North Indian cuisine @ Delhi Restaurant (Serangoon Road in Little India), Singapore

When we arrived in Singapore, it was pouring down with heavy rain. On the way to the hotel in a taxi, we saw the heavy rain suddenly stop, and the sun shone for the briefest moment, but then it started pouring down again just as suddenly. Thankfully the rain cleared up by the time we'd checked in and settled into our hotel room, and we set out to search for lunch and explore Little India, which was near the hotel. In fact, it got a bit too sunny and rather warm during our walk, that it was quite a relief when we finally got to the restaurant and were seated in air-conditioned comfort. Delhi Restaurant was pretty easy to find with its location on Serangoon Road, and the cozy dining space inside was about half-full when we arrived for a rather late lunch at 2pm. The staff were friendly and helpful in choosing a dish that was suitable for our boy's allergies, and I quite liked the relaxed and comfortable atmosphere of the restaurant. The menu was fairly extensive with a wide range of dishes of varying degrees of spiciness to suit most tastebuds. We could even request for the kitchen to dumb down the spices, which is all-important when dining out with a kid.

Some Pakora to start with. Admittedly, I'd ordered this so that the boy would willingly eat some vegetables, however given the deep-fried state, I doubt that the pakora balls were very wholesome. Deliciously crispy with no greasy mouthfeel:

Fried Rice. Yes, I know - fried rice in an Indian restaurant? My choice was actually biryani, but we were told it contained nuts. The boy had to eat something, so fried rice it was. Very tasty and not much different to a Chinese-style fried rice:

A classic Chicken Tikka, which was succulent and delicious:

Dal Makhani, the weak dish of the meal. The lentils had a burnt taste, but the sauce was great with the naan:

A type of naan similiar to paratha:

Delhi Restaurant is a solid choice for North Indian food in the Little India neighbourhood of Singapore.

Delhi Restaurant
Broadway Hotel
195C Serangoon Rd
Singapore 218067
Tel. +65 6297 1148

Revisit: Indian lunch @ Tandoor, Hong Kong

These days I have been flat-out busy with my online astronomy course (so many formulae!), extra teaching workload, catching up on my backlog of photos from our trip to Perth, and preparing for our upcoming trip - on top of my already busy schedule. I hope to be done with the final assessment of the course and up-to-date with my backlog of photos by the time we leave for the airport on Friday morning.

This post is a short one as I have already previously reviewed Tandoor on another occasion. Hubby had to be in Central for a Sunday appointment, so the boy and I headed there after church to meet him for lunch. Before I even stepped through the entrance of the restaurant, I had already made my mind up not to go for the Sunday Family Brunch Buffet (HK$148 for adults, kids under 5 free). Indian food is delicious, but too rich for me, and I only can eat a little before I am all filled up. Not once have I been able to resist the always affordably priced buffet option, nor have I ever managed not to over-eat, and my tummy always suffer for it. After seeing the buffet spread again, I was sorely tempted, however, I did manage to stick with my original plan, and ordered a single dish for myself. I reasoned that I had already tried the buffet before, and this was a good opportunity to try something from the a-la-carte menu. Hubby and the 4-year-old had the buffet, and hubby says the food was good as usual.

Condiments, achar and chutneys were placed on our table along with some cone-shaped papadums (not shown). I liked the pickled red onion:

Biryani is my standard Indian food that I use to judge how good an Indian restaurant is, and it also helps me to compare between restaurants. I always order biryani whenever I visit a new Indian restaurant, except for when there is a buffet option.

Biryani E Laziz (HK$112), with a choice of lamb or chicken. Deliciously spicy with good flavours and the rice was cooked nicely. This gets my thumbs up:

I would love to try out other a-la-carte dishes. Tandoor is worth a visit for good buffet spread and delicious a-la-carte dishes.

[Prices quoted above are not inclusive of the 10% service charge.]

Tandoor
1st Fl, Lyndhurst Tower
1 Lyndhurst Terrace
Central, Hong Kong
Tel: +85 2 2845 2262

Average buffet @ Gaylord Indian Restaurant, Hong Kong

I really wanted to write only good stuff about this place, because l take no pleasure in writing anything negatively. Especially when the waitress at the restaurant was so friendly and sweet, and the food was not too bad. But let's start from the beginning. It's been awhile since we had Indian food, so last weekend we headed to Gaylord Indian Restaurant for some Indian tucker. It's quite a nice restaurant, definitely a big step above the ones at the somewhat dodgy Chungking Mansions, but nowhere as nice as our fave Indian in Hong Kong.

