I’m traveling so can’t post the photos that go with these dishes. Will do that next week, hopefully:
Pippal
Bay Street Mall, 5614 Bay St #235, Emeryville, CA
Cuisine: upscale Indian regional
Menu: https://eatatpippal.com/menu/
We love Pippal and have gone 7x since they opened, both as a couple and with friends/family groups. If you are familiar with Indian food I would recommend it. It is NOT really for newbies, who lack the context for what makes Pippal’s best dishes so different than the usual “butter chicken and lamb korma” curry joynts.
One negative to Pippal is that our experiences have shown us that an experienced waitstaff, who needs to be truly familiar with the individual dishes, is essential for getting the most out of this unique menu.
It doesn’t take long to get familiar with the overall structure of the menu, but our first visit, a dinner with friends where the waiter was both enthusiastic and knowledgeable, made an ideal introduction to this restaurant, which is unique in the East Bay.
If you expect your favorite pakoras and samosas to start with, and curries with lots of sauce, Pippal is not – repeat, NOT – the restaurant you want to visit. They have some of the “standards”, but honestly, don’t waste your time. Butter chicken here is excellent but not that much different than anywhere else.
Pippal is an experience with upscale regional and Indian fusion food that is found nowhere elsewhere in the Greater EBay. This is a restaurant where you come here to educate your palate and expand your expectations of whatever you think Indian food is.
Note re spiciness: Pippal is very good at adjusting the chile levels at the diner’s request; but if you are serious about chile heat – we are! – their medium is a 7 on our personal scale of 1 to 10 chile peppers. Over the years we’ve gotten a couple of dishes from restaurants that were SERIOUSLY over 10 chiles, but they’re rare to find; so we keep our scale at 10 as that’s the hottest my chilehead spouse usually finds at restaurants.
Prawn Pepper Fry: Onions, Black Pepper, Red Radish.
Four large shrimp are lightly battered and quickly tossed with a terrific glaze/sauce. It’s a spicy dish, with the latter containing whole wilted basil leaves, finely chopped onion, and the heat of fresh-ground black pepper. Garnished with fried basil, it was an amazing dish and although it briefly rotated off the menu, it is now back as a regular menu dish. This is a spectacular dish, destination-worthy IOHO.
Amritsari Fish curry.
This is a Punjabi dish, and can be either tandoori-grilled cubes (dry, no sauce or dip), or as it was here, fillets in a curry gravy. Punjab is one of the northernmost provinces, bordering Nepal. Landlocked, their native fish are all freshwater species. In the U.S., common substitutes are cod, grouper, catfish, tilapia, and basa. Pippal’s menu didn’t specify what fish was used. The thick reddish-colored curry was tomato and onion based, and excellent. We asked for the chile level to be medium. Not incendiary, but definitely with a nice kick to it, we enjoyed this very much.
Burrah Kebab: Masala lamb chops, pickled onion.
I adore lamb chops and these were marvelous, rubbed well with spices and grilled to a perfect medium doneness. Fabulous!
Chicken Dumpling: Pan Seared Chicken Momo, Chili Chutney.
The dab of very hot chili chutney is usually on top of each momo, but by request can be in a separate ramekin.
Masala French Fries
Pippal lightly batters the fries, and sprinkles them with an Indian spice blend. They are very good, with a very mild chile level. One of my friends said, “Wow, fries that actually taste good!”
Chicken Tikka. Pippal makes a very fine version, if you like this.
Baingan Bharta: roasted eggplant, crispy okra, onion tomato masala. This was also very good, but I’m not sure about the crispy okra. I didn’t find any; it just seemed a soft chunky purée to me. Sprigs of bright green watercress made a nice color contrast. This was made with diced pickles, so it had a tangy component to it.
Beef Asado: Slow Roast Rib-Eye, Goan Spice Rub, Herb Baby Potatoes.
Huge surprise to all of us, even though the waiter described it well. It’s an Indian version of a meat-and-potatoes pizza. Despite how odd that sounds, it’s a great dish, although very substantial. A crusty, delicious bread dough – possibly triple-fermented (we forgot to ask) of excellent quality flour, made a “plate” for the flavorful rib-eye, with four tiny herbed potatoes rimming the steak. Be SURE to ask the steak be cooked medium-rare; otherwise they will cook it well-done, which is a crime with good beef.
The bread is so crusty on the bottom – but not burnt – that it was a struggle to cut it into pieces, even with the steak knife provided. But it’s worth the effort, as it was a great accompaniment to the steak, having soaked up some of the beef juices. It should be noted that a single steak knife is inefficient; both crust and beef need to be cut up. Be sure to ask the waitstaff for knives for all diners.
Mutton Laal Maas: sheermal paratha, fresh coriander, chili oil.
A very spicy mutton red curry – well, Spouse didn’t think it was extra spicy, but the rest of us did, LOL. This is neck meat, so expect bones. DO NOT order this if you don’t like extremely spicy curry; ordering it milder reduces the complex seasoning that makes this so savory.
There’s a couple of dishes I’d recommend skipping, but again, I’ll add those when I add in the photos. To be continued…!
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SF Chronicle critic Cesar Hernandez reviewed Pippal on March 24, 2024 and gave it praise – although interestingly, our group of eight on 2 visits liked many of the items he didn’t.
