Al-Azhar Eating Restaurant

I simply adore this place for their vibrant local ambience.

They have so many selections on their menu. A nightmare for the kitchen but a dream for the patrons.

So we had a butter naan, chicken tikka which comes with a slightly sour and spicy green sauce, egg prata, mutton murtabak, chicken roti john.

The prata, murtabak and roti john was average. No complaints about that.

The butter naan and chicken tikka was fantastic. Butter naan was light, fluffy and I thought it went very well with the chicken. The chicken was well-cooked, succulent and moist on the inside.

We spent around 23bucks for everything which I thought was very reasonable and value for money!

We'll be back for more.

On 3 separate cases with myself being the third;the cashier didn't return the change and a substantial amount of change around $10 plus was just gone,for the 1st few cases we gave them a benefit of the doubt because we had a large group of people but the 3rd case was only 3 people,impossible for them to not give the change because they are using a fancy system but why are they still unable to give the correct change?

Also,orders for drinks are most of the time mixed up,sometimes the drinks have 'left-over' on the side of the cup for example my friend ordered Teh-bing and got Teh-o-bing but the 2nd cup with the correct order had bandung at the side of the cup,obviously they re-used that cup.

Short and Sweet:-

Food tastes like aginamoto

They get the orders wrong.

They do not know how the food in the menu actually should taste like..

REGRETTED!!

It was ladies nite out....we head to Al Azhar after work for a quick dinner. I had nasi kerabu as it sound cool to me...The rest of the ladies order the usual, prata,naan & mutton chop..

As the waiter place the food infrnt of me, all of us were looking at it and ask one another..what is this food? Starving, so i tuck in and it really taste good...I mean it really delicious....tho it is topped with lots of vegs but when you put the vegs aside, the rice and meat....goodness..put in chilli padi together...wow is all i can say...

of course i'm gg to have it again the next tym i go to Al Azhar...

 

Upon first look, the place was hot, stuffy and the staff were enthusiastically singing along to the vibrant Indian dance songs being played. It made me look down a little on the surroundings of the restaurant but the food presentation really impressed me.

The soup looked delicious and the murtabak had a large bowl of gravy beside it, enough to dip the whole murtabak into the gravy. Overall, this was one of the best Indian restaurants i had ever eaten at and i would always come back again just to taste the delicious Mutton Soup.

This place is definitely recommended as they sell everything Thai, Muslim, Indian, Western or a fusion of all 3. They have north Indian meat and vegetables too. Today I tried the Mutton Soup with Ribs and it was extremely tasty. Priced at $5.50, its definitely worth a try. You can choose to have it come with the lean meat or bone too. I also tried some sour veges called Mix Raitha and it was okayy but a bit too yogurty and creamy. It comes with carrots, onions, cucumbers in a thick cream sauce. ($3.50) Another must try is the morezzella cheese prata which they sell. They sell the normal cheese prata too but the morezzella cheese prata is way nicer, and the cheese,egg,sasuage one is my favourite.($3.90)

The north Indian meats are pricey but are nice. Have only tried the normal like Butter masala chicken, chicken tikka etc. very much mediacore though I enjoyed them. The Roti John with Mutton alone is very affordable at $3.00 with a generous portion but if you want cheese and other stuff it can go up to $5.00.

Al-Azhar is my friends and my favourite indian dinning place. (:

PS. its very crowded in the night and meal hours, especially weekends and public holidays. quiet on weekday afternoons though.

Wanted to grab a bite after the photo shoot, so we decided to drop by Al-Azhar since it was close by and we were in the mood for simple grub.

Ordered the Chicken Tikka with Naan which came with this green pesto looking dip which was slightly spicy. We had no idea what it was, but the general consensus was whatever it was, it was pretty good. Ditto the chicken. A tad salty but flavourful.

There were some mushroom and cheese pratas in the mix somewhere but we'll skip that and go into the drinks. I'd never had a Milo Terex ($3) (as in T-Rex) before but it's basically vanilla ice cream with whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate syrup on iced milo. Not very fantastic but not bad.

A small digression, apparently they had just revamped their menu so you might not find some old favourites anymore.

