Tandoori Restaurant, Serangoon Road

This was a rich lunch I hadn't expect getting. It was also our first visit to Tandoori Restaurant (320 Serangoon Road, #01-26 Serangoon Plaza, tel: 6294 2232) which had been around for as long as I can remember. That I suppose warranted a visit. By virtue of long standing, I thought they ought to be at least pretty decent. The vibes when we sat down didn't feel quite the same as before we walked in. This restaurant felt a little westernized if you know what I mean. Despite appearances.

I was disappointed that their paneer tikka wasn't available for order so I had to settle for the closest substitute which was paneer butter masala. Along with the butter chicken, cheese naan, kashmiri pilau and some refreshing raita. We also had a glass of overly sweet lassi and very bland cup of masala tea.

butter chicken

paneer butter masala

The chicken and cottage cheese tasted much as I had imagined. If I had to describe a little more, their butter chicken wasn't "not spicy" as they had claimed. I was hoping for a mellow smoky version similar to Jaggi's (yes them again!) but this was still quite tasty even though the chicken lacked the smoky aroma from the tandoor.

Kashmiri pulao

Their Kashmiri pulao turned out different from what I had in mind. I was thinking dried fruits and nuts which are the common descriptions of ingredients. To my surprise there were also bits of pineapple, little round balls which tasted like papaya and even nata de coco (aka sea coconut). In the end, I found myself enjoying this fragrant fruit rice. So much that I ate them without any gravy. Portions were sadly quite small for a single order.

raita

cheese naan

The raita had onions on the side instead of in the yoghurt. There were barely any cucumbers. Wasn't quite what I had in mind when I ordered it. I had thought we would be getting a yoghurt drenched salad. Instead, we got ourselves just a refreshing watery yoghurt. The cheese naans looked deceptively boring like stale pizza rather than naan. Fortunately, it was quite delicious.

It's a tough call to consider this place again seeing that the lunch set us back by $55. I know there are cheaper options around, many of which I've yet to explore.