of their restaurant and it shows. It's a lovely place to sit and eat -- and sorry, but -- naan bread needs to be eaten right out of the oven.It's not at all the same once it's been transported and sitting for...

We heard a lot of great things about the food at Ocean Indian and certainly weren't disappointed. We tried the fish tikka masala and lamb korma as our entrees, with a side of garlic naan to go with.

We were immediately impressed as they brought out a platter of thin crisps (not sure of the name) with three sauces, one which was super spicy, one that was herbaceous, and one with a nice sweetness. This whetted our appetite and built the anticipation for the entrees.

While we were excited as the entrees were brought out, we were also shocked to see the size and presentation of the naan, which was served as long pieces of bread. It was nice to break off pieces of the long slices of naan, which was also nice and fluffy.

The fish tikka masala and lamb korma were both fantastic. The fish in the tikka masala was incredibly tender and the sauce had a nice unctuousness that rounded out the flavor, while the lamb korma had a soft, mellow, rich flavor that balanced nicely against the tender and rich lamb.

They also brought us complementary cups of chai to finish our meal, which was a really nice touch. Definitely recommend Ocean Indian if you're in the...

So disappointing. I don’t understand how anyone would like the food with what we got. The reviews had us excited. We left without packing anything to go and wasting 3/4 of all the food.

The waiter did not even ask if we enjoyed the food after we told him “no” for to-go boxes. I guess he got upset we were wasting food but didn’t realize we didn’t like it at all. Flavorless. That’s the only word to describe it. It looked great and had color but no taste. Sad attempt at Indian food.

Ordered:

mango lassi (thick, whatever) 3/5 salt lassi (never had good salt lassi anywhere so I’ll stay neutral) 3/5 meat platter (plate was sizzling but meat was room-temp on inside) 2.5/5 mixed achaar (pickle) was very good. 5/5 garlic naan + added onion 5/5 solid naan. butter chicken 1/5 no flavor at all. Very very sad to taste it lol. Did not finish wasted 3/4 of the dish. lamb biryani 1/5 no flavor just looked good. Meat was room-temp and very stretchy and chewy. Did not finish wasted 3/4 of the dish.

Go to dancing yak. We order the same stuff (biryani and a curry) and it’s so good. Was missing that...