Sometimes it isn’t just good food that counts at an eatery – good hosts can make a world of difference.
WE heard the music well before we reached the entrance to Trishna Restaurant in Damansara Intan, Petaling Jaya.
What we did not expect was good-looking Dhinesh singing and dancing on a mini-stage tucked at the back of the restaurant.
As Benny Bedi, the owner, waved at us, we had to divert our attention from the gorgeous singer.
Dynamic duo: Restaurant owners Benny and Neeta Bedi keep their customers entertained. Then Benny’s wife, the soft-spoken and ever-smiling Neeta, showed us to our table and sent her husband off to check on the other guests.
The interior of Trishna is wallpapered in yellow, with maroon and brown organza draping the tops of the walls. Framed paintings further dress up the walls, and the ambience is very comforting and pleasing.
In fact, if one really needs to unwind, this place comes highly recommended.
Neeta, who just recently took up the management of Trishna, said the restaurant opened in November last year. “But like a home, it always needs a woman’s touch,” she quipped.
It’s so true: in the span of over a month that she has been around, Neeta has made so many changes that her patrons at the next table kept exclaiming: “Neeta, Benny, how come this dish wasn’t served last week?”
The trick to having a good meal at Trishna is not to look at the menu but to check if Neeta is around. This is important as she introduces new dishes every day. Then you leave the ordering to her.
When comfortably seated at our table, a waiter quickly came over to serve us mint tea.
Check this out: Northern Indian restaurant Trishna has a great combination of ambience, entertainment and mouthwatering food. “Please taste this. It is new. We just started serving it three days ago,” said Neeta.
It has mint, lime and brown sugar but none of the sap that one normally equates with fresh greens or herbs.
The purpose of the mint tea, Neeta said, is to freshen the tongue and this also heightens the taste of the food.
For drinks, the Mango Lassi is highly recommended. It is not excessively sweet and is delightfully tangy, as fresh mangoes should taste, and a swirl of plain lassi at the top of the glass keeps the concoction interesting.
When Neeta does the ordering, one only needs to sit back and wait for the feast to begin, literally!
First out of the tandoor for us were the starters including the Nooraini Kebab. Neeta stressed that tandoor dishes should never be considered only for mains as some of them – there are about 50 to 60 types at Trishna – are good for starters or appetisers as well.
The Nooraini Kebab is truly interesting. So called because of its jewelled presentation, it is prepared in three layers with a blob of minced mutton being first baked in the tandoor and then later encased in a layer of chicken mince. The third layer is an array of vegetables that are baked to form a crust in the tandoor. The marinade of spices and yoghurt comes out perfectly, not to mention the difference in texture between the layers.
Choice picks: An assortment of naans. The next dish was Amritsari Fish, a thoroughly popular dish in India. It is boneless white fish marinated in a traditional Amritsari (North Indian) way with egg, yoghurt, thymol seeds and spices and then deep fried. At Trishna, however, the dish is shallow-fried or grilled, so it is healthy! And really tasty.
Another appetiser worth highlighting is the dish of pickled mushrooms, which were button mushrooms marinated with cheese (we suspect!), salted and then cooked in the tandoor. It was delicious, with the salty coating feeling a little gritty but it complemented the otherwise bland button mushrooms very well.
The chicken tandoori was served with a few pieces of potato skins topped with a mince filling, and these caught the attention of most diners.
Like us, many of the patrons at the other tables also left the ordering to Neeta and Benny, and they were also given the new items on the menu.
The potato skin tandoori, or Aloo Tandoori as it is known, is good and whets the appetite for more.
Then the mains were brought out. There were the usual naan breads as found in most Northern Indian restaurants and then there was the Aloo Kulcha, or potato stuffed bread, the star of Trishna’s breads.
Soft and stuffed with delicious potatoes cooked in spice and cream, it is as good on its own as it is with Chicken Masala, Mutton Thava Masala, Bhindi Masala, Palak Paneer and Paneer Tandoori.
The chef comes up with new dishes every day. The Palak Paneer, which is simply cottage cheese cooked in a spinach-based sauce, is a wonderful accompaniment to the breads.
The Paneer Tandoori was similarly marinated as the pickled mushrooms and provided the appetiser during the mains.
An Indian meal is never complete without the delectable Indian sweets and at Trishna, the Gulab Jamun is a must-try. This spongy confection here has an added crunch as it contains a special solid milk filling which is also very tasty.
It is not only the food that is good here. The owners, Benny and Neeta, personally attend to every table and Benny has a fantastic sense of humour that sends his patrons into bouts of laughter all the time.
His favourite line is “See my turban? I am a Punjabi who understands Punjabi but can’t speak the language. You know why?
“Simply because I am Malaysian. One Malaysia,” he says while lifting his eyebrows comically.
The singers, including Dhinesh who croons mainly romantic songs from notable Indian movies, perform here for three months before new acts are brought in. They entertain the dinner crowd every night from 7.30pm onwards.
Since taking over, Neeta has created several lunch sets for those who want a meal without the bother of poring over the menu. Prices for the lunch sets start at RM6.90.
“The idea is to offer a full meal without putting holes in the pocket,” said Neeta, who also owns a fashion business.
Trishna is located at 15-17, Ground Floor, Block A, Damansara Intan, Jalan SS20/27, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
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