Still My Favourite Curry Place

I’ve written about Khansama before, but I was there again last week (I often am) and I have still yet to find anywhere to beat it, so I thought it was time to give it another plug. Located up a narrow staircase in the middle of Serangoon Road, this little gem continually churns out fantastic-tasting, great value curries.



It has the most comprehensive menu I have ever come across, and yet every dish that comes out of that kitchen has its own unique flavour. The starter section is longer than most restaurants entire menus, but we seem to have managed to make our way through most of it now – and perennial favourites include the Mixed Tikka starter – large cubes of succulent chicken which have been marinated in a variety of flavours; the Paneer Pakora – squares of paneer stuffed with a chilli paste and lightly deep-fried; and their oh-so-good Onion Bhajis.



For meat lovers, you can’t go wrong with a Mutton Lababdar with its creamy tomato gravy, or everyone’s favourite – Chicken Tikka Masala. If you’re not so good with spice then order yourself the mild Kashmiri Fish Curry plied with plenty of raisins and dried fruit.





Veggies won’t be disappointed here either – the Gobi Manchurian – cauliflower in a spicy sweet and sour sauce should not be missed, nor should the Bindi Masala – okra cooked with tomatoes and spices.



Oh and while you’re at it, make sure to try out their fantastic Tadka Dal, some Garlic Naan and a side order of Cucumber Raita. Yep – you’ve got yourself a feast!



The prices at Khansama have certainly crept up over the past couple of years – gone are the days when we could order anything we liked and still only spend $20 per head. But having said that, during our latest visit we completely over-ordered (as usual) and managed to sink a fair few jugs of Tiger and it was still under $35 per head, so it’s still offers outstanding value for money.

If you’ve not been – do yourself a favour and get down there now… just save a table for me!

Khansama – 166 Serangoon Road – www.khansama.net

Revenge of the Curry

There’s a group of us that meet fairly regularly, usually on a Wednesday night, for a slap-up Indian meal. Our place of choice is invariably Khansama where the quality of food never disappoints, and neither does the low figure at the bottom of the bill. Well this week we decided to be a little crazy and venture out of the confines of Little India and made our way up to that old famous favourite, Samy’s.

Firstly of note here was the lack of Indian people in the restaurant (apart from those in our group) – that’s right, it was all Ang Mohs – tourists and expats, perhaps because of its prolific appearances in the guidebooks… not the best sign of a good curry house, but we weren’t going to let that deter us.

There is no menu here – just a display cabinet of curries sitting in bain-maries just waiting for you to come along and choose them. We were there quite late (by late I mean around 9pm) and unfortunately you could tell that the majority of dishes had been sitting there for some time. For this reason we skipped the seafood which was looking really rather sad by this stage and opted instead for the lamb, chicken and vegetable dishes.

Once again we were slightly rather over-zealous with our ordering, not realizing that every dish we ordered would be slopped onto each banana leaf in abundance – but at least nobody went hungry and we were able to sample most dishes on offer (apart from the crusty seafood of course).

We kicked off with two types of Chicken and some Cauliflower, served on central plates with toothpicks to help ourselves with – which, apart from our concerns regarding the obviously high levels of food colouring, were a pretty tasty beginning.

Then came the main courses – two types of chicken, two types of lamb, some dahl and some raita. These again was all perfectly palatable (although not a patch on Khansama) and satisfyingly spicy. The bottom line on the bill was also fair, especially considering the vast amounts of food ordered.

We left fairly satisfied and happy to consider Samy’s as an occasional alternative for Wednesday night get-togethers. Until the next day that is… when between the 7 of us we managed to notch up bathroom visits well into the 30s… and so now (unlike our bathroom visits) we certainly won’t be running back here in a rush… You have been warned!

Samy’s - http://www.samyscurry.com/
Dempsey Road