Tigerlily

Absolutely love this place. Delicious and creative food, super friendly hosts and chefs, and relaxing environment. Excellent place to relax and watch sports, or have a satisfying feast of dinner.

Elizabeth and I met for Happy Hour at Tigerlily to process the events of 11/05/2024. Multiple rounds were in order.Note to readers: Happy Hour (as of Nov 2024) is 4:30-5:30pm, with a strict cutoff at 5:30. Come early and enjoy attentive service and low prices. (HH cocktail price $11; post-HH price $15. Wine was $12/glass before and after HH.) There's ample street parking with meters running until 6pm.The venue was pleasingly calm with ambient lighting and prompt service. Because we were there for HH, sitting in the dining room was off limits. But at 5pm Friday there was only one other table of patrons in the bar area, so we had our choice of tables. Being the fussy ladies that we are, we asked the manager to lower the volume of the bar TVs, and he promptly did so. That made us happy, and the one other table of patrons, engaged in conversation, did not seem to mind.The drinks menu includes an impressive array of cocktails, and a few wines. Elizabeth selected the Blue Lagoon. Preferring drinks only very slightly sweetened, she asked that the bartender cut back on the simple syrup. What arrived was a strikingly beautiful drink, and within two sips she declared it was perfect. I was hoping for a CA chardonnay but ordered the one from Italy and liked it just fine. I must say the pours were generous.We ordered two small bites to share. The first, cilantro garlic naan with tikka dipping sauce, was both flavorful and comforting, just what the doctor ordered to go with our drinks, and exactly as described. The second appetizer, onion rings, was less impressive. We hoped for the slightly greasy, very onion-y, crispy bite, but received a bit-too-doughy an onion ring, lacking in crisp, grease, and onion flavor. Both the naan and rings portions were generous. Next time we may want to try the vege samosas and will re-order the naan.Shoutout to bartender extraordinaire, Javier, who prepared and delivered a perfect cocktail to a discriminating cocktail drinker. Yes, a second round was ordered for all. Thank you, Tigerlilly for a lovely HH experience.

Food ranged from good to excellent, but the cocktails were the real star of the show. The drinks menu was extensive, and we enjoyed each one we tried (their namesake, the Tigerlily, was a standout). The fresh fruit is a decadent touch to the very flirty, very sweet cocktails. The fried chicken was exceptional, with an interesting take on mashed potatoes underneath -- very hearty and filling. The coconut curry chicken was also excellent, though the naan was unusually thick and dry. We also had the beet salad, which was delicious except for the avocados -- they were so unripe that I couldn't cut them with my fork and knife. Not exactly sure how they ended up on a plate and served, but the service was somewhat spotty so we couldn't send them back before our entrees arrived -- not the end of the world, since the beets and paneer were still good. Overall, the food was good enough to warrant a return visit sometime, and the vibe was sophisticated (if not a bit sports-bar-y in the front). Great for a date night or a special catch-up with friends.

I came here to rave about this restaurant but it looks like there are plenty of ravers already. If you love Indian flavors and delicious crafty cocktails, you must try Tigerlily. I've never had better Indian food, anywhere! There were four of us dining and from the appetizers to the drinks to the entrees, we ate ever bit and loved it!

Overall I was disappointed. Everything from ambiance to the actual food left me feeling like something was missing. Service was fine and nothing really was good or bad about it. The appetizers and cocktails are probably the highlight. I think it might be a better happy hour spot? But we got here on a Friday night around 7 and it was pretty empty. No music and weirdly cold inside. Some of the main dishes are a bit hard to share so it doesn't really feel like family style is the vibe here. For example, the curries are plated in the same bowl as the rice, naan and some slaw. We got the paneer nachos to share which were fine - unique but portions were small and the toppings were minimal. For vegetarian dishes we got the chana masala and the malai kofta. The chana masala was ok but the kofta was super dense and not tasty at all. The sauces for each were bland. For the meat dishes the rest of the table got the mango chicken curry and a sesame lamb dish. My husband said the chicken curry was not bad but the lamb was not cooked well. I was very surprised at all the great reviews here so maybe all the dishes we ordered were just the wrong ones, but nothing about the dining experience made me want to come back.

An impressive array of vegan options (3.5/5 Green Stars)Tigerlily opened in 2015 with Chef Joel Lamica (former chef of the Ramen Shop in Rockridge) running the kitchen, but has new management since 2019. I've been twice - once in the good old pre-lockdown days, before the management changed, and then a couple of months ago. And I have to say, I really enjoyed the food both times. Congrats to the new management for maintaining standards. They could do a better job at providing more info on their website, though. The original team favored organic ingredients but that's not clear anymore. They do serve a lot of vegan dishes, so thumbs up for that.We had two of my standard Indian dishes - veggie samosas and veggie korma. Tigerlily's versions of these two were possibly the best (samosa) or among the best (korma) that I've ever had. This is significant, given that I've had many samosas and kormas in my time. The veggie korma ($21.50) includes rice and garlic naan and has a good balance of spice, heat, creaminess, and tasty veggies. The veggie samosas (delicious pastry, not greasy, very filling) are normally $10 but note that both korma and samosas are on the happy hour menu, so avail of that if you can (4:30 to 5:30 every day). We also had the Sesame Avocado Flatbread ($13.50), made with fennel seed, turmeric, sprouts, parmesan & chili oil. Staff members were very friendly and I highly recommend trying it out during happy hour while it's not too busy. I'm giving Tigerlily 3.5 out of 5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact, for these reasons:* Even though there are several meat dishes, I was impressed by how much of the menu is not just vegetarian but vegan. Adopting a plant-based diet is the top thing you can do to mitigate climate change and deforestation, besides avoiding animal cruelty and the negative impact of the meat industry on society. * Of course, your own footprint will depend on what you order, from vegan dishes at one end of the scale and lamb dishes at the other end. Like beef, lamb has one of the highest carbon footprints of our food options.* If Tigerlily wanted to step up and improve on its social and environmental impact then switching from lamb to a vegan substitute would be the most effective steps. * More information on food sourcing should be provided.* Local beer is available on draft, mitigating packaging and transportation impacts.

We love eating here - our favorite! Their menu and service are consistently excellent. We love the ribs, freshest, softest, tastiest ribs in the world, tacos - all of their food is spectacular, and their cocktails are great too - Michael's Pollen and Fade To Black are among our fav's. Most highly recommended! Sophy and Benny

Bro food and service was sooooo good.The mango dragon and Tango foxtrot was some of the best cocktails I have ever had. Amazing selection, definitely recommend. Owners were the best. Really good dinner and date night spot. Very cool ambiance.

5 stars for the bartender. He could could not have been more inviting. The drinks were good as well. The food: terrible. We ordered fried onion rings and garlic Naan. The onion rings were no doubt frozen. We didn't finish them. The garlic Naan was flavorless with not a hint of garlic. Most disappointing.

Well, that was disappointing. My friend and I went there and were seated right away. We ordered signature drinks, appetizers, main dish, and naan to share.The place was really cold temperature wise, and the service was extremely slow.The food was delicious, and the drinks were quite tasty.But when we went to pay, we were not allowed to split the bill because it wasn't over $100. Really?! in these days of modern technology? maybe they get a double charge, but considering everything, you would think...Will not go back, and will not recommend.