Al Hamra Lebanese & Middle Eastern Cuisine (Holland Village)

Living near Holland V and having tried nearly all of the standard eateries in and around that area, we ended up stopping at Al Hamra to try something a little different.

The ambience and quaint interior decor were nice, and the air-con worked well. Granted it was not very packed.

But onto the important part, the food.

Appetizer:

We ordered the Cold Mezza Platter ($28), pita bread ($5) and Grilled Halloumi ($15). It would have been nice if we had been told that the pita bread was additional, the waiter made it sound like we had an option between the pita bread and another type of bread. However that aside, the food tasted decent, the Hummus, Moutabbal was flavourful, however I think the chef was a little olive oil happy. The portion size of the Fattoush and Tabouleh (both salads) left something to be desired, however the Fallafel was cooked brilliantly. Presentation wise it came on a plate that was much too small, would be great if there was some space between the various dishes so that they did not end up mixing together.

Grilled Halloumi was served on a wilted bed of lettuce, the cheese was grilled nicely, very salty though and would have appreciated the extra veggies to take the edge off.

Mains:

Ordered Chicken Shawarma ($22) and Cous Cous with Seafood ($25).

Chicken Shawarma was cooked well, full of flavour. However lacked the kebab flavour. Still it was a tasty main and portion of meat was very generous.

Cous Cous with Seafood, ahh this was a totally different matter. Prior to ordering we asked the waiter if the seafood was fresh. Was reassured that the prawns and fish were fresh and not frozen. Meal arrived and lo and behold, the prawns and fish tasted soft and mushy as if they had been previously frozen. Both lacked flavour and any form of seasoning. The seafood "soup" was watery and tasteless and frozen vegetables were used. Very disappointed. However the Cous cous was cooked well, light and fluffy, nicely seasoned.

Desert:

Did not order.

Service:

Wait staff was attentive and friendly and never needed to ask for water to be refilled etc. I think it would behoove any diner to look for the floor manager to ask about the food prior to ordering, they might have a better idea than the waiter who served us.

Overall:

Given the price and the quality of the food, it would not be someplace that I would visit often. Might be tempted to head back there to try some of the meat dishes when the next middle eastern craving comes along. However there are many cheaper and tastier options for the generic middle eastern food that was served here. Not sure how Lebanese it was either....

the lamb menu is surprisingly good... the spices goes well deep into the meat...if the meat could have been more tender, it would be a blast!

Wanting to try something new and different we ended up in Al Hamra, Holland Village, entering a little bit skeptical, but was pleasantly surprised.

We ordered the *set for 2* dinner for SGD 60. The starter set was falafel/pitas, hommous, marinated salad and some fried thing I don't remember the name of. Everything tasted nice, especially the hommous and the salat (worth coming back for). The main was a mixed grill platter with lamb, chicken, fish, schwarma and some sort of meatball I think. All was perfectly cooked except the lamb was a little overdone. Schwarma was our favourite, followed by the chicken and the fish. Everything was nicely flavoured, and I foresee that we will come back for the same meal within the next two weeks.

Service staff was attentive until we got the main dish, after that we had to struggle a little bit to get attention.

All in all wine and food was good enough for us to return, unfortunately the very loud live singer at the neighbouring restaurant made us decide to leave fairly quick after our mint tea and turkish coffe.

Paying with a citibank card we got vouchers for 90SGD, same amount as the bill.

We tried that place recently, we won't go back.The ambiance is ok, it was a bit warm though.Service was prompt and friendly, but the waiter could have used a shower, I don't particularly enjoy body odor while eating.Food was inconsistent. Moussaka was pretty bland and strange, I couldn't taste anything in the dish. The lamb kebab was the only thing I truly enjoyed during the meal.We also had the cold platter with fattoush, humous, grape leaves, that was alright, though a bit small for 2 people and not exactly cheap at $26, it also came without pita, which strikes me as downright stingy. Seriously eating humous without pita ?We tried the zatar bread which as interesting with some herbs that I've never tasted before, but a but too greasy and tasty to eat with humous.Overall, a pretty mediocre meal and for $60, better food can be had elsewhere.

18/Jul/2010 - dinner for 3 = $115

Went looking for something different in Holland Village and came to this place - well worth a try. They have a two person set lunch or dinner for $76, and as we had a party of three, they just pro-rated the third at $38.

For starters there was the usual olives and salad. And then the appetizer was hummmos (awesome), moutabbal (tasted burnt) and Armenian salad (great) served with ever so soft pita.

Main course was a Lebanese Mix Grill Platter that included kofta kebab (great), lamb chop (amazing), sheesh taouk (chicken - great) and red snapper (great) served with way too much onions and French fries (because that is Lebanese). The lamb chops were out of this world amazing, so much flavour, I even had to ask the chef for the recipe.

