Petaling Jaya Food: Malgudi Indian Restaurant - A perfect marriage of tasty North and South Indian Cuisine

When it comes to Indian food in Malaysia, the first thing that comes to mind will be banana leaf rice serving an array of dishes with side dishes of vegetables. But this time around, +BestRestaurant ToEat was privilege to try out some of the classic and tasty combination of North and South Indian dishes at MALGUDI Indian Restaurant Lot 17, Lorong Universiti C, Section 16 46350 Petaling Jaya, Selangor recently.

Upon entering the MALGUDI Indian Restaurant, you will be greeted with a family friendly Indian theme dining experience that has it's wall deck with Indian decal and paintings.

Our review started off with a soup which is Rasam; usually Indian restaurant will serve the common sourish rasam (tomato, tamarind, and lentil soup), but at Malgudi, they offer a number of varieties that you can choose from; but for us we had the Nandu Rasam which is the Crab Rasam (RM 7.00). Unlike the common ones, this Rasam only had a slight hint of the sourish taste while having a very strong flavour of the crab and was served piping hot.

Next, we had the the Vegetarian Combo Chips (RM12.00). This is a combination dish of 3 different vegetables which are coated with spices and  fried; our combo platter came with Fried Onion, Fried Bitter Gourd and Fried Cauliflower. We are quite fond of the bitter gourd (does not have that strong bitter taste) as it was very thinly sliced and fried till it has a crisp and crunchy feel.

The first main dish that we had was the Kanava 65 ~ Squid (RM 14.00). This is the white squid which has been coated; fried with curry leaves and served with a bed of fresh cut onions. The squid has that crunch, chewy taste and with a slight squeeze of the lime juice was just the right fit for this dish.

The second is the Chicken Lollypop (RM 15.00). This dish shares similarity to the boxing chicken in which; the meat are slightly deboned and fried. The main difference, the drummet and winglet are then cooked in a special sauce. This chicken wings are served with a wrapped aluminium foils for ease to hold the chicken wing when you eat it.

The next dish is the Fish Pepper Fry (RM 20.00). The fish which is mackerel is firstly deep fried and then sauteed with pepper. The fish has a flaky texture which was cooked with spicy and savory sauce of tomatoes, onions and garnished with chopped scallions; this dish is best eaten with white rice.

This is then followed by the Panner Butter Masala (RM 12.00) This is a fried cottage cheese (in-house made) which is cooked in a spicy masala butter sauce. The cottage cheese has a chewy texture and buttery taste.

Next, we had the Tandoori Platter (RM 30.00) (Small). A combination tandoori platter that consists of Tangri kebab (chicken drumstick), Chicken Kebab, Fish Kebab and Prawn Kebab. Here we can really taste the perfectly grilled chicken drumstick which has a strong spice taste which we like and coupled with the mint sauce and a squeeze of lime juice was perfect. We also like the Fish Kebab which has a nice spicy masala taste which was well marinated and grilled to the right timing. The Tandoori dish is best eaten with the Plain Naan.

At Malgudi Indian Restaurant, they also serves a varieties of Naan bread to accompany all the delicious fare, starting with Plain Naan (RM4.00) Garlic Naan (RM5.00), Butter Naan (RM4.00), Masala Kulcha (RM4.00), Tandoori Roti (RM3.00).

Mutton Rogan Josh (RM 18.00) is one of the most synonymous and delicious mutton curry recipe of the Kashmir, a popular and well known Northern Indian dish. The perfect balance of the usage of the spices together with the Chef multiple years of cooking skills at Malgudi; blended out this dish. The meat does not have any gamy mutton taste and it has a nice texture (not too chewy and not too soft) - just the right timing for a tasty dish and best eaten for me - White rice.

Our last dish is the special Chicken Briyani (RM 16.00). Normally we would have expected the Briyani rice to be served at Malay or Mamak Restaurant but to have it served at any Indian Restaurant was something new to me; anyway when the dish arrive in that little special cookware and topped with the hard boiled egg; it was very eye pleasing. The rice that was used was the Basmati long grain. As for the taste, it was superb although by now our stomach is almost filled to the brim. It was so good that we relish this dish to the last grain.

Today; we had a great gastronomic journey of Indian cuisine at Malgudi Indian Restaurant; if you are a fan of Indian Cuisine whether North or South; you might want to check it out.