Junoon, Palo Alto

[Al Eisner]

I'm surprised that, given BAuer's enthusiasm (but perhaps because of
it), there have been so few reports here from Junoon, one of two fairly
new upscale Indian restaurants in Palo Alto. The ba.food archive has
reports only from Jeffrey Mogul (rather ambiguous, from soon after it
opened) and Todd McComb (generally favorable, apart from an allergic
reaction), but neither said much about the food. It is certainly
expensive for Indian, especially with everything a la carte, but the
menu (at http://www.junoon.com -- you can turn off the annoying music)
seems quite interesting. They bill themselves "modern eclectic Indian".

It happens that Palo Alto has a "dine downtown" program this month:
prix fixe menus at selected restaurants on Mondays in August. Only
9 restaurants are listed, but it's a fairly classy bunch -- see
http://www.paloaltodowntown.com/whats_happening.php. And the Junoon
menu -- http://www.paloaltodowntown.com/documents/JunoonDineDowntownmenu.doc
offers a major discount from their regular dinner menu. All the items
except the desserts are listed there, and with dessert would probably
total as much as $50, while the prix fixe is $30. So this seemed like
just the right opportunity, and I paid Junnon a visit yesterday.

I had the Darjeeling Steamed Wontons and the Rice-flaked Sea Bass;
all three listed sides (ordinarily a la carte) come with the meal. The
wontons were good, but not outstanding. The best part of that dish was
the accompnaying spicy tomato-based chutney -- an overgenerous portion,
which the waiter suggested saving for the (later) naan, which turned out
to be a very good idea. The portion of dumplings was small, but that
worked well in the context of the full dinner. Still, I'm not sure that
item would be worth the a la carte price. The sea bass, on the other hand,
was excellent: fish prepared just right, and wonderfully layed out with
the greens and sauce. Indeed, the accompnaying black lentils were also
excellent, and the rice and naan just fine. Portions of all these items
were on the generous side, nothing skimpy. Everything went well with
a Maharaja pilsner (of course, not included in the prix fixe). For
dessert I had the "spiced molten chocolate cake", a concoction (prepared
to order) of a round of light cake with the dark molten chocolate in
the middle, accompanied by ginger gelato -- not as heavy as it might
sound, and very good.

All in all, I strongly recommend this prix fixe. As for the restaurant
itself, I'd love to return to try more of the menu, and will probably do
so, although the prices will certainly discourage me from making it a
regular spot.

With two more Mondays in the list, I'm curious what Lavanda (already
one of my Palo Atlo favorites) and Three Seasons have to offer....
--

Al Eisner
San Mateo Co., CA

[Tony Lima]

On Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:54:17 -0700, Al Eisner
<eis...@slac.stanford.edu> wrote:

[snip]

> It happens that Palo Alto has a "dine downtown" program this month:
>prix fixe menus at selected restaurants on Mondays in August. Only
>9 restaurants are listed, but it's a fairly classy bunch -- see
>http://www.paloaltodowntown.com/whats_happening.php. And the Junoon
>menu -- http://www.paloaltodowntown.com/documents/JunoonDineDowntownmenu.doc
>offers a major discount from their regular dinner menu. All the items
>except the desserts are listed there, and with dessert would probably
>total as much as $50, while the prix fixe is $30. So this seemed like
>just the right opportunity, and I paid Junnon a visit yesterday.

[even more snip]

Al, thanks for pointing this out. Excellent catch. And a
great review (as usual). - Tony

[Karen]

On Aug 14, 4:34 pm, Tony Lima <tonyli...@att.net> wrote:
> Al, thanks for pointing this out. Excellent catch. And a
> great review (as usual). - Tony

three dittoes

Karen

[Jeffrey Mogul]

In article <Pine.SOC.4.64.07...@flora03.slac.stanford.edu>, Al Eisner <eis...@slac.stanford.edu> writes:
|> I'm surprised that, given BAuer's enthusiasm (but perhaps because of
|> it), there have been so few reports here from Junoon, one of two fairly
|> new upscale Indian restaurants in Palo Alto. The ba.food archive has
|> reports only from Jeffrey Mogul (rather ambiguous, from soon after it
|> opened) and Todd McComb (generally favorable, apart from an allergic
|> reaction), but neither said much about the food.

Sorry for the lack of followup after an ambiguous report.

We've been back two or three times (once with a large group).
It's been a few months since the last visit, so my specific memories
are vague, but generally we've liked the food. The service has
improved since our first visit (April 2006), but it's never been
perfect. I would recommend this place to someone who favors
a somewhat novel dining experience over cost-effectiveness; it's
not cheap.

They have a few tables outside; on a warm summer evening, it could
be nice, but the one time we started outside, we had to move inside
because someone across the street was running a truck-sized vacuum
cleaner and (no fault of Junoon) that killed conversation.

-Jeff

[Al Eisner]

Thanks for the follow-up. I forgot to mention the service. It was
very efficient and friendly, and the waiter was generally helpful;
I wouldn't call it quite "perfect", since the waiter was slightly
over-attentive, but not in an annoying way. So, close to perfect,
with water refills on schedule. However, the place was only 1/3 full
(no doubt the motivation for the Monday promotion); the serious test
of service would be under full conditions.

I have to say that the location of the outdoor dining (almost on
University Ave.) does not at all appeal to me, and I doubt if I
would ever want to use it.