Gurkha Palace Restaurant

Gurkha Palace serves an assortment of Nepalese and South Indian food.

Located at Chander Road, once the heart of Singapore gangsterism but now the heart of a very cultural Little India, the setting is a darken restaurant with a strong scent.

I tried several items like the aloo gobi, the mutton curry and an assortment of kebabs and I generally found the food to be too spicy - which unfortunately kills the taste in many of these dishes.

Service was acceptable but with many options around the area I do not think I will be returning for the food anytime soon.

One of my gripes about the restaurants on Racecourse Road is that most of them have upped the prices of plain naan to $2.50 upwards.  Gurkha Palace charges $1.50 which was one of the things I took notice of.  Granted some effort in making naan but $2.50 for a 80g piece of bread is a bit steep, really. 

Anyway, we decided to try this place and ordered a bit too much:

Mutton Briyani ($7.50).  This came in a small pot and is enough to feed 2, with sufficient amount of tender mutton.  OK, it could have been more flavourful but when many other places are charging $8-10, .....

Plain Naan ($1.50 each).  I suppose they were a bit smaller than some other places, but they also charge less.....  4 of us shared 3 naans.

Butter Chicken ($10)  This is definitely one of the better ones around.  And the chicken is tandoori chicken.  Wonderfully creamy and tasty

Mutton Masala ($9)  This did not come out as expected instead it could have passed off as a Rogan Josh variant.  I was expecting more of the Sth Indian variety so probably my fault here.

Malai Kebab ($10)  Not the best but very generous 8-9 pieces.

Mixed Veg Nepal style ($5)  This was good - in a light curry, it had a few types of veg and some  paneer. 

Mango Lassi (1) $3.50  Nice.

Until 15 Jan, 10% discount.  No GST too.  Free Sikhani (dessert) which was a very nice thick smooth yogurt with fruit and honey - this was awesome....

$49 for 4 of us and we struggled to finish the food - could have fed 5 easily....

I will be back.

 

 

 

 

 

Went back for 3rd or 4th time last night, though I really haven't gone back for more than 6 months I think.

We had a mutton set ($6, very economical), 2 garlic naans, and butter chicken.

Mutton set: Their set meals are not on the menu so you'll have to ask directly - I know there's a mutton and chicken version, not sure if there're any others. Consists of basmati rice, a plain naan, dhal, mutton curry, eggplant+potatoes. The actual items vary so you might not get the same stuff when you order it. On the whole quite nice and definitely filling for 1 person.

Garlic naans: The garlic flavor was a little too subdued for my liking (the best ones I've had were at The Mango Tree).

Butter chicken: They do a mean butter chicken here. Today's was a little too salty though. Still, I'd come back for more of this.

On the whole, reasonable prices for a satisfying Indian meal. Thumbs up.

In a moment of folly, I chose to arrange dinner with an Indian friend in little India and was issued a challenge "Haha, Okay. Let's see where you bring me for dinner." After searching a little on HungryGoWhere ("Briyani near Little India" filtered within 500m and sort by food score), I found this little gem and decided to give it a go.

Reading through the list of must-tries by other reivews, the Mutton Briyani naturally made it as part of my order and I must say this is one of the better briyanis around! Presented as a little pot of vibrantly coloured Basmanti rice grains, this was more than a pretty face. The rice grains (boiled twice to remove most of its starch content, or so I was told by my friend) were so light, I finished 3/4 of the pot all by myself. The little mutton chunks were superbly tender and tasty, providing a complementary heavier touch to the dish.

My Mango Lassi was not too thick, not too sour - just nice. And the Gulab Jamuun desserts, though not as densely packed as other places, were surprisingly not too sweet - a great way to end the meal.

Good food, pleasant service and great location - I'll be back again.

This week, for no reason, we decided to go "Indiana"! There we were, strolling down the streets at Little India, we found our small palace located right at Chander road. Ghurka Palace Restaurant caught our attention as they serve authentic Nepalese and Northern Indian food. We never had Nepalese cuisine before and hence we decided to try it out! Sitting in the "palace" made us feel homely and cosy.

