Bombay Woodlands Restaurant, Tanglin Shopping Centre

This quiet little restaurant (19 Tanglin Road, #B1-12 Tanglin Shopping Centre, tel: 6836 6961) at the basement of Tanglin Shopping Centre turned out to be pretty promising. In spite the fairly small selection on the menu and prices being a little high because they're located in town, I'm not averse to coming back.


I enjoyed the paneer chat which was essentially paneer pakora (cottage cheese fried in chick pea batter) tossed with chopped onions, tomatoes along with a blanket of sev. The chaat was then mixed with the yoghurt mint gravy and some chutney. The pakora retained some chewiness. Better than the ones at Mustard.

There was a rava idli which I thought was pretty good as well. Especially awesome with the piping hot sambar and coconut chutney. We were intrigued by a rice dish named bisi bella bath. Turned out to be a pretty tasty porridge that was flavoured like sambar. Hot and just the thing for a rainy afternoon. I also like the papads here. Thin, crispy and greasy.

Unfortunately, the masala tea wasn't up to scratch. But I would come back just for the food.

Komala's Restaurant, Serangoon Road

Woah, this place (330-332 Serangoon Road, tel: 6299 4464) felt like a fast food restaurant with air conditioning that can barely be felt. Indian vegetarian fast food restaurant to be precise. One makes an order from the counter, pays the cashier and gets a chit which is subsequently used to collect the order at another service counter. I've walked past their outlets on various occasions before but this was the first time I'm actually eating here. We ordered a masala dosai meal and a North Indian rice meal.

The dosai didn't taste that freshly made. It wasn't crispy at the edges and not warm. Idli on the side was a little saltier than I had expected. The vadai was dense but soft and I thought it pretty good. The accompanying chutneys weren't too bad.

Their North India rice meal wasn't as good as the one at Komala Vilas. It came with some chewy naan and a gulab jamun which was milky tasting and quite good. I normally avoid them because of their excessive sweetness. There was curried cauliflower, some raita and a paneer butter masala which wasn't as great. Another weird thing. There were croutons in the rice. Where did those come from??

All in all, despite the fast food appearance it wasn't bad. But I know there must be better options in the vicinity.

Sri Kamala Vilas Restaurant, Buffalo Road

This was a good recommendation by a friend. Though I'm sometimes around the vicinity of Little India these recent times, I haven't heard of or seen Sri Kamala Vilas (Blk 662 Buffalo Road, #01-16, tel : +65 6291 1164) until today. I suppose with the corners around the blocks, some locations are easily overlooked. This was Indian eatery at the foot of the housing block just beside Tekka Market.


Their briyani was pretty damn good. The portion of their fragrant rice was huge and the meats were tender for both the chicken and the mutton variety. I thought the mutton was exceptional. Tender pieces of flavourful lamb drenched in a compelling nutty curry. This pairing was definitely lethal. I noticed that the chicken briyani had the meat plopped on top of the mountain of rice while the mutton was served in a separate dish. The only disappointment was the masala tea which was overwhelming with the taste star anise. The brew tasted rather diluted as well. Definitely coming back again someday to try something else.

Of hot vanilla, smoked egg and star anise...

In spite of having visited Lai Lai a few times, I've never noticed that they have rou cuo fan (minced meat with rice) because I've always been caught up with their beef noodles and lu rou fan. That and those delicious braised pig intestines which I haven't been able to find better elsewhere. Yet. Compariing with the lu rou fan, this one didn't work out as well for me because of the star anise flavour. Not saying that it wasn't good but I would preferred it if the spice didn't taste as strong. If I'm ever getting this rice bowl again, Peng Lai Ge would be the better option.

There're a couple of other things that we've picked which I've never tried before. One was a smoked egg which to my surprise, arrived chilled. I thought it was quite delicious despite it not being very smoky tasting at all. Pretty sure what contributed to my positive reaction to it was the runny yolk. The other item was a foamy warm vanilla milk which I thought was a little too sweet. Could have been pretty good if it was served hotter and a lot less sweet.

Sofra, Shaw Towers

Sofra (100 Beach Road, #02-42 Shaw Towers, tel: 6291 1433) turned out to be a little disappointing. The food portions were pretty small, didn't taste that good and their service was irritatingly slow. For a restaurant that has been around for years, I was expecting something that justified their existence.

One of the peeves I had with Sofra was that bread wasn't topped up and was separately chargeable. It also had to be ordered separately even if one had gotten their mezze.


There was a oddly named dish, sultan kebap which was some sort of grilled lamb with a potato and cheese gratin on the sides. The dish looked like it had been baked in an oven. The mashed potato underneath the melted mozzarella cheese tasted very earthy. It was otherwise pretty much like how it looked. The chef platter which was a mixed grill plate of meats that tasted pretty ordinary as well. The sad thing was, I thought that the bread from the platter was actually the best tasting item. Everything felt rather uninspired and I don't think I'm returning. There're better mixed kebabs elsewhere.

Komala Vilas, Serangoon Road

Wow to the food here! It's been a long time since I've eaten at Komala Vilas (76/78 Serangoon Road, S 217981, tel: 6293 6980). The last time was a vague recollection of dosai and tea in metal cups probably 13 years back. Since then, I've passed by this shop on numerous occasions on my way to Chellas haven't walked in until now.

This pretty famous Indian restaurant which has been around before 1950 whips up volumes of South Indian vegetarian food like rice based meals, snacks like dosai, chapati, battura, idlis and vadai for the consistently large crowd that come in daily. The thali (South Indian rice meal) which came with soft, fluffy and steaming rice was mouth watering good. I thought that the rice (which comes with an array of condiments) was so good, you could eat it on its own. But you don't because there's a bunch of other accompaniment like thairu (yoghurt), spicy pickles or the huge bucket of sambar which the servers walk around with. Rice meals here are all you can eat . One can always request for more rice and vegetables.

There was also a Bombay Thali (also known as the vegetarian briyani on the menu) which was served on a steel tray. That came with saffron infused rice and an additional piece of chapati. I'm not familiar with all the names of the vegetable sides here but they were all tasty.