of love and stuff

Jenn is planning her honeymoon. She keeps sending me links with photos of beautiful resorts in the Caribbean, and now I am distracted and want something far away and exotic.

But right now, I will have to settle for leftovers from last night's dinner, a fundraiser for TNDC at Maharani. This is a restaurant that pitches itself as one of the most romantic places in San Francisco. Clinging (too tightly) to this theme, the Web site actually has love poems written by the restaurant's owner, J. Kapur. Click on the "Poetry" link only if you want to make yourself cringe.

And the lovey-dovey theme doesn't stop there. Maharani also has something called the Fantasy Room, where each table is curtained off with beads and has a dimmer switch and a service button (no servers come unless you hit the button) for maximum privacy. One reviewer on Yelp said his girlfriend "surrendered her V card" after an evening in the Fantasy Room. Classy. There's nothing better than having your boyfriend announce the loss of your virginity to millions of people online.

We did not dine in the Fantasy Room. There were 11 of us, so we ate in the main room. I ordered the Vegan Dinner -- roasted papadums and a salad with mango dressing to start and dal and saag with rice and naan for my main course. Then I cheated and upgraded from the fresh fruit that normally comes with the meal to the Mango Melba Dream Cloud, which is mango ice cream (so much for the vegan thing), gulab jamun and shaved pistachios. (Freaking amazing -- the photo above doesn't do it justice.)

The food was good (leftovers, also good). But was it V card good? Eh. If I had to do it over again, this would seal the deal.