Time Out has teamed up with tastelondon to offer you a fantastic one month free trial
-
Trishna London
-
-
© Ming Tang-Evans
-
By Anjali Wason
Anyone who’s eaten at the legendary Trishna restaurant in Mumbai might feel a tad disappointed upon walking into its newly opened London counterpart. Absent are the kitsch plastic flowers and tawdry posters. The decor is unimaginative – white walls, exposed brick and tidy Danish-design furniture – and as a result, there is a slightly aloof, wannabe-chic atmosphere. This vibe is reinforced by the reserved, albeit efficient, waiting staff, and a wine list whose prices make beer a better option in these credit crunch times.
Fortunately, these shortcomings don’t affect the food. Chef Ravi Deulkar, from Rasoi Vineet Bhatia, has successfully captured the essence of the mouthwatering seafood typical of the western Indian state of Maharashtra. His menu is commendably manageable: split into pakora, charcoal grills and main dishes, it offers many of the specialities for which Mumbai’s Trishna is renowned.
The celebrated Koliwada shrimp, named after the bustling Koliwada fish market in Mumbai, is a starter of delicate shrimp encased in a fiery carom and coriander seed batter, deep fried and served with a gratuitously chilli-laden paste. Although our shrimp were on the dry side, a generous squeeze of lemon easily remedied this. No such problem with the succulent hariyali bream, here topped with a sophisticated green chilli and coriander paste, rather than the traditional spinach and peas. However, its insipid tomato and cucumber relish could be ignored altogether.
While there are several vegetarian main courses on the menu, none sounded more inspiring than a Tesco ready meal so, sticking to Trishna’s famed oceanic fare, we opted for a Cornish brown crab – a generous portion of crab pieces tossed with an indulgent but simple concoction of butter, garlic and pepper, heavy and worth every calorie. The market fish curry that followed unfortunately left a slightly metallic taste in our mouths, so we set aside its oily chunks of seabass. The dish’s delicious coconut sauce, infused with subtle measures of nutmeg, pepper and ginger, was worth savouring, however, and we soaked it up with a pricey order of miniscule naans.
There was no reason to save room for dessert – Trishna offers an uninspired collection (carrot halwa, ice-cream and rice pudding) typical of the sort that you would find in any high street curry house. It would have been nice to see a sampling of the rich desserts typical of Maharashtra, like puran poli (pancakes stuffed with jaggery and cocount) or modak (coconut dumplings). Adding these to the menu just might turn a solid Indian dining experience into an exceptional one.
Time Out Londin Issue 2000
Book now
Time Out reviews restaurants anonymously and pays for meals. Of course, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or independence of user reviews.
|
|
Advertisement
Details
- 15-17 Blandford Street, Marylebone, W1U 3DG
- Area: Marylebone
- Tel: 020 7935 5624
- www.trishnalondon.com
- Book online
- Category: Indian subcontinent
- Times: 12noon-3pm, 6pm-11pm Mon; 6-11pm Tue-Sat; noon-3.30pm, 6.30-10.30pm Sun
- Price: Meal for two with wine and service: around £85
Map
Date of the day
MattheusW
I'm a young (but not as young as I look!) man, looking for people beyond the broad circles I orbit in for people to open my eyes, change my mind...
|
|
More ways to enjoy Time Out
-
Weekly London newsletter
The best of London in your inbox
-
Time Out Widgets
|
|
Eating at the Trishna in Marylebone, London was a real experience. The service is excellent with dedicated waiters and others constantly ensuring everything is running smoothly. Food very good, if not exceptional. Overall good value for money and a good experience.
This place was just wonderful. My girlfriend and I were made to feel welcome as soon as we walked in the door as we were warmly received by a lady at the reception desk who took our coats and showed us to our table by the floor to ceiling window looking out at the quiet Blandford street. The furnishings were modern and romantically lit using spotlights.
The food menu was divided into five sections: Pakora; Charcoal grill; Trishna dishes; Vegetarian and sides. As a seafood lover, what appealed most was the range of fish dishes, which looked very appetizing,
In the end we decided to go for the Vegetable Pakora, Scallops and Hyderabadi Fish Tikka from the grill, Market Fish Curry and Lamb Curry from the Trishna dishes, Brocolli from the vegetarian and Rice and Bread from the sides. As a wine we choose the wine recommended to go with the fish curry, the Chenin Blanc Sula, which turned out to be very nice with a slight sweet taste.
The dishes that really stood out were the Scallops and the Fish curry. The Scallops were delicious, lighted grilled, succulent and full of flavour. The fish curry, one of the restaurants signature dishes was delectable- sea bass delicately done in a coconut masala that melted in your mouth.
We were having such a nice meal that we decided to have a look at the desserts and we plumped for the Carrot pudding and Kokum Kheer. For me the carrot was particularly good: sweet but not too sweet.
The service was attentive and polite coming around every so often to top up the wine and make sure everything was fine. The food was served punctually, as we finished one course the next one was only moments away.
I could rave about this place all day, we look forward to going back.
i think the food critic are really very narrow they dont understand about tha food i have eaten in Trishna in london and its really good
amazingly fresh seafood in very cool surroundings. a very interesting addition to londons restaurant scene.
Brilliant food in modern surroundings. Not to forget the lovely service received.
The finest indian food, impeccable service and elegant surroundings; it was worth every penny.
Very pleasant venue, staff are very welcoming and friendly would go back again.
amazing all round experience. cant wait to go back. the drinks offering(escpecially the choice of niche continental beers) and the quality and cooking of the seafood blew me away. service was slick and knowledgable and the buzz was brilliant.
Ahoy Londoners finally an authentic Indian restaurant.Superb location ,setting and service.Fish ,prawns,crab and all dishes full of flavour.Think this will become as popular as the Mumbai restaurant.Wow to all the food.
******