We were indeed just like Queens to be served.

*We were the only customers in the restaurant then. Haha*

Complimentary Papadum with Mint sauce was served swiftly after we placed our order.

The mint sauce was really refreshing and good! It went pretty well with the keropok. Salty, sweet and minty.

A unique taste indeed!

Chapati, $1.50

For only $1.50, you get 2 large pieces of chapati! The soft chewy texture goes very well with the butter chicken. However, our jaws were aching from chewing the chapati as we left it to the last.

J's & A's rating: 3.5/5

Cheese Naan, $3.50

The cheese naan here tasted like plain naan. We couldn't detect the taste of cheese, only a thin layer was spread onto the naan which added slight saltiness to it. However, we do love the softness and crispiness of the naan.

A's rating: 3.5/5, J's rating: 3/5

Kukhura Makhani (Butter Chicken), $8

We ordered this dish as it was highly recommended by the waiter. Kukhura Makhani is actually chicken marinated with Nepalese herbs, tender cooked and serve with creamy butter gravy. The creamy and tangy gravy reminded us of japanese curry except that it was non-spicy. The gravy infused with herbs and spices was very addictive! We kept dipping our naans and chapti into it. Besides, the chicken morsels were very tender and succulent!

*The butter here refers to 'malai' or cream*

J: I can't really taste the butter from the sauce. The 1st mouthful actually turned me off as I felt it was too salty for my palate. However, I eventually found it to be a better dip than Daal Makhani! Perhaps due to the thicker gravy used in Kukhura Makhani, the full-bodied taste left a lingering aroma in my mouth, which made Daal Makhani taste more bland after a while.

J's & A's rating: 4.25/5

They gave generous amount of chicken morsels! So much that we actually ordered additional garlic naan later on to go with the gravy dip.

Garlic Naan, $2

The garlic naan was much better than the cheese naan. Intense garlic flavour was so satisfying that we can almost keep zombies at bay lol. It tasted exceptionally palatable when eaten hot!

A & J's rating: 4.25/5

Our way of eating: Tear off a small portion of the naan and wrap with it around the chicken morsel. Yummy!

Daal Makhani, $5

Daal Makhani is a delicacy from Punjab in India. This thick stew was prepared using black lentils and red kidney beans which were cooked and simmered for hours. This savoury stew has a slight sweetness with a minty flavour. It was a great match with the naans, and even on its own. Love the beany bites! Perhaps due to addition of the various spices, for the 1st time we could actually accept the Makhani even though they added lots of disgusting coriander leaves!

A's rating: 4.25/5, J's rating: 4/5

Dinner at Gurkha was pleasant. The service here was attentive and fast. Food were served promptly. In addition, the waiter was very friendly and knowledgeable. He gave excellent recommendations and took effort to explain each dish to us. Kudos to him!

Besides, Gurkha already have their groups of loyal customers. We could hear many regulars saying

"We are back again!"

We've yet to try out the butter chicken and daal from other restaurant. The rating given is based on our first impression of the dishes. But in general, we must say the food here is really reasonable and good!

For more reviews and photos, visit http://sistafood.blogspot.com/2009/09/gurkha-palace-restaurant-satisfying.html

ohh you know how the say good things have to be shared? so yes, here you go, gurkha palace. this is a quaint little restaurant serving nepalese and northern indian cuisine in the heart of little india.

a group of us went and ordered: half a tandoori chicken, chicken briyani, palak paneer (spinach and cheese), fish manchurian, cheese naan and an onion naan. plus they give you a free flow of papadum for our appetizer!

the briyani came in a pot that was good for at least 2 to share. the rice was fluffy and richly flavoured. it was filled with huge chunks of mutton and came with a plate of curry. it went well with the palak paneer too, which was green thick and creamy with cubes of cheese in it. the fish manchurian was really quite spicy! but very very very shiokk!

okay this is a place definitely worth visiting! ill be back! with my whole gin gang! for another hearty feast. :)