5, Annexe Wisma Leopad,
Jalan Tun Sambanthan,
Brickfields,
50470, Kuala Lumpur.
Business hours: 11.00am to 11.00pm every day
Tel: 03-2260 6489
ARE you are craving for good Indian food, but you are tired of being made to wait in a busy banana leaf restaurant?
If that’s the case, we would like to recommend you to take a drive down to Taj Garden Restaurant in Brickfields.
Not only would you be greeted by the friendly waiters, but you would be spoilt for choices with the wide selections from the menu i.e. Indian, Western and Chinese cuisine.
We were already working up a monster appetite. It took a while to run through the menu, and we finally settled for the Indian cuisine – a popular choice for those who frequent the restaurant, according to one of the waiters.
For starters, we ordered the Paneer Pakora snack. This snack fills up your stomach easily as it is made of semi-soft chunks of cottage cheese.
The dish was a bit spicy for us but it was crunchy on the outside and soft inside. It was served with mint sauce, which added flavour to the Paneer Pakora.
This is an excellent snack for vegetarians and non-vegetarians who want to chew something close to a meat dish.
This is Taj Garden’s version of chicken tandoori, Taj Special.
Next, on the list was the Taj Special starter, which is the restaurant’s speciality. The presentation of this dish was awesome.
This starter, which had five pieces of chicken with each piece topped with a cherry, was just delightful. This is Taj Garden’s version of chicken tandoori, which is marinated and seasoned with extra “masala” or spices to bombard your taste buds.
The bright orange on the outside and charcoal-burnt texture of the chicken is a must-have dish for tandoori lovers. No doubt, this is one of our favourite dishes as the juicy succulent chicken was soft and easy to chew.
We gradually moved on to the main course. Top on list were Chicken Chettinad curry and Mutton Madras curry. We decided to have some bread to go with these curries and chose the Romali Roti, which was recommended by the waiter.
The Chicken Chettinad curry had succulent chicken pieces cooked in spicy gravy. It was a fiery curry that left an ever-lasting taste of spiciness. The chicken was cooked with some distinct spices such as fennel and coriander seeds that gave an exotic aroma to the curry.
This curry is an authentic South Indian dish that went well with the Romali bread. The combination was just perfect.
The Mutton Madras (left) and Chicken Chettinad curries with Romali Roti.
The Mutton Madras curry had a rich gravy and the mutton was well-cooked.
Another speciality of the restaurant is the briyani rice. Selvaraja Palaniappan, who is in charge of the operations and services at Taj Garden, was tight-lipped about the secret ingredients of this special dish and only said that long grain basmati rice is used, cooked with distinct spices which release the strong aroma.
We were also recommended to try the Palak Mushroom as it is not a common dish in many Indian restaurants.
Unlike the ubiquitous Palak Paneer, Palak Mushroom is fresh spinach cooked with mushrooms instead. The taste is a bit different, as the earthy taste of the mushroom blends with the slightly sweet spinach. Some may need to acquire the taste of this dish in order to appreciate the combination.
We also tried the Aloo Akbari, a potato dish filled with cheese, nuts and herbs and cooked in a special gourmet sauce. This dish was highly recommended by the chef and it was rich, slightly starchy and nutty.
The Carrot Halwa with Ice Cream.
As we came to the end of the meal, we wanted something simple for dessert, so we tried the Carrot Halwa with Ice Cream. It was a pure attempt to turn the authentic north Indian dessert into a fusion dessert with coloured chocolate rice sprinkled on top. It was heavenly.
In a nutshell, Taj Garden is the perfect place for families and friends to chill-out especially for Sunday lunch or celebrate a special occasion.
