Tandoor, Holiday Inn Singapore Orchard City Centre

I've been wanting to come to Tandoor (B1,  Holiday Inn Singapore Orchard City Centre, 11 Cavenagh Road, tel : +65 6733 8333) for a while but this place has been one of those that was out of mention, out of mind for me for the longest time. From what I could gather, they've been around for the past three and a half decades. Respectable considering how many eateries are merely just the flavour of the week.

Getting into retrospect, these guys didn't feel as earnest as Punjab Grill, wasn't as classy as Rang Mahal and well, they aren't anything like The Song of India. If anyone was wondering why these specific comparisons, it's because it'll cost you about the same to eat at all these places. Just didn't feel that the cost of eating at Tandoor commensurates the experience.

Some papads to start while waiting for the food. These were only free for the first serving.

The menu described these as potato barrels stuffed with nuts, marinated and chargrilled. Aloo ki nazzakat. The stuffings were mushy and not particularly nutty. For $22, it looked like it was something a little better than what one can get from local Indian rojak stalls.

But their mango curry, which is a signature dish of theirs was fucking awesome. Rich, creamy and full of fragrant ripe mango that's been simmered down so soft that no teeth was necessary. That's paired with some spice and a light bit of heat along with sweetness from the fruit. Not sure what's in there but I saw mustard seeds and a bit or dried chilli. I would come back just for this.

I've had tastier jeera pulao at the defunct Chella's. This wasn't bad. Lacked salt, lacked punch from the cumin. It just wasn't impressive for $18. But it also made that much more sense that we were eating this with that delicious mango curry.

The menu described their khusk tandoori raan as leg of lamb spiced with rum, pot-roasted in a heady stock spiced with cumin, cardamom, peppercorn and bay leaf, grilled in the Tandoor. Sounded exotic. If I had to describe it I'd say it tasted like lamb tikka. Meat was a little dry but pretty good munching. Good thing we took their advice to get the half portion as there was quite a bit of meat.

We took a gamble with their rose & cardamom panna cotta as mundane as that flavour pairing might have sounded for such an establishment. The texture was kinda dense for panna cotta. Not wobbly. Not getting the cardamom as well. Kinda expensive at $18 for something pre-made and taken out from a fridge to serve.