Trishna

Yesterday evening I ate at Trishna as part of the Graze food festival. This works by purchasing a ticket which allows you to visit a number of restaurants and try a dish with a matching wine for a relatively reduced price. It allows people to try out multiple restaurants in an area with a view to give people an insight into the differences you get with fine dining and how much more you can get out of a food experience at the reputed restaurants. I had a ticket for the Marylebone High Street edition. I do not have a bad word to say about any of the five participating restaurants other than Trishna.

We arrived at 7 to pick up our "keyrings" which identified us as ticket holders, but were told there would be at least a 30 minute wait as they were only allocating one table in the entire restaurant to people using that menu. The number of tickets sold for this event was over 100. With this system, this meant they could seat approximately 6 people during the entire evening. We were told without question that no bookings could be made via the Graze menu. As you can tell, there was a fundamental problem here.

We came back later at approximately 9:30 having enjoyed dining experiences at all of the other restaurants. We arrived back to find the restaurant far emptier and asked if they could seat us. The waiter went to check and told us that it would be at least a 45 minute wait. We also were reminded that we were not allowed to book a table through Graze, so even this was a tentative placing. We asked if we could just sit at one of the available, empty tables. He went to consult his manager and came back to tell us that the whole restaurant was booked out with people arriving at 10pm. We looked around suspicious that approximately 6 large tables would be filled with 10pm bookings in a place which closed at 11. We asked if we could sit somewhere to have a drink and wait for the table to come available. We were told that there was nowhere we could sit and that we would have to wait outside. In the rain.

We went elsewhere to decide what to do. After twenty minutes I decided to phone the restaurant to make a booking to see what would happen. The person on the phone was happy to place us, had plenty of availability and said that it would be fine. Just as I was ending the call I mentioned we were looking to take advantage of the graze menu, at which point I was put on hold. I waited patiently and eventually the person came back a lot less receptive but said that he could reserve a table for us, but that they only had rice pudding on the menu left. Undeterred and determined at this point simply because it was the last thing these rude liars would have wanted, I went ahead and made the booking.

We arrived back at the restaurant to find it near empty. It seemed that these mysterious 10pm diners had not appeared. Who would have thought it! We were seated and given menus but then angrily asked "You want the food then?".

The plus side of the story is that we got our food, and it tasted great, with an excellently chosen matching dessert wine. The ambience in the restaurant is not the best, with chart tunes playing in sterile Ikea-like surroundings, but the little food we got tasted great. It may have been amplified by the taste of a victory (or who knows what the chef had done to it by this point) but by this point it didn't matter.

I would like to point out that we were not rude at any of the points above, remained patient and were sympathetic to the business they were describing. It wasn't until we were told to leave the restaurant that we realised we were being duped. If they didn't want to be part of the festival, that's fine, but I believe the way they acted was diabolical and unacceptable, hence my review here today.
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Steven - View all reviews by this user
4 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 5
Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Three of us went there on the evening of 9.06.12, and we had a terrific time. The starters - crispy fried squid for me, potato pakoras for my wife and aloo chat for my brother-in-law - were all perfect, and the mains - crab curry for me, and a fish curry for the other two - were delicious.

But back up. When I say 'crispy fried squid', that's technically what it was, but, oh my, it came in the most amazing batter; kind of tempura like, slightly spiced, and cooked to absolute perfection. My wife's 'pakora' was a lot more than a pakora, kind of like a traditional set of pakoras, miniaturized, then given a series of modern twists; one was cheesey, one was fruity, one seemed to incorporate risotto. My brother-in-law's 'aloo chat' was equally clever, it came in a dessert glass, layers of crispy potato and beans, with a sort of fruity sauce thing. Unusual, and very tasty (obviously, we all tasted each other's choices!)

The mains were equally lovely, my crab curry was light, fragrant, juicy and delicious, with perfect basmati rice (more and more Indian restaurant are, finally, reverting to basmati, after years of the awful ubiquity of jasmine rice) while the fish curry the others had was superb, sea bream in a satisfyingly hot and rich sauce. There were various amuse bouche too, popadums with an amazing tomato and shrimp chutney, and later, lovely little almond and coconut thingies. With beers (Cobra, natch), and a bottle of amazingly lovely Chardonnay from Brazil (a first for us), it was a superb dinner, served at a nice pace by friendly caring people who know their stuff. My only negative comment would be about decor; it's that flat grey green colour that was so popular in the 90s, but then we spent most of our time paying attention to the lovely food!

£141 in all, including a tip.
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nik devlin
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Monday, June 11, 2012

I visited Trishna's approximately 6 months ago and was really impressed with the service and food so I decided to take my sister there one Monday lunchtime (31st October) however I was sadly disappointed with my visit this time, as was my sister. We had ordered the Koliwada 2 course plus wine flight and upon finishing our meal both of us still had a glass of wine to finish however the waiter did not take any of the plates and dishes etc away from our table so we were left to drink our wine with a messy and cluttered table. The plates were finally cleared away approximately 30 minutes after finishing our meal, but our table remained dirty.

The worst part however of our visit came when we were presented with the bill which included an £8.19 discretionary service charge (12.5%) as we both felt that we would prefer to leave cash as a gratuity as well as thinking in the backs of our minds that the service was not actually that deserving of an automatic 12.5% tip. When the waiter came back to collect our payment I asked him if we could take off the discretionary service charge as we'd like to leave a cash gratuity but we were told that he couldn't take it off and that we had to pay it. HM Revenue and Customs state that a discretionary service charge (which was clearly stated on the receipt) is purely discretionary and there is no obligation to pay. Where this is not the case, the payment is a mandatory service charge. However on the receipt we received it clearly states "Discretionary 12.5% service included". And despite us begrudgingly paying this discretionary service charge, when my sister paid by card, she was asked if she wanted to leave another tip!

