Recently, I read about what appears to be a radically different restaurant in Delhi. Teen Pateela in Meharchand Market does what it’s called, putting just three dishes on the menu. I haven’t eaten there yet, but looking at what’s on offer and the customer reviews, it seems such a praise-worthy idea.
Coming from the folks behind Café Turtle, Teen Pateela serves dal, Punjabi aloo and a paneer dish of the day with laccha parantha, making up a comfort meal cooked exactly as it would be in a Punjabi home. The ingredients are carefully chosen, just four hand-ground spice powders – cumin, turmeric, coriander and chilli – are used and the dishes are cooked to family recipes. There are homemade pickles alongside. Teen Pateela doesn’t have to bother with large mise-en-place or premade gravy bases. Imagine the commitment a food venture can make to quality and freshness when it has the confidence to put out such a small menu. I shall surely enjoy eating here.
While it’s revolutionary for restaurants, trying to please customers constantly clamouring for ‘choice’, to offer only a limited selection of dishes, it’s an accepted practice in many small food businesses. Hit the street food trail in India and you’ll see vendors who proudly serve only a single product. Varanasi’s kachoriwalas specialize only in this breakfast favourite and Allahabad’s most popular gulab jamun maker does nothing else.
Expecting restaurants to settle for a three-dish menu might be asking too much. But there’s certainly a case to reconsider the list of 150-plus dishes that restaurants feel compelled to draw up. Anyone who understands food production will know that you cannot offer great quality or freshness with too-long menus. That will only come with small, well thought-out ones. And, yes, it takes confidence and courage to take that route, not fretting about what the customer will make of it.
