After hearing
rave reviews (apparently one of the best if not the best Indian restaurant in Singapore
The restaurant
is located at the extreme western end of the shopping area at MBS, and I
unfortunately alighted from my taxi somewhere in between. MBS is a bit like a
strip mall, and by my calculation, an end to end walk is probably in the region
of 0.8km. So by the time I arrived at the restaurant I was real hungry.
Businessman
excused himself from this lunch as he claimed he was pre-occupied. We think it
was mainly because we were having Indian food that he decided not to come. So
we proceeded to order 4 sets of the non-veg set lunch + 1 set of the veg lunch
set for Dann. That’s right folks, Dann had gone vegetarian thanks to his good
wife clearly reminding him the very morning that as part of his Buddhist high
beliefs and philosophies, that the 17th of August is to be a
vegetarian day failing which all manner of ill fortune may befall him. Dann was
not pleased, mumbling that he regretted his wife not exercising selective
amnesia.
In addition to
the lunch sets, we also ordered a Raan Hari Singh Nalwa, which is the pot
roasted leg of kid (a house specialty) and the palak paneer.
We were first
served our starters which were the battered fried fish, yoghurt marinated
chicken cooked in a tandoor and a lamb kofte. For Dann, it was a large wedge of
broccoli, roasted potato stuffed with cauliflower, and a kebab of yoghurt
blended with some spices. The starters were presented in a European style
dining setting (long white plate), which I personally find unappealing (don’t
ask me why). I’ve started to tire of every restaurant (chinese, indian,
European etc) starting to adopt such a mode of presentation whenever its
purported to be fine dining. In any case, the fried fish was so-so, it was
lightly fried and the batter was crispy and not oily, but somehow the flavour
of the fish seemed a tad bland. It’s like a good tiny piece of fish from a
decent fish and chip shop. I reckon it was partly because of the choice of
using sole as the fish, which I think is not a good choice as it is too thin
and delicate in flavour and frying it this way may not be ideal. The yoghurt
marinated chicken was tender and juicy with a tinge of yoghurt flavour. As for
the lamb stuffed with cheese, this was a real tasty morsel, the meat was rich
in flavour (for those who like lamb), and the sauce was cheesy and rich. My
only complaint here is the texture of the meat, which was minced up so finely
that it was almost bordering on being pasty.
For the
vegetarian starters, the broccoli was cooked just right. It was cooked right through
yet still crunchy. Dann claimed that he could tell it was an Australian
originated broccoli as opposed to a chinese one. According to him, the more
luscious head and higher head to stalk ratio was indicative of the species
(we’ll have to check). As for the potato cake and yoghurt kebab, I would say
that they were tasty, but I cannot make much of a comparison since I haven’t
had anything similar to this before.
We were then
served the roasted leg of kid. My my, this was surely one wonderful looking dish.
It came on a metal serving dish, a whole leg covered in marinade and spice. The
photo here does not do justice to what it looked like when it was served. The
meat was really tender and the marinade soaked right through. It was hearty and
delicious, although someone commented that it was a tad on the salty side. I
suppose this should be eaten together with some naans or white rice, but
somehow the starch had yet to arrive in this instance. The waiters probably
weren’t expecting the lot of us to simply gobble down whatever was portioned
out on our individual plates before the rice was to be served.
Just before the
mains we were served with a mango sorbet as a palate cleanser, which was
nothing out of the ordinary.
Next up were the
mains, which were the chicken tikka masala (apparently one of the UK
We were also
served the rice, naan and roti together with the mains. The naan was cooked
just right with crispy edges yet un-burnt throughout, and unlike some naan’s
there were no chewy uncooked bits in the centre.
The roti was also done well
and had just the right amount of crispiness to it.
The chicken
tikka was excellent. The meat was tender and the masala was not too spicy and
full of flavour. It was an excellent accompaniment to the lovely rice.
But the river
sole cooked in a plum and tomato gravy was my favourite dish here. It was
cooked perfectly. The chunky pieces of fish meat were still moist when I took a
bite, and the gravy it was cooked in was excellent. It was creamy and tasty but
not overpowering. My only complaint was that there was not enough fish to go
around.
The 5 lentil
broth was also tasty and is perfect for eating with the roti. It was rich and
filling. In fact it was too much that we couldn’t finish.
We were also
served our palak paneer, which was very well done. The spinach was fresh and
there was no use of any artificial colouring that you sometimes find in other
palak paneers. It was thick, almost like a marinade paste, whereas you get it
more gravy like in some other establishments. It also had just the right amount
of saltiness, with a good proportion of cottage cheese. This is one of the
better palak paneer’s you can find in Singapore
As for the 2
other vegetarian mains, namely the button mushroom with corn, and the bell
peppers with cottage cheese in tomato gravy, I suppose they were ok as they did
not elicit any particular reaction from our reluctant one-day vegetarian.
Finally we were
served our desserts. This was a trio of (left to right) apple and walnut kheer,
gulab jamun, and a mango saffron crème brulee. I thought all 3 desserts were
wonderful, in particular the apple and walnut kheer and the mango saffron crème
brulee. However Jon and Erap II were not in agreement with the kheer. As for
the gulab, jon also gave it a thumbs down. My personal view was that the kheer
was fantastic. What everyone felt tasted like rice grains were the finely
chopped apple pieces, but owing to the rich sweetened cream sauce, you could
not really taste the apple. I figure this was more to provide texture to the
dessert. The sweet milky sauce was a real treat, and I readily lapped up Erap’s
surrendered portion whilst Collin lapped up Jon’s.
As for the gulab
jamun, I suppose you could say that the round ball (jamun) of dough made with
milk solids was a little stodgy and the sweet syrup (gulab) that it was
wallowing in may not be to everyone’s liking. But I think having such a
massively heavy lunch may have worked against it. I thought it was not bad.
But the real
star of the dessert show was the mango saffron crème brulee. Everyone around
the table voted it best dessert. It was cooked to perfection with a crispy
caramelized top and a soft pudding like interior. The taste was also exquisite,
with a not overpowering mango taste and a tinge of saffron. Dann commented that
he’d rather have this anytime over a standard crème brulee, and I’d say I’ll
probably agree with that.
Overall, this
was one massive meal in terms of calories, but somehow despite the quality and
standard of the food, we were unable to finish all that was served. After a 3
second investigation, we realised that Jon who is the usual wolf with a voracious
appetite had somehow turned into a sick puppy. Was it illness, the food, the
ambience or the company???? Alas, it was the overhang of work related angst
which manifested into his poor performance at the Punjab
grill. Poor Jon…. But we do hope you keep it up ol’boy, so that the rest of us
can continue to have more to eat at our next outing!
The total damage for the meal came to S$326. We came to the conclusion that most of the gravy based dishes here were probably better than at the Song of India but that the grilled dishes (leg of Kid) were actually tastier at the Song of India. So if it is grilled Indian dishes you are looking for, please go to Song of India, but if it is the gravy based ones, do head down straight for the Punjab grill!
By Club Scribe
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