Karma, Kettle & Rhapsody (Dempsey)

Read about this place in various places and decided to suggest it as a venue for a Girl's Night Out - erm, some time back :P

The venue is a bit inaccessible if you don't drive, but there's a number of popular restaurants in the Dempsey area (including Long Beach) so there's a reasonable amount of taxi traffic. If you drive there, parking is available just a short walk away.

There is a nice little path leading up to the restaurant (which was a bit dimly lit and my pregnant friend gingerly made her way along the path). The interior was very quaint and charming, with the antique furniture adding to the colonial theme of the restaurant. We chose to sit indoors but I think a meal outdoors would be very cosy too.

The pictures are very blur - I blame it on the ambient (read : dim) lighting. Hopefully the writing makes up for it :)

The restaurant's website describes their cuisine as "traditional European and colonial". What does that interesting description mean? A quick look at their menu throws up traditional classics like Oxtail Stew and Cottage Pie, as well as innovative twists like Pan Fried Lavender Chicken.

For starters, we had the Mixed Tandoori Platter $23.90++ to share -


The picture is so bad that you can't even tell what's on the plate! There were prawns, chicken, fish and lamb. The fish was the amazing part of this dish - melts in your mouth and chock full of flavour!

I originally wanted to have the Lavender Chicken which was much talked about in earlier reviews about this place, but it wasn't on the menu when we were there so I ordered the next most talked about dish - Pork Vindaloo $18.00++ :


The menu describes vindaloo as Portguese for wine, vinegar and garlic. It had three chillies on the menu but it wasn't spicy at all! Well, not by my standards at least :D It was ok I guess, but not as good as I expected it would be.

What was surprisingly good was the Devilled Crab $20.90++ :


It's described in the menu as "Grilled Squid stuffed with Black Pepper Crab with a Signature Sour Cream sauce". I was hesitant to try it as squid stuffed with crab just seemed weird but someone else ordered it and I had a bit to try and it actually turned out to be a pretty good combination! Of course, eating crab without having to get down and dirty is always a plus too :D

It's practically impossible for a group of females to get together and not have any chocolate involved, and we are definitely not the exception. We ordered the Royal Belgian Chocolate Truffle Cake $7.90++ to share :


Well, this was just ok. Looks better than it tastes and a bit on the expensive side at $7.90 for a slice and it didn't even have ice cream!

All in all, I quite liked the place. The food was good (as long as you didn't go with high expectations) and items were generally reasonably priced (except the deserts!). It also had the perfect ambience for a quiet Girl's Night Out which as exactly what we were looking for. Hmm, time for another visit?...


Karma, Kettle & Rhapsody (Dempsey)
26B Dempsey Road
Tanglin Village (Dempsey Hill Green)
Tel: 6472 0221
www.karmakettle.com

Lagnaa

We decided to be adventurous one day and venture into Little India on a Saturday night for dinner. Thank goodness for an open-air car park just a street away from the restaurant :D

The restaurant definitely stood out from its neighbours in the row of shophouses. The ground floor looks casual, the walls full of grafitti left behind by previous customers (mostly international bagpackers). But do take off your shoes and go upstairs to the resturant proper. As there's namecard says, it's bare foot dining here :)

There's a just a few tables upstairs, with no seats... sit on the floor! A bit uncomfortable especially for those of us with longer legs, but you get used to it after a while.

We started with the Vegetarian Pakoras $6 -


Sorry for the blurry photos, lighting wasn't that great. The pakoras were just ok, nothing to rave about.

I had a mixed reaction when the dishes we ordered turned up -


The dishes are, starting from the very green Palak Paneer $7.50, going anti-clockwise : Butter Chicken $8, Spicy Aubergines $8, Butter Fish $15 and Saffron Rice $8.

My first thought was - what a lovely way to present the dishes! Second thought - what small portions! But not surprising from the more atas (high class) Indian restaurants though, it tends to be small portions for pretty steep prices.

The food itself was pretty average... I don't really understand why people like Palak Paneer - it's green and the spinach is so mushed up that you can't even recognise it as spinach! I don't hate it, just don't understand why so many people like it and order it. The Butter Chicken and Butter Fish were not that bad, not quite spicy enough for my liking. The Saffron Rice was quite good though.

