The Eylan dining room, which opened its doors Jan. 15, is a monochromatic ode to warm Indian spices. The colors of the walls and fixtures range from ground cumin to curry powder and turmeric. At sunset, the automatic blinds lower themselves all at once, unfurling to announce the dinner hour rush.
To inspire romance and whispered sweet nothings, the lighting is dimmed to make nocturnal animals feel at home. These gestures reinforce the idea that dining out is as much a theatrical experience as it is a culinary one.
A decorative tree branch hangs above the front door. It transforms the entrance into a portal. One that transports diners toward chef Srijith Gopinathan’s imagination and his experimental kitchen.
The restaurant—a collaboration between Gopinathan and restaurateur Ayesha Thapar, the team behind Palo Alto’s Ettan and Los Altos’ Little Blue Door—plays on familiar Indian ingredients, flavors and dishes filtered through California’s particular terroir.
For an interactive start to our meal, we ordered a chilled green grape chaas with semolina puchkas ($15). Served in a heavy, rough-hewn, stony gray pitcher, the element of dairy was tempered and brightened up by the tart combination of grapes, lime and mint. Mint might be the most prominent herbal throughline running across and down the menu.
A member of the efficiently trained waitstaff instructed us to pour chaas inside each individual breaded shell until it was just 40% full. Usually served as a flavored buttermilk, Gopinathan’s chaas tastes like a cold summer soup, an Indian gazpacho. At least five different staff members asked if they could take the chaas pitcher away after we’d finished eating all of the crunchy puchkas. We refused their advances. It was too good to let the remaining drops go to waste.
The second starter was a taro root chatat ($15). Shaped like tiny flying saucers, two crisp taro discs sandwiched winter vegetables, tamarind, dates and yogurt. Cumin and pomegranate seeds made for a busy-looking bite. But despite this cornucopia of flavors, the taste of taro root came through nicely, balanced and not overpowered by the other ingredients.
Eylan serves a bread course that doesn’t read like the average Indian menu of onion kulcha, stuffed paratha or garlic naan. There are two mutabars, one served with crab, another with sweet potato; a Goan flaxsee poee served with smoked eggplant; and the Eylan eye—which, when photographed, resembles an ancient artifact.
The “eye” is a sunnyside egg nestled inside a round of flaky dough. The filo-like bread is made of many light, airy layers, dusted with black truffle and faintly sweetened by a coconut vinaigrette. Apart from providing an arresting visual element, I wasn’t convinced by the necessity of the egg. I was craving a raita instead, laced with cucumber, cilantro and lemon. The pitcher of chaas that I’d safeguarded served excellently as a substitute dipping sauce.
The stuffing inside of squash blossoms ($28) was made with ricotta burji, a preparation that recalls scrambled eggs. I appreciated the novel approach, and the pairing with grilled tomatillos and a jalapeño naan, but the texture of the ricotta was too chewy. It overwhelmed the delicate blossom and was one of the few ingredients on the menu that would have been improved by the use of restraint. A bite of fresh, unmanipulated ricotta could have held its own against the bed of spicy green sauce.
A lamb seekh kebab ($21), cooked over a wood fire with mint, lime and a smoked chilli ghee, was the blandest dish of the meal—unadorned and the most forlorn, without a vegetable or sauce to act as a counterpart. Entirely inoffensive, but it lacked the panache of the crispy chicken dish ($16) that our neighbors at a nearby table ordered.
Eylan’s beverage program features a robust list of original cocktails along with wine listings from California and Europe. But Eylan is also on trend with a selection of nonalcoholic and low abv cocktails, such as the “Not a Trace Tart” ($16), which blended together (as promised) a “refreshing” mix of sparkling rosé, passion fruit juice and lime.
Eylan, 500 El Camino Real, The Villa, Menlo Park. 650.420.6866. Hours: Tue–Sun 5–10pm. IG: @eylanrestaurant; eylanrestaurant.com.
