Guddu De Karahi Pakistani Tandoor Outer Sunset | Tasting Table San Francisco

You don't often get the chance to recapture your first love.

When Zulfiqar "Guddu" Haider sold Lahore Karahi, his Pakistani restaurant in the Tenderloin, to focus on family issues last year, those of us who had fallen for his signature tandoori fish sobbingly swore we'd never feel the same way again.

Thank goodness Guddu couldn't stay away. "I was missing all my lovely people," he says, as ebullient as he is talented. "This is a family restaurant." And by family, he means us.

Guddu de Karahi, the chef's month-old Sunset restaurant, is a neater and better-ventilated setup than the old place and the lovely people have already returned. In fact, on weekends, they can overburden the staff.

Guddu Haider

Though the tandoori fish ($13) is now made with sustainable tilapia rather than Chilean sea bass, the fish, coated in yogurt and a mysterious panoply of spices, is everything we remembered: smoky and buttery, each bite animated by the crunch of coriander seeds.

A few well-blistered naan are also in order, as are saag gosht ($9)–in which chopped spinach is more of a backup singer to the curried lamb than a green soloist–and the gloriously oily, ginger-thwacked karahi chicken ($8).

We've only been back for one date with the fish, and we're already contemplating getting off Tinder.