The Quest For Briyani Part 8: Khan Saab Restaurant

Mutton Briyani Dum ($8.00)

This place is actually within walking distance from my workplace so we do drop by for lunch once in awhile. It's actually at the corner where the old Bedok ITE used to be if you're familiar with the Chai Chee area.

They have Briyani every day but please keep in mind that they have Briyani Dum only on Fridays!

I figured I'd start with the rice for this post because... well.. it's different.
Most Briyanis that I have tried, especially if it's the Dum version' have very fragrant rice which is normally moist but quite 'clean' in the sense that it's just the rice. The masala and meat are piled on separately if you know what I mean.

Well it's a little different here at Khan Saab. The rice was - for lack of a better word - wet.
It's as if the masala spices were mixed up together with the whole batch of rice and this made it really thick and wet with the masala. This also means that every mouthful of rice is packo with spicy flavour which does tend to be quite overpowering sometimes.

Nonetheless, it is quite tasty but it's just that I guess I'm not used to that texture for my Briyani rice.

The mutton was expected was nice and tender. It had better be since it was a Dum Briyani. Maybe this was the clearest indication that the meat and masala were all cooked together with the rice Dum style. Maybe that's why the rice was so wet?

Yep that's the Acar that comes with the Briyani.
Kind of putting things into overdrive especially since the rice was already so packo full of such a strong flavour. I didn't really find much need for the Acar or even the Dalcha that came along because the rice was really really spicy full of flavour.

But they do include a small side serving of Raita as well. The onion, cucumber and yoghurt mix do try their best to cool your mouth down.

Maybe they know that your tastebuds are going to be overwhelmed that's why they give you a dessert of Sugee to cool you down. And thankfully the Sugee was actually pretty nice. A sweet finish to a meal which was definitely strong on taste.

Adam's Verdict:
Mutton Dum Briyani 2.5/5

I used to quite enjoy this Briyani the first few times I had it but the more I did, the more I realized it was really something I was not used to. In fact, after my last visit, I reckon I might give it a miss for awhile and probably only have it much much later when I've given my mouth some time to forget the onslaught. But if you are the fan of the really spicy type of Briyani, this is definitely for you!

And please remember - Dum Briyani is only available on Fridays and very often sells out early too.

Khan Saab Restaurant

Blk 55 Chai Chee Drive
#01-186

Tel: 6244 4430

Operating Hours:
24 hours Daily

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 6: Saffrons Cafeteria

Here we at at stop number 6 in our Quest for Briyani series and this time we are visiting a place that we normally visit for something else (not the Briyani) but quite a few readers have been egging us to try the Briyani here. WE HEARD YOU!!! :)

Mutton Briyani Dum ($6.00)

When someone says Saffrons to me, the first things that comes to my mind are Mee Goreng and Prata because that's basically what I almost always have when I go there. I've always seen lots of people ordering the Briyani there but never really thought much about it. Well it seems that a lot of people knew something I dind't and I'm here to find out what it is.

The first thing that hit us as soon as they brought the Briyani to the table was the aroma. Now here was a plate of Briyani which had the strong aroma you'd expect from a power serving of Briyani! We've had Briyani where there was surprisingly no smell at all but this was definitely something else!

Maybe it had something to do with the banana leaf? Well I'm not sure about if it made a difference but it definitely made a good impression.

At first I thought the rice looked kinda dry but boy was I wrong.
The rice was nice and fluffy and full of flavour. The rice was so tasty that I could have gone on eating it without any meat or anything else.

But thankfully, I remembered the meat!

The mutton was absolutely the bomb! The masala gives you a nice strong kick but it doesn't overwhelm you so when you have it with the rice, you can still taste the rice and the masala compliments it. The mutton was tender and easily torn apart with just my fork. Add all that into one satisfying mouthful.

I'm quite confident in saying that this is one place that calls it 'Briyani Dum' and really means it!

The acar and the dalcha only add to a dish that is already delicious on its own.

The acar has a nice tang and spice to it. Don't be afraid of those chillies you see, it's not that spicy.
And the dalcha was simply sublime. I guess one of the reasons it was so good was that they add in some of the lamb fat (tetelan) when they cook it (similar to some of the other places we reviewed) and it seems to make a world of difference. You don't have to eat the fats though! It's already done its job :)

As you can see, I really enjoyed my meal!!!

And of course, finish off with a nice cup of Teh Tarik!

Adam's Verdict:
Mutton Briyani Dum 4.5/5

I know I still have hundreds more places to have Briyani. Half of which have been recommended by you - our beloved readers. Don't worry, I'll try my best to cover as many as I can. But for now, Saffron's is one of the best Briyani's I've had so far.

Just an extra note, we normally eat at the Tampines Saffrons because it's so close but they also have a new outlet at Swan Lake in Opera Estate. And so far, the high standards are upheld at both venues!

Saffrons Cafeteria

23 Swan Lake Avenue

Tel: 9185 0954
www.facebook.com/SaffronsCafeteria

Operating Hours:
8.00am til 10.00pm Daily

The Quest For Briyani Part 5: Afghanistan

So it took us awhile but we're back on the trail and The Quest For Briyani continues!
(You can read the rest of the series by clicking HERE if you're just joining us)

For the longest time, even before I started this blog by the way, people have been telling me about how great the Nasi Briyani at Afghanistan in Tampines was. In fact, I've been hearing about its 'legendary' status since I was in my teens.

It's actually quite surprising that this would actually be the first time I was going to try it especially since it was so accessible to me in the first place.

