Casuarina Curry Restaurant & Catering (Thomson)

It was a foodhunt night out. After some appetisers at one of the cafes, my friends recommended Casuarina Curry for some yummy prata. Well, it seems popular on a weekday night. The decor also makes it look expensive :P unlike prata that you usually find @ kopitiam.
Looking @ the menu, they do have quite a wide variety, from sweet to savoury. I have tried the egg and plain prata. Taste not too bad, but the Curry Chicken gravy was a disappointment. It was rather watery and tasteless. Well, for prata lovers, you would agree that the right curry sauce is of equal importance as well. Was rather disappointed and expected more as friends were singing praises all the time.

I have been served by Casuarina for almost a decade and a half and it has always been acceptable till now. I'm writing this review just 3 hours after having my dinner there with my friends.

Service wise was okay. Went in, sat down, given the menu and we took 5 minutes to decide what we wanted to eat and then waited a good 15 minutes for the guy to come over to take our orders.

Food came after 10 minutes or so and we hungrily munched into it. Plain prata was as good as ever, very fragrant and their crusts of their pratas are all still thin and soft unlike other indian muslim stalls where their pratas are thick and hard. Their egg prata was a disappointment though. It was less fragrant and the crust of it was not as crispy as it used to be a decade back. We were served with chicken curry. It was not too spicy but really, nothing to shout about. They are not known for their curries, more known for their pratas and crispy crusts. Beware of their Bandung, it is VERY SWEET!

Overall, it was a disappointment but having grown up eating at casurina, i'll still support them!

3 Plain Pratas ($0.90)
5 Egg pratas ($1.50)
1 Mutton Murtabak ($5.00)
2 Teh Tarik ($0.90)
2 Bandung ($1.40)

Total Bill for 4 : $19.80

Hadn't eaten at Casuarina in a long long time and found the opportunity to do so about a week ago. As I was munching into the delicious prota and teh tarik alone, I recalled the time in late 80s when I visited this shop in an army land rover bristling with long range antennae. It was during a military exercise at Mandai and late at night, early morning actually, when we had a short break and I asked the driver to bring us to this restaurant for Prota. As I needed to keep in touch with the units, the signaller had to follow me out of the land rover to the restaurant - we sat outside of course and had a delicious drink and prota. We packaged lots too, for the hungry army buddies sweating it out in the Mandai forest.

Food: Great stuff - had a plain prota and a teh tarik. Order taker did not protest even though it was a small order. The prota came freshly made (not limp and wet) with fresh curry. Good stuff. Later on a waiter brought a plate of freshly fried "vade" and asked if I wanted one, I said no at first, but as the fragrance caught my nose, decided on one. It was the best vade I'd eaten in a long time, light and tasty.

Ambience: They have shifted up the road to close to the top of the road now and is airconditioned. Aircon did not work well when I was there and I decided to sit along the 5 foot way. It was cool that day.

Value: Cheap cheap.

Service: Friendly knowledgeable (no Mandarin here) and courteous.

When there for dinner about a week back. Air-con and the dim lighting makes the place look unlike most other night-time 24hr prata places.

The service was just like every other prata shop... so i figured that the prata's must be special to draw a crowd. But unfortunately, the egg, plain, and onion pratas are not spectacular. Its a little too crispy... But the fish curry was really nice.

I wouldn't mind going back.. only to try other stuff and the fish curry.

My sister and I wanted to have our late lunch(2pm) at casuarina curry because we have heard quite good comments on this place.

We seated ourselves and waved at the waiter to take our order, but he totally ignored us! So we waited for the other waiter who was clearing a table to take our order.

We called him after he was done, but he just told us to wait. Which we already were. So we decided to go inside ourselves to order at the cashier, the lady at the cashier told us to tell our orders to the waiters.

We stormed back out, my sister asked the waiter if he wanted to even take our orders and he replied us that they were very busy, but clearly the place was not even half packed.

Then he continued to say that if we wanted we could go to the next door chinese restaurant which was almost empty instead because they were very busy now.

My sister and I were extremely disgusted by the response the waiter gave us and the service in general.

WE SWORE TO NEVER RETURN TO THIS PLACE!!!

Hi peeps,

i think this place is a good place for prata consider that it is air con inside and have better ambience then most prata shop.

The quality of the prata is above average, but I ate better before, although I dun remember where.

The price is maybe just barely pricer, however, it is definitely worth due to the better then avaerage prata.

If you are really hungry go for its mutabak biggest size! haha... ups ups!

My family and I went there once to have Nasi Briyani (Mutton/Fish). The curry was red and looked spicy but when you eat it, it isnt spicy at all. The mutton is quite tender; the rice isnt that good. Ordered garlic prata (was very thin but crispy.. forgot how much we paid for it maybe a dollar/above?)

I expected this place to serve good indian food but was quite dissapointed. Curry which is not spicy (to me) has no standard.

Service is quite slow. The staff didn't give us the menu. We got it ourselves from somewhere near the counter. Took them some time to come and take order.

