About Sakoon

BALKAR S. TAMBER

Born in Khanoor, a small town in Punjab, India, Tamber always had a passion for cooking. Even at a young age, he loved to create dishes full of excitement and surprise. He was never shy about expressing his culinary likes and dislikes, either. So much so that his mother soon grew accustomed to her youngest critic suggesting she add a little of this or that to her dishes.

Although his father worked in the trucking and farming businesses, Tamber always knew he would take a different path in life. Indeed, as a young man, he started a successful small roadside restaurant in Punjab. After immigrating to the United States in 1990, he worked as an assemblyman in an electronics company, and then for the U.S. Postal Service.

Through it all, he never stopped dreaming of opening a real restaurant. Six years later, he spotted the perfect location in San Mateo, Calif. to open Bombay Garden. The restaurant proved so popular, with lines out the door at peak hours, that Tamber opened a second Bombay Garden in Newark in 2000. Two more Bombay Garden branches followed, one in San Rafael in 2003, and the other in Santa Clara in 2006. Sakoon represents the newest bold step for Tamber – his first upscale, fine-dining establishment that promises to elevate Indian cuisine to the next level.