New Everest Kitchen, Chander Road

I realized that it had been quite a while since I was down in this part of Little India. A recent craving for Indian food along with a fragment of lodged memory of this place brought me back. This restaurant (55 Chander Road, #01-01, tel : +65 6299 0745) apparently, is run by the owner of Gorkha Grill, a place which I had found out about too late and had never had the opportunity to visit when it was still around in Chinatown.

We started with a serving of a basket of crispy papadum with a spicy mint chutney.

We ordered a serving of pan fried spicy chicken gizzards. The gizzards were a little tough, chewy and definitely more than a little spicy with a hint of garlic. They were tougher than those that one could find in chicken rice stalls. What I didn't like were the occasional bit of ginger which snuck up with the gizzards into my mouth.

The jheenge papita was a described as prawns marinated in wine and mountain herbs. The gravy actually tasted very much like butter chicken - or rather butter prawns in this context. I could only discern a modicum of difference with this and the murgh makhni. Interestingly that warm gravy was actually quite good eaten together with the chilled papaya. The prawns were well cooked and instead of being crunchy, had a "meatier" texture.

This murgh makhni was essentially what we usually know as butter chicken. It was one of the better ones we've had. Rich, creamy and not overly tart nor spicy. They didn't use chicken tikka so this lacked the smoky depth compared with the ones from Jaggi's. The meat was quite tender though.

New Everest Kitchen's jheera rice was different from the ones at Chellas or Annalakshmi. This rendition had a more subdued aroma. It wasn't bad, just wasn't spectacular.

Of course, I fell into my favourites trap and got myself an order of kashmiri naan. The ones here tasted remarkably similar to the ones at Jaggi's. Just one difference. The latter had cheese while I could taste some bits of nuts and garlic in this one.