Final Say: I dont think its worth to come here for a meal. Service is most important, followed by quality of food.

I've eaten prata couple of times. Overall quite satisfying. Better than Mr Prata

Food: Plain prata is nice, fresh and crispy. The egg prata is not that great cos it's too crispy and thin. You can't actually taste the fragrance of the prata dough. I prefer those original taste. The prata were served fresh from chef.


Ambience: Comparing to hawker and other prata shop, it's one of the best. Spacious, with indoor and outdoor.

Value: Abit more ex den hawker but affordable

Service: Alright! Not too bad, not excellent

Aiyah...Singaporeans sometimes can be a bit spoilt lah. What do you expect of a prata place right? Just as long prata nice and crispy...I actually prefer prata place who are a bit slow on the prata but at least it will be hot and fresh. Fast prata means, they are on the shelves already, right????

Anyways, Casuarina is our family favourite eventhough we have to travel almost half the island for breakfast. The prata is light and fluffy and crispy. The curry is thick and tasty, especially the fish/chicken curry. The curry is so spicy that there is one time, after a very hot morning, I slurp the delicious curry too overzelously that I got sore throat! Aiyah, actually I just too greedy lor. Curry for dipping not slurping! Moral of the story: Spicy curry+slurping=sore throat!

Plus, after the heavy, ghee-laden breakfast, you can visit the free monkey zoo; my daughter's favourite! What monkey zoo, you asked? Well, just drive through into Pierce reservoir and you know what I mean, but please heed the warning and don't feed the monkeys. Especially not the roti prata you have "tapao-ed". At the end of the drive, you will be awarded with beautiful scenery of the reservoir. Have a small picnic; yes, I know you can still eat after that breakfast! After that, you all can fall asleep under the Casuarina tree! Ghee laden food+aircon & comfy car seat=lala land!

So if you coming only for prata, not that worth lah. But if you want an outing, I recommend!

I've been staying close to this place for 20 years, and it used to be something to look forward to after a long stroll along the Peirce Reservoirs - crispy roti prata dipped in curry.

It's hardly worth the effort to eat there now.


Service:

Service is now pitiful. The feeling the staff there give is that you, the customer, are worshipping at the Temple of Prata. They are arrogant, disrespectful and incompetent.

On several occasions, regardless of whether it’s 1 person or a group of people, regardless of whether it’s morning or night, we’ve been left at the seats for over 15min, trying in vain to get the attention of any wait staff. When any of them got up and tried to place their order personally, they were ordered brusquely: “Sit down.” and subsequently ignored for another 10min.

Treating your repeat customers like misbehaving children is fantastic service, really.

After placing orders for teh halia, milo dinosaur, one egg-onion prata and a coke for 4 people, the waiter asked incredulously, “Only?” Perhaps they feel that our group of friends, who include rugby players, are somewhat malnourished.

On the same occasion, the friend’s Coke, after being confirmed 5min after the order “Not Coke Light, right?” came only as a glass of ice sans can of Coke. After delivery of the egg-onion prata, the waiter suddenly picked it up and scrutinised it before the disbelieving eyes (and fork + spoon) or my friend before shouting across to his colleague an affirmation in Tamil.

This problem seems to be more so if you sit in the indoor area as compared to the outdoor area. The two areas have different wait staff.

At around 11.50pm, we were all but thrown out of the place because they were closing.

What self-respecting prata place closes at 12 midnight on weekends?


Ambience:
The place looks nice now in comparison to last time

A few years back they moved a few places down the same row of shophouses, expanded and started having air-conditioning. Only sit in the air-conditioned area if you feel like having the scent of roti prata pervade your clothes and hair.

Outside, however, you'll have to contend with people walking on one side and garbage cans/traffic/residential houses on the other hand. I find it part of the prata experience, so it's fine to me.


Beverages:
Casuarina Curry has developed the Kopitiam (the foodcourt chain) Syndrome - the urge to water down their drinks. Teh halia is my favourite drink at prata shops but the one at Casuarina Curry now is terribly bland. The ginger bit lacks bite and the tea lacks flavour. Blah.

The milo dinosaur, another perennial supper favourite, suffers from the same problem. Bland and watered-down. Ditto for the teh cino... the teh ping... the... okay, you get the idea.


Food:
One of my favourites last time was their plain prata. Now it’s a bit hit-and-miss. There was previously this lovely buttery taste to it, but now like their drinks, it’s a bit bland.

The accompanying curry, like their drinks, is watered down and lacks both fragrance and kick. If you want a good curry to go with the prata, you'll do well to order a separate mutton/chicken curry dish.

Well, all is not lost. Their egg prata is still pretty nice, with crispy edges. Not bad, not bad.


I'm not happy that Casuarina Curry is figuratively spitting in the faces of the patrons who had supported them in the past.

Public transport's not that convenient, it's not located near any MRT stations but parking's pretty easy. Is it worth the petrol money? No. If you stay within walking distance, it's still alright.