I sent these details to Trishna's restaurant on 1st November 2011 and have no had any acknowledgement from them. Very poor service!
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5 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 5
Sunday, November 20, 2011

Excellent! Attentive service and food was very very accomplished. We had the 5 course tasting menu. Excellent portion size and everything was beautifully done. I was very impressed! Wasn't sure what to expect after reading very mixed reviews. I would definitely come back here again. Recommended

With the toptable offer it was extremely good value.
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8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 9
Saturday, June 25, 2011

We have been here a couple of times and have really enjoyed it both times . great food, attentive service and well priced . will keep going
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Aidan
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 10
Friday, May 20, 2011

This is, by any measure, a fantastic restaurant. Innovative, unconventional and exceptionally tasty food. Excellent seafood. A strong wine list. Solid service.

We very much enjoyed an excellent night at Trishna and will return. Recommended.
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10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, April 14, 2011

We had a fantastic evening at Trishna. From the moment we were warmly greeted at the door, to the moment we left we loved it! We had the 5 course tasting menu which was absolutely amazing. Each of the dishes was perfectly cooked and very exciting. The wine that was recommended to us perfectly complimented the food and we were very well looked after by our lovely waiter. All in all the perfect evening!
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Anna Shields
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, March 22, 2011

I felt compelled to write to relate the most awful of restaurant experiences that I have ever encountered in my twenty plus years of dining out! However, I cannot call it a dining experience, as there was not much dining. To cut to the chase the experience was so bad that we had to leave.

It began with a booking for 7 pm made through Toptable online, whether this is relevant I can only guess. We received a telephone call at 5.45pm to let us know that we would have to vacate the table by 8.15pm. We did the maths and accepted the offer of an earlier table at 6.30pm.

We arrived at the restaurant to find a crowd outside obviously leaving. On announcing our arrival to the maître ‘d we were asked to come back in ten minutes as a wedding party had only just left. We pointed out that it was they that had requested us to come earlier and that they needed the table back at 8.15pm. They realised their error and showed us to a table. To be clear, although a little awkward, there was nothing unpleasant about this interaction. There was some minor confusion about having to lay a table although there was one already set.

On being seated we received the menu and opted for the 5 course tasting menu. From this point the experience degenerated markedly.

Our waiter, in sommeliers attire, had an attitude of a disgruntled school boy who was doing us a favour by serving us in his off hand and frankly rude way. This waiter later claimed to be a manager.

Said waiter told us that he would bring some papads for the table. To which, we politely replied that we did not want papads. The papads arrived and we were told rudely, by him that he did not order the papads but the chef had sent them any way. We were also told that we could eat them or not, in a quite off hand way. Before we had a chance to reply he had left them on the table and walked off.

Next we were choosing a wine we asked about a particular wine to be told rudely ‘what do you want to know about it?’ His whole attitude was rude and off hand. This was very perturbing and unpleasant. I had not been served like this in McDonald’s let alone a mid-high range restaurant. We chose to ignore this and ordered. The wine arrived and said waiter gruffly presented the wine to my partner – making no eye contact with her and in fact looking at me. He then roughly poured the wine into my glass presumably to taste, made no sign or sound. There was no ‘service ‘ from this waiter. The idea of customer service was completely off the menu. I felt like I was being served gruel in a Siberian prison by a guard. Not a £30 bottle of wine in a meal that was likely to be the best part of £100.

This was a step too far. We had ignored this man’s rudeness and lack of service thus far in the vague hope that it would pass or settle down to a tolerable level. But no it was simply becoming intolerable.

I took him to task and pointed out that he was severely lacking in any kind of service that I would expect in a restaurant such as this or indeed one many levels below it. You would think this might bring some sense to the man. Instead, he continued as he started. He simply argued that he was right, criticised my use of language. He continued to insult me and told me that I should leave my problems and not take them out on him. I felt it was rather the other way around.

We asked to speak to the manager, to which he replied, unconvincingly that he was the manager. He told me that he would not be spoken to by me, the customer, and if I didn’t like it I could leave. I really did not need this kind of behaviour. We had come out for a nice meal, not to be dealt with rudely and in an off hand manner.

That was enough, I put down my napkin and got up to leave. The maître ‘d tried to placate us and asked us to stay. But we had had too much, the waiter had been so off hand with us that we had to leave. I pointed out to the maître ‘d that this waiter had really let his restaurant down and created such a bad impression that we had to walk out of a restaurant for the first time in our lives.

I cannot emphasise what an unpalatable experience this was. This waiter really made every effort to make us unwelcome and unserved. It is a shame as we were looking forward to trying out the restaurant. We never made it as far as the main course. The papads were not bad though.

Please do not patronise bad restaurants such as this one. There are many good restaurants that you should try instead with impeccable service.
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Tito Kabir
1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 1
Monday, March 07, 2011

Wow, to hear that this resturaunt has even 1 good review is amazing !!!

This place is possibly the worst resturaunt that I have ever been to, I say this as an indian and a food lover!

The waiters are fine but the food is absolutely terrible.

For the people who comment on the "duck sekh kebab"- let me put this in plain english - It doesnt exist in our cusine!.

This resturaunt is a poor excuse for a fusion resturaunt.
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Kw
3 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 1
Thursday, February 03, 2011

Simply superb. Every time I leave I can't wait to go back.
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Pottedmeat - View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Thursday, December 16, 2010