Tabla Bar & Grill Indian restaurant near Universal Studios

Tabla Bar & Grill is a terrific Indian restaurant in a really lousy location and space. The dining room has the feel of having once been the sort of diner you usually find attached to a motel. And, in fact, it seems to be attached to something similar, perhaps a timeshare facility. To get to the restaurant you have to pass a booth touting tickets to local attractions as well as a convenience store of sorts.

But the important things, the food and the service, are first-rate. The cuisine is authentic, and the staff is welcoming and friendly and they go out of their way to do a little extra.

Take, for example, the offering of rasam as an amuse bouche, or whatever the Indian words for that would be. Rasam is like a spicy, thinner tomato soup. At times it can be quite fiery, as was the case when I reviewed Udipi Cafe for the Orlando Sentinel. Tabla’s rasam was delicious, although it was odd that on one occasion it was served warm and on another it was room temperature. One of the servers — not our waiter but they all seem to work together to help each other out — picked up the empty glasses the rasam was served in and told us if we liked it that way we should try it with pepper-infused vodka. We agreed that it sounded like a terrific idea. And a few minutes later she returned with two cocktails of a rasam-based bloody mary with a salt rim. Delicious. (And for those of you who know the area Indian restaurants, you’ll be surprised to know that Tabla is apparently the only one in Central Florida with a full liquor bar — no need to limit yourself to a Kingfisher beer.)

Another helpful server on a lunch visit suggested that instead of ordering two appetizers, each costing about $8, I could order a sampler of any three apps for a mere $9. That’ a great bargain.

And the appetizers were very good. I especially liked the momo, steamed dumplings filled with ground lamb. The vegetable filled samosas were also good, light and crispy with seasoned potatoes and peas inside.

My favorite among the entrees was the alu bukhara gosht ($20), hunks of lamb in a sauce seasoned with plum and ginger, which gave a sweet note to counter the spiciness. I also enjoyed the murgh dhansak ($15), chicken in a sauce flavored with pumpkin and fenugreek with lentils. It was ordered medium-spicy, which was just hot enough to perk up the taste buds without singeing them.

Lamb rogan josh ($18) was a more recognizeable dish of lamb with tomatoes and almonds. There is a long list of vegetarian dishes. I had the cauliflower mussallam ($12), which had florets in a creamy sauce tinged with tomatoes.

One low point: the rice served with the dishes was a bit too dry and lacked the flavor usually found in basmati rice.

There is a good list of naans, the traditional Indian breads cooked in a tandoor. My guest and I favored the keema naan, which was baked with ground lamb in the bread.

One of the odd things about Tabla is that the sign out front doesn’t say anything about it being an Indian restaurant, and most people who see it — if anyone sees it, given its location behind the Twin Towers hotel (I’ve lost track of whether they’re a Sheraton, Radisson or Crowne Plaza) — will probably think it’s Italian for table. However, tabla is a drum used in Indian music. A couple of them are displayed on the front table, part of a minimalist decorating scheme. 

But don’t let the location or atmosphere sway you. Tabla is a good Indian restaurant, and those who love the cuisine with find some wonderful tastes not found at many of the other area restaurants specializing in the foods of India.

K Restaurant and Wine Bar

Norman Van Aken Celebrates Five Years of Fine Dining in Orlando at Anniversary Dinner with Dean Fearing

The Wave Restaurant at Disney’s Contemporary Resort

Have you ever been at the beach, out in the water, watching the waves as they roll toward you, waiting for the perfect one to pick you up and carry you to shore? And then you spot it, off in the distance, coming at you as though it’s going to break just right and give you a perfect ride. So you start paddling in anticipation only to have the wave fizzle out.

That’s how I feel about The Wave restaurant at Disney’s Contemporary Resort.

This is the first full-service restaurant to open on Disney property in quite a while, so anticipation and expectation were high. But it just seems that not enough effort was put into this concept, and there definitely is a lack of a follow-through on all fronts.

Things looked promising as I approached the new restaurant. The Wave occupies a space on the ground level of the not-quite-as-contemporary-as-it-used-to-be resort using an area that once held a game room and employee training classroom. You access the restaurant through a brushed metal tunnel that I suppose is supposed to resemble going through the curl of a wave. At the other end of the tunnel is a host stand, and on the other side of that, behind panels of mottled glass, is a large and stylish bar with cool blue lights and, overhead, glittering starlights.

