The Quest For Briyani Part 4: Blue Diamond Restaurant

 

So I mentioned my quest for Briyani to my Mum and she says "Wah you have to try Blue Diamond Briyani!".
Normally when my Mum makes a claim that something is nice means she really really likes it.
So I made it a point to pay Blue Diamond a visit.

Tucked along the row of shophouses along Buffalo Road, I almost missed it.
The restaurant looks so well-blended in that I actually had to look for a sign before I knew exactly where it was. And since this restaurant was actually pretty famous, I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.

My Dad and Brother were along for the adventure but my Mum couldn't make it out for lunch...
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.............................

Well my Dad and I had different types of Dum Briyani and my Brother had the Naan which I actually reviewed earlier. (See that review HERE)

Now it's interesting to note that they are listing this as "Dum Briyani" which means they cooked it in the 'Dum' style of cooking the meat and rice together. There are a lot of places that claim to serve 'Dum Briyani' but actually don't. How would Blue Diamond fare?

So the guy brings out our Briyani in these small little pots.
He lays the banana leaf out for you and then proceeds to flip the rice and meat out on to your plate.

But does this small pot mean that it's not authentic 'Dum'?
Not at all. I can confirm that Blue Diamond serves authentic Dum Briyani because we saw the guy scoop the rice and the meat out from a much larger pot where the Briyani was cooked.

Apparently they pack it into these pots to keep the dish warm and this means they can serve it to you steaming and piping hot.

Dum Mutton Biryani ($7.00)

Dum Chicken Biryani ($6.50)

As you can see, the servings are very very generous!!

The mutton version comes with 2 pretty big pieces of mutton and a whole quarter of chicken for the chicken version. Plus a hard-boiled egg atop a nice big fluffy bed of rice.

The Basmati rice used was very fluffy and very delicious. I have to say it was actually very tasty even if you were to eat the rice on its own without any curry.

But let me explain that this is because this Biryani is heavy on the spices.
That's a fierce colour for a Biryani to have and it's because of the masala spices they use and boy do they use it generously here. It's not over-powering but I can foresee some people may not fancy it too much.

Some people like their Briyani to be relaxed and not too strong while some like it spicy and packing a punch.
If you are the 2nd type, then you'll probably enjoy this because this is definitely a dish that emphasizes the powerful flavour of biryani spices.

The mutton itself was very tender and tore apart relatively easily. This is what you at least expect as a minimum for Dum Biyani am I right? Unfortunately with my luck, I got a nice big joint bone which means less meat for me. Yeah sure I love the bones but I prefer meat with my biryani.

The chicken version however didn't fare so well.
The meat was definitely tender but when you have to cook chicken meat that long to get it to that state, you sacrifice a lot of the moisture in the meat so it turned out to be very very dry. The chicken version also appeared to have less masala spices compared to the mutton version.

Cucumber Raita

Curry

You also get the usual extras with your plate of biryani.
Cucumber Raita was a welcome change as it definitely cooled of the spice of the biryani.
I thought that the curry was actually Rasem or something because it looked so watery but don't let looks deceive you - that's one tasty and spicy curry! But with the biryani already being heavy on the masala spice, I didn't really need the extra curry.

In fact, to be honest, I actually liked it best when I had the biryani rice with the Butter Chicken which came with my brother's Naan!

Adam's Verdict:
Dum Mutton Biryani 3.5/5

Azlan's Verdict:
Dum Mutton & Chicken Biryani 3.5/5

Zain's Verdict:
Dum Chicken Biryani 3/5

A close friend and fellow foodie says that Blue Diamond was indeed a top name when it came to Briyani back in the day but he also mentioned that the old and original chef passed away a few years ago.
No doubt the recipe may be the same but we all know what they say about the people cooking the dish being just as, if not more, important than the recipe itself. Well, this is still a pretty tasty biryani nontheless.

The Quest For Briyani continues!!

Blue Diamond Restaurant

24 Buffalo Road
(Across from Tekka Market)

Operating Hours: 9.30am til 10.00pm Daily