Shockalingam @ TTDI - Better than expected. (CLOSED)

There is a new Indian restaurant in TTDI, yawww! Umm, 5 months is considered new, kan? I was driving past this particular row of shops last month, on my way to a meeting, when I noticed it. I may not have tried it there and then as I’ve already had lunch but I got curious enough to check out how it was faring on Facebook and Google rating … if it was doing well, I’d certainly drop by when I am in the area next. While Shockalingam scored pretty well on GrabFood with an average of 4.2/ 5, Facebook and Google scoring were rather subpar with 2.3/5 and 3.7/5 respectively. There were several mentions in the comment regarding average food with a pricier price point. Reading all these comments, I was not too sure about paying this restaurant a visit. Weeks past till I saw myself heading to TTDI again to get some pet food. As I managed to get a parking spot directly in front of this eatery – I took it as a signlah – time to pay Shockalingam a visit.

Before I get into the review, let me just give my opinion on the “average food at a pricier price point” comments. Upon tasting the food and all, I’d say food was not average – it was pretty good. Sure, a meal here would cost you more than usual but you’d need to remember that this is TTDI, an affluent suburb … rent is not cheap. On top of that, you’d be able to see that these guys did put some effort into decorating the space as well as making it fully air conditioned. So, I’d say that the pricier cost made sense. I cant speak for others but my experience here was a good one. By now, I already have my list of go-to for Indian food but if I am in the area and have a craving for this particular cuisine, I’d revisit Shockalingam.

This restaurant occupies two floors. During my visit though, the top floor was not open to customers. So, we all ended up on the ground floor. It was comfortable and as mentioned above, the restaurant was air conditioned. Customer service was good, we were attended to immediately upon seating. Food took a little longer than anticipated but only because they were serving all the dishes at one go as oppose to one at a time.

I found the map above rather funny. If you have a decent grip on geography as well as world politics – you’d get the joke. 😆😆😆

Banana Leaf Rice Set (Indian Rice), RM 11.90 + Chicken Maharaja Varuval, RM 9 + Chicken Briyani, RM 22

As mentioned in the Menu, the Banana Leaf Rice Set includes rice of choice + 4 types of vegetables + curries + papadum + chutney + rasam + pickle + kesari. My banana leaf set came with everything except pickle, chutney and dry chilli. Perhaps they forgot?? I did not realise the missing items until I was back home writing this review. To me, it was no biggie, I enjoyed the rice just fine. They had 6 choices for curries – chicken, fish, salted fish, crab, onion and sambar. I opted for some chicken and onion curry. The gravies were flavorful and pretty thick. I also ordered Chicken Maharaja Varuval on the side. For this dish, you’d get about 6,7 pieces of tender, juicy chicken pieces. It sure was flavorful, you’d be able to taste spices as well as tamarind. Yummy.

The Chicken Briyani was delicious too. This dish comes with a large potion of rice – perhaps even goood enough to serve two, a 1/4 chicken thigh , onion raita, sweet potato chutney, brinjal pachdi and kesari. As mentioned, this was a delicious dish. Flavorful with moist and tender chicken meat that literally falls of the bone – I’ve got no complains.