Of course we ordered naan to go with the food : Garlic Naan $2, Chilli Cheese Naan $5 -


As usual more naan than we could finish...

I liked the ambience of this place but the food was just mediocre. Just be prepared for some leg cramps from sitting on the floor :)


Lagnaa
6 Upper Dickson Road
S207466
Tel : 6296 1215

Kashmir Restaurant

I always get to satisfy my craving for Indian (vegetarian) food when I'm out with K&M :)

This place was pretty quiet when we got there, but filled up soon after - apparently Indians eat dinner pretty late. K&M had been here before so I left the ordering up to them.

The meal started with the waiter bringing over a bowl and poured some water over our hands to wash it before what was surely going to be a "no utensils" meal.

The Wazul Chaman $9+ wasn't very tasty -


Only near the end of the meal did I realise that this was cottage cheese! I thought it was tofu - cottage cheese would explain why it didn't absorb the curry well...

The Tandoori Aloo $6+ was not bad -


Looks like potato skins right? Tasty, not quite sure what the filling actually was though...

The Mixed Vegetables $7+ was the best dish of the night!


Deceptively simple but so yummy! Must have been a million spices in it that gave it the amazing mix of flavour.

K, the pescatarian, wanted some fish so we ordered A. Tali Macchi $9+


And no Indian vegetarian meal is complete without Naan. We ordered 5 to share for $15+ but was way too much for us to finish.


Oops sorry for the blur photo :P

A satisfying meal that was flavourful but not overwhelmingly spicy. Always glad to have K&M to venture with me into Little India :)


Kashmir Restaurant
52 Race Course Road
Singapore 218563
Tel: 6293 6003 / 9666 5329

Devagi's Restaurant & Café

K had a friend in town and before bringing her to the Night Safari, we came here to have dinner. K loves the food here and was eager for me to give it a try...

We had Stir Fried Mushrooms $6.00+ -


A small portion for that price, but quite tasty.

The Stir Fried Spinach with Coconut $6.00+ didn't sound all that promising...


but I loved it! It was really yummy and the little bits of coconut added such an unexpected crunchiness to the dish.

I thought the Tofu Masala $6.00+ would be a curry dish but turned out to be dry -


It was just ok.

The Assam Fish Slice Curry $7.00++ is one of K's favourite dishes -


and for good reason - it was sour and spicy and very good value!

The Vegetable Briyani $9.00+


and Prawn Briyani $10.90+


were both really good - healthy (very little ghee used), yet extremely flavourful.

Devagi herself convinced us to try the desserts so we ended up ordering the Rose Falooda Ice Cream (ice-cream with vermicelli) $3.60+ -


and Gula Melaka Banana Ice Cream $5.50+ -


I didn't like either desserts. Vermicelli with ice cream is just too bizarre a combination and I'm not a big fan of gula melaka (except when it's inside onde onde). A bit of an acquired taste, I think...

The food was generally good but portions a bit small. Parking is a problem along the road but I always park at the HDB block behind the community centre. Come here for some tasty and healthy Indian cooking.


Devagi's Restaurant & Café
200 Upper Thomson Road
#01-03 Thomson Imperial Court
S574424 Tel : 6255 2440
www.devagi.com

Bombay Café Express

I've been wanting to try Bombay Café for the longest time but Tanjong Katong just seemed out of the way, and I know for a fact that parking there is quite a pain. So when I read that they had opened a branch at Suntec City, it jumped to the top of my list of places to try... so I made M meet me here for dinner one evening.

The decor is, to put it mildly, garish. The pink and the black theme was a wee bit too pink for M's liking... but I did like the fact that they have screens showing Bollywood movies.

Having read about Pani Puri on the Travelling Hungryboy's blog, it was something I definitely had to try. Well, except it's called Gol Gappa $6.00+++ here but it's really the same thing.


The little puffs were much smaller than I expected - about 2.5 inchs in diameter - and it was crispy, which was not what I imagined at all. We had no idea how to eat the damn thing so we asked the waitress :P With the end of the spoon, make a crack on the top of the shell, scoop in some of the chickpea mix and pour in some of the syrup and you're all ready to go. A bit of a mess to eat as I can't put the whole thing in my mouth... but it did have an interesting taste. I think I have to try it one more time to decide if I like it or not... so for now I reserve comment.

