Mango Tree, East Coast Parkway

There are sometimes mixed feelings that I get from restaurants. I don't know my final verdict on it. Eventually, it gets ignored and forgotten. Other times, I'm somewhat a little more sure. Mango Tree (Marine Cove B23, 1000 East Coast Parkway, S449876, tel : 64428655) was one of them. I enjoyed some of the food and thought well of the service but the chances of returning would be minimal. Cost was also taken into consideration.

I came to know about this place by the way of a heads up from Camemberu whom has mentioned coastal Indian cuisine from Goa and Kerala. Thought it would be a good opportunity to check out what Indian coastal seafood was about since I had missed those back in Spice Junction.

murg makhani

green mango curry

mango tree garlic prawns

mango and cheese naans

I'm taking a shot in the dark here by saying this, but I am presuming that the murg makhani (or butter chicken) was less creamy because this was essentially a southern Indian rendition. The gravy was more tangy since it wasn't masked by so much cream. I like the northern versions better. The green mango curry was something we tried out of the spirit of adventure. Turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise. The curry was generally quite mild and tangy with a hint of mango citrus with a creamy texture. There were pieces of the fruit in the curry which were soft (not mushy) like boiled potatoes. Enjoyable as it was appetizing.

I thought that the green mango garlic prawns looked like a Chinese dish. I was initially disappointed by the appearance. These prawns weren't large for tiger prawns and didn't look vibrant. But the taste was pretty awesome. Belying the dull steamed prawn look was meat that was unexpectedly firm and crunchy, soaked in a buttery sauce loaded with minced garlic. Quite pricey ($27) considering that it was just three small-ish prawns.

The naans here were good. Light and fluffy. I meant freshly made kind of light and fluffy here. In fact it was so light and fluffy that we had to top up with portion of basmati rice (pretty costly at $3.80 and not much fragrance) after two naans. Speaking of naan, we tried the mango one. Apart from tasting slightly sweet, it didn't taste like it had mango. At all. I ate the most of that without any gravy so I was sure about it. Likewise, the cheese naan didn't taste like it had any cheese baked into them. At all. Bummer. The restaurant was kind enough to offer replacements but we didn't pursue that since they were insistent that it did contained cheese.

I hadn't been in this area for so long that I had forgotten that restaurants here could be expensive like it was in town. I had ordered a glass of lassi without looking from the menu and it turned out to be a small glass that set me back by $7.