Punjab Grill - 17th August 2012

After hearing rave reviews (apparently one of the best if not the best Indian restaurant in Singapore) from some of his Indian acquaintances, Erap II decided to take the plunge on their advice to bring us to Punjab Grill for BML.

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 17^th 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’s favourite national dishes), the river sole cooked in a plum and tomato gravy and a 5 lentil combination, which was cooked into thick gravy like broth.

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

Gordon’s Grill - 18 November 2011

Well, it’s my turn to give a shot on the blog write-up for BMC lunch this week. It was such an effortless affair for the BMC soon-to-be official writer, Billy Choi to pass this responsibility to me, on the grounds that he has yet to be named the “Official One”.

Without further ado, let me introduce this week’s presidential-race candidate, Collin Cheong a.k.a. CC or Cameraman, whom we all knew from the very start would be powerless to mount a meaningful challenge. Why would someone as courteous as me (aka MG) make such a direct and uninspiring comment on an esteemed fellow club member? For this we will have to go back with a little history which needs to be shared with our dedicated BMC Blog followers as well as a refresher to the man himself. CC was initially hoping to be a president elect during our very first round of the bidding exercise for our 2011 presidential race. Back then, he was naive enough to believe that he could pull-off and out-bid all of us for the title with a mere S$480 check, held at Hide Yamamoto MBS. Nonetheless we give kudos to him for the effort given the fact that there were only 4 attendees which, broken down works to S$120 per pax. Soon after in a matter of 7 days, he was single-handedly out-witted (and more importantly outspent) by our current president-in-the-running, Jon Choo, A.K.A Juice with a S$500 check at Don Quixote @ Dempsey. Given the fact that CC even bothered to try, we thus gave him the accolade of “Tan Kin Lian” (aka “presidential also ran”) and this title has since lingered in his mind, and we believe it is likely to stay there for several years to come.

Enough of history lessons, let’s return to our main topic. This week’s BMC lunch was scheduled at Goodwood Park’s, Gordon’s Grill. I must admit that the name and location of the restaurant had already gotten our stomach growling. The restaurant is well and classily-decorated and was not too crowded when we arrived. We were greeted warmly by the staff, and the restaurant manager that served us was rather humorous, as we joked about where the escargots they served came from (pls read below).  

On opening the food menu, you will spot the photo and write up of the executive chef of Gordon Grill, which is interesting though I doubt anyone paid attention to it as we all headed straight to the food menu. Regrettably, the pay-master had his orders - limiting us only to the 3-course lunch set at S$48++, instead of the 4-course set at S$58++. Comfort was provided by CC as he conveyed his next message, which allowed only:

1. the current lead president-in-running (Jon),
2. the current lead VP-in-running (whom is designated as the 2nd highest bidder)
3. and himself (paymaster),

to be entitled to the special 4-course set. This gave me the aspiration to wrestle and retain my position as the lead VP-in-running! Owing to this invaluable recognition, I decided to give CC’s wallet a break and content myself with the 3-course set instead.

What I find unique about Gordon Grill is that their Appetiser and Soup courses come in sampler portions, which allow customers to get a taste of up to 3 different selections. (I’ll skip the bread description since it was ordinary and common butter was used.) 

The restaurant manager recommended us the 3 appetisers, roasted duck foie gras – which was pretty huge in size as compared to a goose’s but the taste was comparable, though we all agreed that Iggy’s still has the finest foie gras so far. Next is King Scallop, which was also pretty big. Though fresh, it was rather flavorless. Finally the Escargot, which was presumably air-flown from France (which I joking giggled mentioning softly that it was maybe picked from the Singapore River. The restaurant manager actually eavesdropped and responded that they were actually picked up from the garden outside.  I was like -_- ). Taste wise it was so-so, similar to chewing rubbery mushrooms and the garlic flavoring was too mild. I would recommend our followers to try Le Carillon’s (at Ann Siang Road) if they prefer stronger garlic-flavored Escagots. 

Out of the 7 Appetiser selections, I had the privilege to try out 6 of them (The other 3 are samplings from other BMC member’s dish). The Pasta was average as I couldn’t really taste any crab meat nor truffle oil.  The langoustine was more impressive, taken raw, it was fresh and juicy. After all they belong to the lobster/prawn family, how wrong can it get? The Wagyu beef was delightfully presented like a raw-beef bun, but I was not really able to differentiate it with ordinary beef, as it was served raw and the portion I had was rather small.

Next up was the Soup Samplers. Likewise, the recommendation given was Lobster Bisque, French Onion and Soupe du Jour (A.K.A Soup of the Day) combo. Personally I like the lobster bisque as I’m not usually a fan of this soup in most restaurants as I find it served rather too salty. The one served here I felt was just nice and drinkable. The French onion was simple yet good, with a few slices of onion within the clear soup.  The Soupe du Jour is a mash potato soup akin to KFC’s whipped potato but of course a much nicer version. The other soup I managed to try was the mushroom cappuccino, which I thought was too watery as I always prefer mushroom soups that are thick with chunky pieces of mushrooms in it. Nonetheless, it was satisfactory. Lastly the poultry consommé, for which the presentation I felt was a little poor, with some childish ball-like carrots and I think the remaining colored ones were corn and onion as I didn’t had a go at it.  Taste wise it was like any consommé, nothing fantastic.

The main I chose was US beef fillet with braised beef cheeks, since we are all-beef lovers (not because we are cheapos who tend to choose the most value-for-money dish) and it was also highly recommended. The beef fillet served was nicely medium-grilled and semi-juicy. For beef-lovers that don’t like fatty parts, this would be a perfect dish as the meat was quite lean. The cheeks were more of a highlight for this dish as it was very tender, resembling a melt-in-your-mouth sensation. Portion and presentation wise it was good, with a slap of mash potato, topped with a pair of carrot and asparagus sticks and brown sauce all-over.

I didn’t manage to try the lamb chops as I wasn’t offered any by our dear “never-look” or rather “unable-to-look-at-girls” member, Dann. For whatever immoral reasons he doesn’t consume beef. This may be the reason why he did not share the lamb with us since everyone else chose beef, and so if he offered, there would be no exchange…. what a realistic world we all live in!

The lunch set concluded with a complimentary coffer or tea selection. As usual, our one-of-a-kind member, Jason, a.k.a. Businessman or BMW 640 man, asked for a soft drink but was rejected (we will always remember the Sin Huat incident). Nothing extraordinary on the tea and coffee that was served, but the raw-sugar stick that comes with the beverage was quite a novelty.

Damage for the week’s BMC lunch was only S$339. This comes to about S$56.5 per pax which given all the various dishes we were entitled to sample coupled with the overall dining experience, was rather worth it. We agreed that this would be a place we would consider returning to, especially so since we have yet to try the Ala Carte menu.

Thanks for reading and I hope I will not be tasked to write again. Signing off…

MG.