Service was lovely, as mentioned before, and we were seated at one of their comfortable tables with sofa seating. The buffet was being set up because we arrived before 12pm, but I wasn't feeling well and we had no intention of partaking in the buffet. However, after we were told that it would take about 25 minutes for a-la-carte dishes to be prepared, and that the Sunday lunch buffet was only HK$120 per person, we yielded to the beckon of the steaming hot dishes. The food was quite tasty, but again, the quality cannot be compared to our favourite Indian where the half-price-for-ladies for their Sunday brunch buffet is a better value than at Gaylord's.

The first set of hot dishes, which included Dal Tarka, Saag Corn, Aloo Tamater Ki Subzi (tomato and potato curry), Saffron Rice and Lamb Roganjosh:

Close up of Saag Corn. I've never encountered a corn version of saag before, and it was quite tasty! The crunchy sweetness of the corn went well in this dish:

Some salad and cold vegetarian dishes:

Second set of hot dishes, which included Chicken Chetinad (my favourite of the meal), Reshmi Kebab, Fish Kebab (hubby's favourite of the meal), Vegetable Samosa and Sambar:

At the end of the buffet were some Vadai. I quite enjoyed these savoury donuts (I'm not usually big on donuts which are usually too sweet and greasy for my liking):

Drinks are part of the buffet deal, and naturally we got Mango Lassi. Yummy but I couldn't finish it - this never happened before, but I wasn't feeling well, which also meant I couldn't offer the rest to hubby or son:

We informed our waitress of our boy's allergies, which includes peanuts and tree nuts, and she assured us that all the buffet dishes were safe for him to eat, naming the vegetable samosa in particular. It wasn't until towards the end of our meal that I noticed there were cashews in the samosa our boy was eating! The waitress was apologetic, saying that they usually don't put nuts in the samosas, and that maybe our son is ok. One of my pet peeves is restaurants being careless and downplaying the seriousness of food allergies - they have never seen my kid's face swell up and start having breathing difficulties, so it's easy for them to dismiss so-called food allergies. Food allergies are no joke, and it's really to the restaurant's fortune that our son did not have a bad reaction after eating some of the samosa. (As it turns out, the results of his latest blood test (done annually) came back last week which indicated that our son seems to be outgrowing some allergies, that he is allergic only to some nuts, and thankfully it seems that cashew is not one of them.)

Other than this incident, the meal wasn't too bad on the whole. Stick to the hot foods because the fruit salad, the cold vegetable dishes and salad were not very fresh. The Pineapple Halva was a nice dessert, and it was yummy when eaten warm.

Hubby's plate:

My plate:

Hubby was well-behaved and only had two servings. I only had one serving, which has never happened before at buffets, but I was feeling poorly and had no appetite. Bread was prepared fresh and served to the table. We enjoyed the bread, especially the boy, but alas we couldn't finish everything!

Naan bread, hot and fresh out of the oven:

Deep fried Puri was too greasy for a person with sore throat:

The Dosa was delicious:

I have mixed feelings about our experience at Gaylord. The food was average, the service was good for this standard of dining, but not recommended if you have any food allergies. For good Indian food, we like Tandoor in Central, which is only a couple of stops away on the MTR or a ferry ride across the harbour.

Gaylord Indian Restaurant
1st Floor
23-25 Ashley Road
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
Tel. +85 2 2376 1001

Good quality Indian buffet @ Tandoor, Hong Kong

Whenever I partake in Indian buffets, the one thing that never fails to surprise me is how little food I can eat before I reach my limit. Which is why I usually try to avoid buffet at Indian restaurants. However, after seeing the large variety of good-looking dishes in the buffet room at Tandoor, and being told that ladies pay only half price for the buffet, I was sold. Tandoor is a lovely restaurant, many, many notches above the ones at the notorious Chungking Mansions, and not terribly expensive either (especially with the ladies' discount). Hubby had dinner there with his work colleagues recently, and he came home raving about the food, and said that he must take me there to try the food. I think we have found our favourite Indian restaurant in Hong Kong! We came to Tandoor on Sunday for lunch with one of the lovely girls from hubby's office (she loves our 3-year-old and wanted to see him again), and it turned out that the restaurant does a special Sunday brunch buffet (HK$228pp, half price for ladies). We had originally intended to try some of their a-la-carte dishes, but we will be back next time to try them.

