The Quest For Briyani Part 7: Bismillah Biryani

So a couple of readers had left some comments on our last installment of The Quest For Briyani Part 6 when we visited Saffron. And the same name kept popping up - Bismillah Biryani.

And it never really clicked until one day, one of our guest reviewers Raffiq, says he wants to bring us to what he calls "the best biryani" in Singapore. "Power!!" he says. Okay sure but where is this place?
And then he says it - "It's called... Bismillah Biryani".

Okay set!

So we make our way one sunny afternoon to Dunlop Street for this famous briyani.
And the first thing we noticed when we arrive at the shop is this sign.

You sure or not? Is it that tasty that we don't need any Dalcha? Is the rice so moist an fluffy that we don't need any gravy?

And then the next thing we noticed was the signboard with the prices. But more on that later.
Time for some briyani!

Kid Goat Biryani ($15.00)

Firstly - Yes. It's Kid Goat as in the young goat.
Secondly - Yes. It costs $15. But more on that later.

Overall, I have to say I found the serving quite small for the price I was paying. The most expensive briyani I've had cost me about $9 and it was a HUGE serving enough for 2 people but this one here looked like I might still be a bit hungry at the end of it.

But since it costs so much and the serving is not that big, that means they must really be confident with the taste of the briyani. So is it really that nice?

As you can see the rice is top grade Basmati. I didn't quite get the fragrant aroma of briyani you get when they first bring you the dish but I got a bit of it later which is actually quite weird. And I was right... the serving was way too small for a big eater.

The kid goat meat was really really tender. Again, the serving of meat was lesser than I expected but the little bit of meat I had was very tender. And not only was there no dalcha, there was no masala on the meat either!

So where exactly does the flavour come from?
Well, it seems they use a lot of dry spices in this briyani. Found lots of peppercorns, star anise, cloves etc in the rice and I guess that's where it comes from. Raffiq could definitely taste the spices and it seemed to be really spicy to him too.

I think the spiciness he was experiencing was from the accompanying dish of yoghurt which has onions and green chilli in it too. I thought yoghurt was normally served to cool you down when eating something spicy.... Hmmmmm...

Chicken Biryani ($8.00)

I think that after seeing how tender the chicken was, there is no doubt that their cooking method must be really solid because the meats here are really tender and well cooked. I guess the only thing I'm having a problem getting used too is the whole flavour issue.

Bismillah Biryani prides itself on its philosophy that it wants to serve you "good tasting" food but wants to make sure it's healthy for you too. "Taste counts but your health matters most".

This will explain why they do not use any Ghee in their briyani and also why there are no accompanying dishes of dalcha or acar and also no masala in their briyani. And somehow along the way of making this healthy dish, the prices seem to have gone through the roof.

I'm sorry. I don't mean to sound like some cheapskate but the briyani here is expensive.
I normally have the mutton (which costs $12 here) but we visited on a day where they only had Kid Goat and Chicken which cost $15 and $8 respectively.

Am I the only one who thinks that the prices are a little bit too much?

And I'm not saying that the briyani tasted bad. Not at all. It may not have been the best briyani I've ever had nor the worst tasting one either. But it's definitely the most expensive!!

Mango Lassi ($5.00)

And to add insult to injury, we wanted to have some coffee or tea after our meal but they didn't have any. So I ordered a Mango Lassi thinking to myself "Wah this Lassi surely gonna be the bomb one!".

So you can imagine my shock when the guy comes back 10 seconds later and plonks this bubble tea cup in front of me with Mango Lassi. And judging by the time he took to come back, this was obviously out a fridge and pre-prepared. I couldn't help but laugh a little...

Adam's Verdict:
Kid Goat Biryani 3/5

Azlan's Verdict:
Chicken Biryani 3.5/5

Raffiq's Verdict:
Chicken Biryani 3.5/5

I guess I'm glad we visited Bismillah Biryani so I could finally get it out of my system since everyone was raving about it. Again I say - there's nothing wrong with the briyani. But you gotta admit that the high price does kind of put you off a little doesn't it?

And I guess my idea of briyani is a little different. This may very well be authentic briyani according to some people. I guess I'll still be going back to joints like Saffron.

And by the way - Raffiq has tried all 3 versions (Kid Goat, Mutton and Chicken) and he says that the Mutton Biryani is actually the best!

Monday / Thursday / Sunday - Kid Goat
Wednesday / Friday / Saturday - Mutton
Every day - Chicken & Vegetarian

Bismillah Biryani

50 Dunlop Street

Operating Hours: 11.30am til 3.00pm / 5.30pm til 9.00pm Daily
Closed on Tuesdays (Unless it's a public holiday)

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