Tamarind Tree (restaurant)
Tamarind Tree is a Vietnamese restaurant in Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington.
Description
The Vietnamese restaurant Tamarind Tree is located in Seattle's Chinatown-International District. The menu has included muc nhoi thit, banh mi hap, and green mango salad. The spring rolls have fried tofu, peanuts, coconut, jicama, carrots, and herbs. The restaurant has also served bánh xèo, pho, clams with pineapple anchovy sauce, steamed prawn coconut rice cakes, banana cake, and coconut milk. The green papaya salad has prawns, jicama, and roasted peanuts.Fodor's says, "Wildly popular with savvy diners from all across the city, this Vietnamese haunt on the eastern side of the I.D. really doesn't look like much from the outside, especially because the entrance is through a grungy parking lot, but once you're inside, the elegantly simple, large, and warm space is extremely welcoming... Service is attentive, but the waits can be long, even with reservations."
History
Tam Nguyen, the owner and founder of Tamarind Tree, arrived in the United States as an immigrant from a Malaysian refugee camp in October 1980. Nguyen opened the restaurant in late 2004; he opened a separate restaurant in Downtown Seattle named Long in January 2009. Tamarind Tree will expand to Capitol Hill by the end of 2023, taking over and renovating the 1917 building that was previously home to R Place, a gay bar that shuttered in 2021.The restaurant was the site of a Shigellosis outbreak in January 2023, with 32 patrons falling ill as a result; it was subsequently closed for cleaning and disinfection from January 24 until February 7.