It seems Disney spent all its money on the tunnel and the lounge area because the dining room is really quite plain. It’s a vast, open space with seating for 220 at bare wood tables. Overhead are undulating metal panels — oh, let’s just call them waves, shall we? — Above the metal waves are white and yellow neon lights that call attention to an unattractive acoustic tile ceiling.

The menu is surprisingly limited, and the food is even more surprisingly unexciting.

Appetizers were downright disappointing. The crab cakes ($11.49) had too much filler and a mealy texture. Lettuce wraps ($11.99) featured pebble-sized pieces of lamb along with bay scallops the size of an eraser on the end of a No. 2 pencil. They were sauteed in soy-rice wine vinegar and presented as a soggy mess that diners are supposed to scoop into lettuce leaves to eat. This one would have been a failure at half the price, which still would have been too much to charge.

The best among the entrees I sampled was the fish of the day, which is listed on the menu as “Today’s Sustainable Fish” to capitalize on a current ecological buzzword. That aside, the halibut fillet I had was fresh-tasting and had a lovely crisped exterior and beautiful white flesh inside. It was topped with cilantro chutney that offered a nice herby note.

Braised chicken pot pie ($19.99) was an odd presentation of meat — not much of it — peas, mushrooms and carrots in a creamy sauce served in a small casserole with a flat biscuit on top. I get the pot part but where’s the pie?

Braised lamb shank ($25.99) was a little more impressive, a huge hunk of tender meat laid atop a stew of bulgur wheat and lentils.

The wine list features an ecological gimmick in that all the wines — sparklers excepted — are in bottles with screw-cap closures. The ecological part is that cork trees needn’t be ravaged just to make bottle stoppers. I have nothing against screw caps, called Stelvin closures, and in fact I think they’re quite handy. The only problem with building a wine list around them is that availability is currently rather limited. So the Wave’s list features wines almost exclusively from producers in the Southern Hemisphere, where the use of screw caps has been more widely embraced. I found no stars among the wines.

Oddly, a flight of wines is offered on the drinks menu in the lounge, but it is not made available in the dining room. And, I overheard two guests being told, dining at the bar is not available.

Service had the appropriate Disney perkiness, but timing was way off on both my visits and long, inexplicable waits were endured.

I wish things had been better, and perhaps the restaurant will improve over the months. But as it stands now, the Wave is a washout.

HUE has been an important part of downtown Orlando and specifically the Thornton Park area for more than six years. Although there were other venues targeting young people at the time, HUE was among the first specifically designed to attract a more upscale and stylish group. And certainly the first to be successful at it. From my February 2002 review in the Orlando Sentinel:

… Hue is very hip. On just about any evening it is vibrantly alive with young urbanites frantic to unwind from the day’s pursuits. So they sip pretty cocktails and shout to each other to be heard over the din they themselves are creating. Then, after a suitable waiting period that seems necessary to demonstrate the popularity of the place, they might make their way to a table in one of the two small dining rooms, or perhaps on the patio that wraps around the corner of Central Boulevard and Summerlin Avenue…

Over the years, it has continued to draw young drinkers and not a few diners, too.

The menu continues to have a curious Asian bent, such as a tuna tartare appetizer presented on crispy wontons, or cripsy oysters served whimsically in the sort of spoons used in Vietnamese soups. But the best items here are the more straightforward, including grilled flatbread with duck confit; Burgundy balsamic braised short ribs; and one truly fine burger.

On one of my visits I had the wood-grilled rack of lamb and my companion chose the pan-seared halibut. Both were nicely done. The lamb featured two double chops, finished to the requested medium-rare, placed over a mound of risotto and accompanied by sautéed vegetables, including green beans, green pea pods, and red peppers. Although the menu said it was a red pepper risotto there was no indication red pepper had been involved.

The halibut was a good-sized fillet deftly cooked so the inside had white flaky flesh and the outside had a pleasantly crisped crust.

Servers tend to be young and range from green and inexperienced to highly trained and reliable.

Hue is at 629 E. Central Blvd., Orlando. It’s open daily for lunch and dinner. The phone number is 407-849-1800. Visit the Web site for more info.