There was even live Indian music for our entertainment:

The restaurant is tastefully decorated, and is quite suitable for functions/parties, family meals and even a romantic date. Service was pretty good, and the chef came out of the kitchen specially to show me which food from the buffet were safe for our boy to eat. The chef even arranged for allergy-free bread to be prepared for him. The food was good quality, especially for a buffet arrangement, and vegetarians are well-catered for in this place. I only took a little bit of everything, and I wished I could have gone back for seconds, but I got full pretty quick. Everything was delicious, and this buffet is foodie heaven for any Indian food lovers. Tandoor is a popular restaurant and it got filled up quick with the hungry lunch crowd. Majority of the diners in the restaurant were Indian people - in fact, I think we were the only non-Indians - which is a fantastic sign that the food is authentically Indian and good by their people's standards.

Various condiments, achar and chutneys were placed on our table shortly after we were seated, along with some complimentary cone-shaped papadums (not shown):

Drinks (including alcohol) were included with the buffet deal, and bottomless. Hubby and our friend ordered mango lassi, but I couldn't resist ordering a bubbly champagne:

The cold food section - aloo (potato) chat, green salad, and a chef's special salad:

The hot trays, containing all forms of meat and vegetable curries, samosa, pakora, rice and naan:

Seekh Kebab and Tandoori Chicken:

Lamb Curry, chef's special Chicken Curry, Fish Curry and Pulau:

There was even a hot-plate in the buffet room, where the chef was rolling out freshly made Masala Dosa (rice pancake stuffed with spiced potato) for everyone:

Hubby's first round (his plate is always so neat). Clockwise from left - tandoori chicken, naan and pulau, samosa, some curries, stir-fried broccoli, some pakora balls and seekh kebab:

The boy's plate, containing food that does not contain nuts, coconut, soy and sesame. It was good that allergies are catered for in this restaurant:

My plate, zooming in on the masala dosa (because the rest of my plate wasn't pretty):

The spiced potato filling of the dosa:

Cold desserts - Apricot Coconut Balls, Ras Malai (paneer poached in milk and served with pistachio), fresh fruits and mango pudding:

Hot desserts - Gaajar Ka Halwa (grated carrots cooked in milk and nuts) and Gulab Jamun (fried milk pastry soaked in saffron syrup):

Some Dahi Puri (small crunchy puri shells stuffed with boiled potatoes and yogurt), served to our table with some mint sauce. First time eating these little snacks, and loved it:

Hubby's dessert plate - a little of everything:

Little packets of mukhwas, to freshen the mouth and aid digestion. Some are quite tasty, thanks to the sugar-coated fennel and anise seeds:

All in all, it was a good lunch, the best Indian meal we've had in Hong Kong so far. I want to try out some of their a-la-carte dishes, so next time we will plan to come to Tandoor when they don't have such a nice buffet spread on.

Tandoor
1st Fl, Lyndhurst Tower
1 Lyndhurst Terrace
Central, Hong Kong
Tel: +85 2 2845 2262

Average Indian @ Taj Mahal Club, Hong Kong

Words cannot fully describe my dislike for the notorious Chungking Mansions, but I'm going to try anyway. Just walking through the crowded passageway on the ground level is enough to intimidate any tourist. Dark and dank, a little dirty and a messy layout, as a female, the worst part has got to be the leery looks which is worse when you're on your own. Let's just say I didn't hang around too long that first time, and have since resorted to buying spices in expensive little jars from the supermarket. If not for the fact that some of the most authentic and cheapest Indian food in Hong Kong can be found within this building, I would have been quite happy to stay away from here. The things we do for the love of food. It's not our first foray into the so-called "mansions" (which is anything but mansionly) to eat Indian, but I had conveniently forgotten what a pain it is to use the elevators in this building (shared with 4000 other people living here). This time we made our way to the 3rd floor of Block B to Taj Mahal Club, a popular curry house for tourists and expats.