Another thing that I *had* to try was the Gobhi Manchurian $8.00+++ :


The lastest trend in Indian food is Chinese-style Indian Food and one of the more common dishes is Gobi Manchurian - it's really deep-fried cauliflower. It's seriously seriously oily and very jelat (heavy). We could not finish it despite it being a relatively small serving.

Knowing M is quite a fan of Palak Paneer, I ordered the Palak Paneer Dosa $6.00+++ :


Not much palak paneer in the dosa (thosai) but I guess too much would make it mushy? :) Went great with all the dips though...

My favourite dish here was the Vegetable Briyani $7.00+++ :


It was really tasty and unlike all the other dishes, not too oily! M loved this dish too.

Ok, I know someone is sure to leave a comment that I should go to Little India for good Indian food but I'm not quite brave enough to venture there... so if anyone is willing to bring me there, please let me know :)


Bombay Café Express
3 Temasek Boulevard
#b1-020 Suntec City Mall
S038983
Tel : 6238 8239
www.bombaycafe.com.sg

Tandoor Restaurant

M requested for Indian food for his birthday dinner which is how we ended up here. It was a little more upmarket then I expected, but then I should have guessed since this restaurant is located in a hotel. While the furniture and fittings did look a little jaded, the place still had a very ethnic, exotic feel to it.

Erm, let me pre-empt by saying that the photos are quite blurry due to the dim lighting, and my extremely shaky hands...

We weren't terribly adventurous that day, mostly ordering stuff that we were familiar with - starting with the Chicken Makhani $21+++ (top right), Mutton Curry $24+++ (left), Chicken Vindaloo $21+++ (bottom right).

Ok, to be perfectly honest, I can't really remember which picture is of what dish and I'm just making a wild guess - don't they all pretty much look the same??

The curries all look really spicy right? Not at all! Even the most amateur of curry eaters will have no problem with the curries here... While curries were good, it's not quite my cup of tea. For me, curry means Samy's stomachache-inducing, 'eat till your mouth is burning and you're sweating like crazy' kind of super spicy curries. Different strokes for different folks :)


We also ordered the Chef's Special $40+++ which was a tasty selection of various tandoori meats. I'm not at all a tandoori connoisseur, but then again, it's hard to do bad tandoori...



And we also ordered my recent favourite Indian dish - Palak Paneer (spinach with cottage cheese) $14+++.



I've had Indian food so much recently that the names of the dishes are starting to totally roll off my tongue :) M liked the food here so much that he brought his mum back here a few weeks later!


Tandoor Restaurant
11 Cavenagh Road
Holiday Inn Park View
S229616
Tel : 6733 8333

Samy's Curry

A meal at Samy's Curry always means that I end up being so full that I actually can't even IMAGINE eating my next meal...

It's hard not to over-order when you're at Samy's Curry, especially when you're starving and the waiter keeps bringing dishes of yummy yummy food... but I've figured out my favourite dishes and how much I can actually eat, so I always tell the waiter very firmly to just bring me the chicken tikka, fried mutton and fish cutlet. Together with rice, portions of vegetables, plenty of papadums... And a big glass of lime juice to hose down the burning taste buds. All for just $12! :D

All that delicious and spicy food always puts me in a food coma for a good half an hour - being in a total daze, feeling light-headed etc. It's really quite funny because there's normally a few people around looking the same way too... nobody eats and runs here. You eat, sit there in food coma after your meal, eventually find some way to peel yourself off the chair and in a fog, trudge down the suddenly treacherous steps to the car park...

I've been making a conscious effort to order different dishes nowadays... I'm way too predictable when it comes to food. I once had a waiter in Olio Dome ask me why I wasn't ordering my usual pasta! Embarrassing! But also kinda creepy that he was keeping track of what I normally order...

Anyway, in the spirit of change, I ordered the chicken masala instead of my usual chicken tikka. Yummy too, but my gripe about chicken masala is that there's never enough "gravy" to eat the chicken with and the spicy flavour doesn't quite permeate the whole piece of chicken.

And yes, I'm still trying to remember to bring a camera out with me so I can take pictures of the food to post on this blog...