Finally, the set includes either a mojito or a sangria and a cream pudding. I am no expert on Middle Eastern cuisine but French fries, Cuban mojitos and Spanish sangria is not really authentic.

And the usual -3 points off for the pricing not including GST and service charge. Definitely going back for the lamb chops.

I don't understand how this place won average rating of 6. Have things changed a lot in this place?

I visited this place on 15th May 10, ordered a kebab ($22) and boild rice ($5). The kebab turned out to be a mish mush with no meat texture, probably a result of over-mixing using not-so-fresh ingredients. After the meal, I was dying to get out of the place for fresh air as I was feeling a discomfort in my stomach.

But the hardest part was to get the bill, and after I signed the receipt, to get my card back. The manager looking gentleman was absolutely overwhelmed by some unhappy senior waiters, and the junior waiters had no clue with service. The result was a massive slowdown of the service and lack of attention to the customers. After 10 mins of waiting for my card back, I walked to the counter at the back of the restaurant, and picked up my card.

Can anyone recommend me a good middle eastern restaruant in Singapore? I won't go back to Al Hamra for sure. 

I was craving for lebanese so invited 2 friends out to Holland Village. After filtering throughthe reviews in this website, I decided to go with Al Hamra. My friends were urging me to try Arab Street but I told them let's be adventurous.

Well to start with the service leaves much to desire. We had to ask for almost everything; water, menu, drink list. And theer were quite a few servers but they seemed to not understand what is basic service.

We ordered the usual Cold Mezza to start the meal and decided to take it ease and ease ourselves in. My friend order a Moroccan mint tea. To our horror, a tea pot and a cup arrived with 1 peppermint tea bag (something you get off a supermarket shelf) and the pot was barely half filled with water. We asked the manager why did they list Moroccan Mint tea in the menu when they were serving humble pepprimint tea. His reply "It is new brand and you will find it taste just like moroccan mint tea". (We returned the tea). That does it we knew we were not going to have our mains here. We finished our mezza and asked for the bill. The waiter walked around to 2 other tables with our bill before he realised the bill was for us! The ruined evening was just barely compensated with a 2% discount on the bill!

I won't be back.

It was the lunar new year weekend and I figured that many of the Chinese restaurants were not opened. So I originally picked to go to Mykii but went only to find out that it was not open, and hence walked around and ended up at Al Hamra.

This Lebanese eatery with middle eastern tiles is designed rather authentically, looking like what you would find in many of the holes in the walls at Arab Street. After some deliberation, I decided to just go with the available set menu for two as it had a variety of items that would allow me to try a variety of items.

Variety there was - but quantity there was not. For example, some items like the lamb kofta and the lamb chop only had one piece, and so creative sharing was required. To be fair though, there was variety, and if you are not sure what to order and want to try a bit of everything, this is a good choice. 

Back to lamb, I found both the kofta and the lamb chop dry and overdone. I have the same comments for the chicken kebab. The fish on the other hand was done correctly, and it was not as dry as it typically is in many middle eastern places.

There were two items that stood out. First was the Chicken Sharwarma which blended well with the sour cream to create a nice meaty bite. Unfortunately, there was only one piece and so the challenge lies in creatively cutting the wrap into two pieces without spilling the chicken all over. The second item, interestingly, was the fries. I generally do not like French fries, but the version served here is a skinny pieces with a nice crispy covering.

Overall though, I felt that the food was a bit overdone and I still prefer Al Qasar down the road for my middle eastern fix.   

I was really not that impressed by the quality of the food... Being a middle eastern myself who was longing for home food... it was a disappointment.

First: the food (kebab)took a bit less an hour to be ready..

Second: When i asked for Olive oil to spread of the foul (beans) and the baba ghanosh.. the waiter came with veg. oil.

Third: i think the place was understaffed..

the good thing there was the falafel and the bread.

if you are not looking for the original taste of the Lebanese cuisine then this is the place to go to.

I used to live in the Middle East and love its cuisine. Suddenly I had an urge for some ME food so thought we would give Al Hamra a try. That was a bad mistake!

We got there as I said "for 2" to the waiter who was standing by the outside tables but that didn't get registered! I said "for 2" again and he just went "ah?"!!! So I said "dinner for 2" in order to clear things up (as if it was needed!) and still got that "ah beng" expression on his face!! Luckily, a waitress came out and rescued the situation by asking if we wanted to sit inside or outside! Getting a table was painful enough!

We ordered 4 mezze, two hot (soujouk and hummus with mince lamb on top) and two cold (foutoush and babouganosh) but none was impressive. The zaatar bread didn't taste like anything similar to zaatar. After dinner, we both have a dodge stomach and a funny after taste in my mouths and that kept us awake all night....!!!! Never again. I think Beiruit in Arab Street is 100 times better and you can smoke sheesha as well!