Mutton Briyani ($5.00)

Let me start of by saying that they're quite generous with the serving.
Definitely enough to fill you up if you're hungry or just right to share between 2 people.

The one thing that I noticed when I sat down with the Briyani was that something was missing.
You know how you get the aroma you get when you just sit down with a nice hot place of Nasi Briyani still steaming from the freshly served rice? Well, that was missing.

The rice was fluffy and no doubt the traditional Basmati but that's about all I have to report.
There was no fragrant aroma and the rice was severely lacking taste. Very surprising for a plate of Briyani which I've been hearing about for years.

I will not claim to be an expert on Briyani and I know there are plenty more Nasi Briyani places for me to visit but I think I know what I'd expect from a decent plate of Briyani and something is quite wrong if that distinct aroma is missing.

The meat wasn't exactly super tender but I guess it was okay. You could still tear it apart without much effort.
Unfortunately the masala was quite bland as well. Again, another shocker.

The acar gave some life to the dish I guess. Nothing spectacular but at least there was some flavour to it.

Actually, I realized something about halfway through my dish.
The individual parts of the dish on their own were severely lacking. The rice was tasteless on its own. The meat was not that enjoyable on its own. And there's no point just eating the acar on its own. The only way I could get though it was to eat every single spoonful with a bit of everything. There was simply no chance of enjoying my meal by eating the rice or the meat on its own.

Adam's Verdict:
Mutton Briyani 1.5/5

Who knows. Maybe I'm just being fussy? Maybe the Chicken Briyani is better?
Well, whatever the case may be, I was actually really disappointed. Has the standard of Afghanistan really dropped?

Perhaps I'll try it again some time and hopefully then I might be able to relive the high standards that everyone seems to remember so fondly.

Afghanistan Family Restaurant

201E Tampines Street 23
Briyani / Murtabak Stall

Tel: 6783 7746

Operating Hours:
7.30am til 11.30pm Daily
(Opens at 3.00pm on Friday afternoons)

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

The Quest For Briyani Part 3: Mami Midah Briyani

So the Quest for Briyani continues on this food blog.
So many recommendations came in for where people think should be the next place I try.
But I decided to go somewhere recommended by my dear ol' Dad.

Mami Midah Briyani is a stall located in my old neighbourhood - Eunos Crescent.
It wasn't around when the market and food centre were at its old location before the fire a few years ago but despite that it seems this stall has made quite a reputation for itself in just a few years.

When you think of a good briyani, 'healthy' is not really the first word that comes to your mind I reckon. I mean, how many times have you heard your elders tell you not to eat too much too often right?

Well I saw this article displayed at the stall.
It was featured in the 'Mind Your Body' quite awhile back and was toute as a 'healthy' version of Nasi Briyani but apparently still didn't lose any of the flavour or deliciousness that you'd expect from a serving of Briyani.

Evaporated Milk? Vegetable Oil? Low Sodium Salt?
This doesn't seem like it's going to go well... But you'll see a lot of this at a lot of the stall here under the Healthy Eating campaign.

Okay so my Dad tells me we have o go really early because this place seems to sell out really fast (especially the Mutton Briyani) especially on Fridays. Well, we were not going on a Friday so you'd think it'd be safe to arrive there at around noon right?

Well we arrived at 12.15pm and guess what? The Mutton was sold out!!
Apparently someone had a funeral wake and pre-ordered like this whole order of the Mutton Briyani. And since we couldn't call ahead to pre-order 2 plates of it, I guess we were out of luck.
And the worst thing was that my Dad had let me taste some the last time he brought some back and it was quite good so I was pretty bummed I didn't get a chance to try it out properly.

Oh well.

Chicken Briyani ($4.50)

So we decided to have the Chicken Briyani (purely out of lack of choice).

The chicken itself was not bad. The masala which literally swamps the chicken was actually really good!
It's not really on the spicy side though. If it was, my Dad wouldn't be able to handle it very well. But the rempah briyani taste was very strong but very tasty. Not overpowering like I expected.

The acar is actually worth a mention. It really complimented the briyani well.
I'm saying this because I've had Briyani where the acar is just absolutely doing nothing for the overall dish but they really put some effort here to make sure it makes a difference.

As always, the rice itself is going to play a big part in Briyani and the rice here is pretty steady.
It was fluffy and I guess it was pretty tasty. But I doubt I enjoyed it as much as my Dad does.
My Dad says that the rice is the reason he loves this Briyani so much. And trust me, it's not often you find something that he will say is nice.

As for me? It was actually the Dalcha believe it or not.
It was damn tasty and really packed a tasty punch to the rice. In fact, the Dalcha seems to be quite a favourite with a lot of people. How do I know? I've seen people come to the stall and order just the Dalcha on its own. Like $2 a packet. They probably eat it with bread or something. And I don't blame them cos it's damn nice lah actually.

And if you stir the bowl, you'll find out why. The secret - lamb fat (tetelan).
It's an old school way of ensuring your Dalcha is the bomb and they sure as hell do it well here.

Adam's Verdict:
Chicken Briyani 3/5

Zain's Verdict:
Chicken Briyani 4/5

So remember, if you wanna try the Mutton Briyani - go early.
Hopefully I'll be able to add in a Mutton Briyani review here soon okay!

Mami Midah Briyani

Eunos Crescent Food Market & Food Centre
Blk 4A Eunos Crescent #01-14

Operating Hours:
10.00am til 8.00pm Daily
(or until they sell out)