Restaurant Review: Tamarillo, Kaiserslautern

Restaurant Reviewed:
Tamarillo
Pirmasenser Straße 59, Kaiserslautern
http://www.ecker-lichtwerbung.de/tamarillo_de/index.html

Tamarillo is a tapas bar and restaurant in a beautiful, historic building overlooking the Stadtpark in Kaiserslautern. I had heard good things about the restaurant so a friend and I had dinner there.

My dining partner ordered Pisto Manchego, which is basically some vegetables slathered in tasty Manchego cheese and baked in crockery. I tried a bite; it was decent, but then again, how can anything slathered in cheese not be?

I ordered Migas, which is a mixed green salad with fried bread, grapes, and chorizo sausage. I was actually disappointed in my meal. The lettuce and grapes weren't the freshest and the salad dressing that covered it really didn't have much flavor. It was also slathered in the dressing, which made the lettuce seem even more slick. The fried bread wasn't anything special; there was some sort of seasoning on it but it didn't have a strong taste. The chorizo was okay; it was similar, according to my dining partner, to a summer sausage. At almost 9 euros, it was a huge salad but didn't taste good enough to warrant such a price.

Migas: this salad looked better than what it tasted.

Our servers were average. They were pleasant when they realized that we spoke English and offered, unprompted, to give us menus in English. I made the mistake of asking for tap water and was told that they don't serve it. Ja, ja. That's not uncommon in Germany. Our waiters weren't super responsive and it did take a while to receive the bill when we asked for it.

The building itself really cool; it's quite beautiful. We didn't go inside, but enjoyed the facade of the building as we sat in the patio area, which was nice itself with umbrellas and trees and a great view over the Stadtpark.

I guess I would say that I'm undecided on Tamarillo. I have other acquaintances who've gone there and liked it quite a bit, but they ordered the tapas. I think that I'll give the restaurant another try in the future and actually order the tapas, just to be fair. I was definitely nonplussed by the salad and hope that that tapas experience will be tastier on a future visit.