Should I blame it on the FIFA match that day, or is that just an excuse for poor inventory management? Either way, what restaurant runs out of prosecco and rosé in the middle of summer? Without bubbly in hand, dinner at Curryish Tavern was already off to a shaky start.

Their tasting menu ($98 per person) revolves around one featured ingredient each month and, for June, it was mango. As someone who loves the fruit, I was intrigued to see how the kitchen would incorporate it into savoury dishes beyond the usual mango salad.

Dinner begins with a foie gras tart topped with mango murabba. The unripe green mangoes are preserved with sugar and spices, creating a sweet-and-tart chutney that is a burst of flavour. In fact, it’s almost too much, overpowering the goose liver mousse beneath it. A lighter hand would have worked better, although the acidity does help cut through the richness of the foie gras.

Next comes the raw mango and smashed cucumber salad, the most recognizable use of mango on the menu. The peanut dressing adds a creamy savoury note, while the spicy oil gives the cucumbers a nice kick. Fresh dill brightens everything and the crunchy pods scattered throughout add a satisfying textural contrast.

The Kesari mango bhel was a little harder to understand. The crunchy rice cake topped with a mango pakora became too starchy and heavy. The dish would have benefited from a protein like grilled shrimp or tuna tartare, or even something lighter like a mango corn salad or paneer topped with grilled mango. Even making the puffed rice crisp thinner would have helped since it was difficult to cut through and properly combine with the other ingredients.

Still, it was far better than the black cod ceviche, which ended up being the weakest dish of the evening. The overly sweet mango sauce completely dominated the plate, the fish was minced rather than diced, and overall, it just didn’t taste especially fresh.

Thankfully, the meal recovered with the coconut mango chicken curry served with a hot crispy flaky parotta. The mango was more restrained, adding a subtle brightness instead of overwhelming the dish. We agreed it was good but still behind other chicken curries we’ve had elsewhere.

What made the evening more frustrating was the pacing. Despite the restaurant being nearly empty - we were one of three tables during Friday dinner service - the meal moved painfully slowly. Many of the dishes also felt like they could have been prepped well ahead of time, making the three-hour meal even more puzzling.

By the time dessert arrived, I was admittedly checked out. The Alphonso mango shrikhand on chirote was forgettable, tasting mostly like yogurt spooned over a firmer puff pastry.

As much as I love mango, this tasting menu simply wasn’t for me. Too many dishes leaned into the same sweet-and-tangy flavour profile, so by the end of the meal everything started to blur together. Curryish Tavern deserves credit for building an entire tasting menu around mangoes, but the execution felt uneven. By the end of the night, I was craving contrast more than another variation of mango.