The layout of the restaurant is similar to The Delhi Club, with a relatively clean dining area. Service was friendly and acceptable, and the owner was quite happy to dish out some advice regarding food allergies in young children. We ordered the same dishes that we always do when dining at an Indian restaurant for the first time, and while the food was good, I thought that the food at The Delhi Club was better. This is not the first time our almost-3 boy has eaten spicy food, and he enjoyed the biryani - although if he had his way, he would have drank only mango lassi for lunch. There was of course concern that the food would be too spicy for the boy, but the use of nuts in their non-spicy dishes rendered them unsuitable for his allergy restrictions.

Mango Lassi that could have used more mango purée:

Chicken Biryani (spicy rice) - what we always order for the toddler at Indian restaurants, and also my benchmark dish to compare with other Indian restaurants. Flavourful, but the whole cardamoms, curry leaves and whole cloves should have been removed prior to serving (or at least cooked with the rice for easy removal later, like in a muslin cloth or something similar). I hate biting into whole cloves. The shredded cheese also didn't improve the dish and would have been better left omitted:

Bright red Chicken Tikka. Surprisingly not as spicy as the biryani, and the boy ate this just fine. Delicious with the minty raita and tamarind sauce:

Mutton Saagwala (spinach sauce) - hubby's benchmark Indian dish. The spinach sauce was spicy and tasty, but the meat wasn't as tender as ones I've had before. This was yummy with the biryani:

Aloo Ghobi (spiced potatoes and cauliflower) - a surprisingly delicious dish! This was my favourite dish from lunch:

Lunch at Taj Mahal Club was pretty average. If we ever come back inside this building for Indian food (certainly not for any other reasons!), we'd go back to The Delhi Club.

Taj Mahal Club
3rd Floor, Block B, Chungking Mansion
38-44 Nathan Road
Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel. +85 2 2722 5454 / +85 2 2366 4477

Indian @ Jaipur Palace, Brisbane

After spending the day at Dreamworld during our recent Brisbane trip, we were brought to Jaipur Palace for dinner, an Indian restaurant located near the coast due east of Brisbane's city centre. It's a fairly nice restaurant with friendly service, but we felt that the food took a long time to come out. We were there on a weeknight, so the restaurant wasn't operating at its fullest capacity, but we did wait quite a while for our orders to arrive at the table. The food was delicious, and I was glad that the chef was willing to accommodate my son's food allergies. My step-mother-in-law found it amusing when our waitress came back to our table with the chef's suggestion of another dish for our 2.75 year-old boy because she was concerned that the biryani would be "too much" for my son to handle. I assured our waitress that our boy loves biryani, with the spices and all. I guess there aren't many people who would give their young toddlers spicy food to eat!

Here are pictures of what hubby, the boy and I ate (no shots of what the others ate because I didn't want to hold up everyone else from their dinner).

Vegetable Samosa- spiced potatoes with peas, onion and coriander filled in pastry and then deep-fried:

Mango Lassi, which was satisfyingly flavourful:

Chicken Biryani minus the cashews (for the allergic toddler) - spiced basmati rice with chicken, vegetables and sultanas. The boy ate well that night:

Two types of naan - Garlic Naan and Peshwari Naan (sweet naan bread filled with nuts and dried fruit). Hubby and father-in-law particularly enjoyed the sweet bread:

Rob ordered the Mango Chicken - boneless curried chicken pieces cooked with ground cashews in mango sauce. This was delicious with the unmistakable mango flavour. Hubby'd ordered hot, but it was not that spicy:

My tummy wasn't feeling 100% after the bad lunch we ate at Dreamworld, so I opted for a Mixed Vegetable Curry at medium heat. This one was definitely more spicy than Rob's mango chicken at the hot level! I really wanted to like it, but the vegetable curry was rather ordinary. I guess I won't do so well as a vegetarian! I love my veges, but I think meat proteins go much better in curries for flavour and body:

Lovely Indian restaurant with delicious food.

Jaipur Palace
3/379 Main Road
Wellington Point QLD 4160
Australia
Tel. +61 7 3822 4044