Service is serviceable. A tad slow at times, but not terrible.

decided on al-azhar for our gathering since there were muslims in our group and we wanted to hve zi char. =) but i guess it's a bit weird as to why we chose al-azhar as it was to be more famous for their mee goreng and roti pratas. =)

nonetheless. with 9 of us it was a favourable choice and so went. =)

the ambience is nothing fantastic. but we could really use some light when eating. (apparently they were cutting cost and trying to save eletricity coz even though it was 7pm and most of the customers were eating in the dark. they refuse to switch on the lights. =X they only turned them on after we finished. blearghz.)

service was prompt. but that's about it.

now. on to the food. we ordered a few dishes to share as there were so many of us. and here's the details of each dish:

sweet and sour sotong. this was a dish that i enjoyed most during dinner. the gravy was juz tangy enough to bring out that ooomph in you. =) but i guess if you apply the gravy to lalas. whoa! it would be out of this world!

then there was the spicy beef and egg with onions. i didn't try the egg. coz i simply detest onions. =X but the beef was alright. but was really hot and spicy! the meat itself was tender enough. not overcooked at all. =)

not forgetting the mixed tom yam soup and kang kong belachan. the tom yam smelt spicy from where i sat. so no. i didn't attempt to poison myself with it. =D one of my friend was like fanning herself after drinking one sip from it and it got me and and another friend laughing. =D the kang kong was good. perhaps coz it was cut into smaller pieces. unlike those at other places where it was all long and tangly. =) it made life easier for me at least. =)

hot plate beancurd. i didn't get to taste the beancurd coz there were so many of us sharing. but the gravy and the mushrooms. the eggs. they were all good. =) yummy!

and at only about S$7 per head inclusive of our drinks. it was more than worth the money in my opinion. =) will come back again to try thr roti prata! =)

This used to be my hangout when life was a lot simpler (read: can muck around and not get scolded! Usually only happens from teenage years to mid-20s) - constant late night suppers with ol' buddies and talking non-stop about frivolous things....ah yes, those were the days! I also remember those days for a good reason - I could eat non-stop without seeing my waist line expand. Wow - I was really invincible then! Haha - things have of course changed now, hence limited late night suppers!

Was back couple of weeks ago and am glad to report that things have not changed. I'm a mee goreng man, if you have been following my reviews - and the mee goreng here is one of the most consistent ones I have tried in Singapore. There are some really good mee gorengs elsewhere but sadly to say, too inconsistent. Chef face black black only - thats it man! Here, chef face black black, still quite tasty. I also like it that they put in lots of green chillis on request - for the cut chilli lovers, this is great. Noodles is firm to the taste, not too red in colour (I don't like mee gorengs that look too red), and you get decent ingredients such as mutton, egg and green chillis. Some mee gorengs charge you $3.50 without mutton. I think thats a rip off.

Pratas - see the earlier reviews. I agree with them. Try the tissue prata. I have not tried the fried rice recommended by weighty man, but I will now!

You will know why it is MIB when you dine there. One of the two Indian/Muslims restaurants along this stretch of food street at 7th milestone Bt Timah, it has expanded 2-3 fold in the past 4 yrs. When they started, it was only one shop lot, it eventually took over the passage way between the adjacent shop lot, and when the adjacent restaurant closed, took over that adjacent lot. One side is prata, mee gorent, Malay food. The new adjacent lot serves "Tosai" Indian sour dough bread.

Reservation: Just stop your car by the side, drop your wife and get the place. Will be crowded on weekends - lots of bikers both the motorised type and the manual type. Usually can get a seat but may not be cooled by the high velocity fans.

Food / Beverage: Hot stuff, temperature and chilli hot. Paper tosai is out of the world, crisp, flavourful and firm enough to use to scoop up the coconut curry. Try their tissue prata (order with less sugar). Needless to say their egg prata and even normal prata is freshly prepared and tasty. Mee goreng acceptable. Drinks: Milo dinasaur, Milo godzilla, Teh Chino, Kopi China, Horlicks dinosaur, Tea with ginger are all freshly prepared by best Indian baristas.

Ambience: Place to be seen on Sat and Sun afternoons and late night coffee. Many diners of different races, don't think that this is an all Indian or Malay joint - Chinese like me enjoy this food too!. High sound level, multitude of languages, the occasional Caucasian in slippers (after hiking at nearby Bt Timah Hill) all add to the ambience.

Value: Coffee shop price for food that is super tasty.

Service: The MIB (all the waiters wear black trousers, T shirt) serve your promptly, clear your dishes and collect your money, all in one. Friendly and chatty.

Revisited 23Aug07: Their Al Azhar fried rice with prawn sambal and keropok is great - try it. When you're ordering the cheese prata, make sure you state mozzarella cheese prata, or else they will give you the processed cheese by the slice.