Tandoor North Indian Restaurant

My family and I have dined at Tandoor North Indian Restaurant many times, despite the hefty price of such visits. We haven't found another Indian restaurant that compares favorably, despite trying a good many alternatives both in Little India and elsewhere. We've enjoyed their Sunday buffet several times, many Executive Set Lunches & Dinners, as was well as a number of items off the ala carte menu.

The decor and atmosphere are first-rate, and the wait-staff are cheerful and accommodating. This is especially important for patrons with small children. A few of the servers have gone out of their way to entertain our boys (age 5 & 3), engaging them in conversation, and inviting them to visit the kitchen.

Stand-out entrees include tandoor fish, curried mutton, and butter chicken.

We have been fortunate to realize additional savings through on-line promotional deals on several occasions (frequently offered on Groupon).

We had the set menu on a Sunday night.  The fish in the tandoori starter was juicy and flavorful, the chicken less so.  A complimentary cup of soup was terrific.  Then it all went downhill.  We got five small bowls of curry thali-style.  The yellow dal was tasteless and thin while the lamb curry was just chunks in a tasteless tomato gravy.  The vegetable offering looked like it had been offered to previous diners and the prawn curry was cold.  The butter chicken was OK and the breads were nice as was a black dal we orderd off the a la carte.  But we drank lime soda and walked out with a bill for over SD150 ..............  forget it, there are many many places better than this and I'll be trying them all before I come back.

Dinner on a Saturday. Had made reservations. 3 ppl.

Ambience: Quite pleasant. The place was full - of people and chatter. But not noisy. The setting was nice but nothing very special. The tables are well laid out, spacious. The lights could have been a bit dimmer to add to the ambience.

Food: We decided to go for the set meals. All three ordered vegetarian food - Two set D's and one set E. There is no major difference between the two set meals - just different selection of dishes. There is a slight difference in price - one is for 45 and the other for 52.

The quality, quantity, variety and taste of the food is very good. In fact, none of us were able to finish the meals - and I consider myself to have quite a voracious apetite. The bread served was crisp, the pulao rice was well cooked. Out of the ten or so different dishes served (five or six different dishes in each set), we didn't find two or three (like the mushroom muttar, and the corn-something) of them to be delicious. The rest were good.

 

Value: Overall, I would score this restaurant slightly lower on the value scale. There are a few other indian fine dining places out there where I felt more satisfied after the entire experience. We were given a 15% discount and felt that was quite good! 

 

Service: The service was quite delightful. Very attentive and respectful staff. In fact, we had come into the restaurant a bit late (around 9 30pm) so by the time we finished it must have been 11 - 1115pm. We stayed for about 30 minutes after the last guests had left, but not a single time did anyone pass by out table or give us a look. They just carried on setting up the rest of the tables and waited for us to finish.

 

 

Lots of reviews here so decide to check them out.The fish is ok,not very authentic in my opinion.The kebabs were done well but nothing out of the world.All in an average food place.

Finally had the chance to patronise the sunday brunch buffet here.

The buffet spread was lavishly displayed on tables outside the restaurant, and there was even a life station making on the spot dosais and chaats. the papdi chaats were excellent and it was my first time having them but i was instantly smitten with the distinct crunch of the crisp "nachos" and the tasteful blend of mint sauce and spices with the delightful chickpeas.

The curries offered were relatively limited however, vegetable curry was weak in my opinion.the chicken curry was good but somewhat too buttery while the mushroom curry was not outstanding. The lentil curry was too mild too. The tandoori fish however was the highlight of the brunch and was certainly delightful, aromatic, tasty, zingy and fresh.At the dosai station, lentils and onion fritters were served. the onion fritters were excellent but would be much better if they were warm and crisp.

We also ordered naan that was freshly made, we tried the tandoori roti, cheese naan,garlic naan and butter naan. The tandoori roti was not bad but I've tasted better, the garlic naan was average only, fluffy but lacking in flavor. I also preferred the crisp variety while the ones here were somewhat chewy.the buuter naan was said to be the best since it was crispy and aromatic. the cheese naan was however disappointing as the cheese stuffing was cottage cheese and was lumpy and hardly melted.  

The soup offered was apparently a mixture of mushroom and corn that was surprisingly good and tasted somewhat western. Masala tea and a wide array of desserts were served, from fresh fruits to traditional indian desserts as well as western cakes (the chocolate cake was heavenly, bittersweet and awesome) as well as ice cream.

Service was prompt and friendly and the chefs at the chaat and dosai stations were exceptionally warm and enthusiastic about introducing indian cuisine.This brunch would be a good place to introduce people to indian cuisine as the variety offered is of quality and quantity. Especially worth a visit with the current promotion!

First thing first, ditch that stereotyped concept of Indian food being oily and spicy, consisting only of roti prata and curry chicken/mutton.  At this restaurant in which North Indian food is served, the food is neither oily nor spicy, despite having countless of spcies added into the food.  The main source of carbo here is soft naan, not the oily roti prata.

The food here consists of soup, grilled meat and vegetables (No fried food! Which is all good with me), and different kinds of curry filled with chunks of meat and vegetables, all are so flavorful, bursting with the goodness of spices, yet being hardly spicy at all.  The deserts are a tad too sweet, though strangely, I could finish it.  Must be the lure of the condensed milk...

The service is quite ok, fulfilling the basics, but a bit cold and too relaxed.

The ambience is of lush golden splendor, I don't know why but I think of Taj Mahal when dining at this place.

This is definitely the place I'll go to, for high end Indian food!

We decided to try the executive set lunch ($25++) on a Saturday. Got there at 1345 and the place was rather quiet with just 3 - 4 tables filled.

The place was nicely decorated with a centre stage used for traditional Indian music performances on some evenings of the week.

Some appetisers were served first with the drinks. There were papadum and crispy rice cake.

The soup was spinach soup which was rich in flavour aided by pepper and spices. We were happy that it was not too salty nor creamy.

The main course appeared with naan (alternatively rice could be ordered in place of naan). The naan was crispy outside and fluffy inside. It was not burnt. Full marks for the naan and it was quite a generous serving.

The main course which was beautifully presented, included 4 items

1. A piece of tandoori chicken which was fragrant and juicy.

2. A piece of tandoori fish which literally melted in our mouth. Only complaint was that it could have been a larger piece.

3. A lamb kebab - the meat was finely minced and seasoned with spices. Normally I dislike mutton but the characteristic aroma of mutton was so well disguised in this case that I loved every bit of the kebab.

4. There was a small bowl of chicken curry that was so rich and tasty to complement the naan.

The dessert came in the form of a hot Indian item (which I could not name) complementing a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The vanilla ice cream which was actually less sweet than the hot item was rich and creamy and complemented the hot item exquisitely.

The meal was rounded off with a choice of either coffee or masala tea. We opted for the coffee which was very good indeed.

The service was courteous and attentive. To top it off, American Express card holders could get a generous discount off the set lunch. It was perfect!!

A friend had 1-for-1 vouchers for the buffet so being the cheapos that we are, we geared up our stomachs for it. I asked my husband 'err Northern Indian food is it all vegetarian one ah?' and he showed me the picture on the voucher which was a succulent piece of tandoori chicken. I was sold.

I absolutely loved everything about it. But the price. You may wonder how much of a cheapo I really am but I'll come to that later. But first the good stuff.

The food was wonderful. I can't remember all the names but I didn't have a bad thing at all. I did not however have much room for dessert but the mango cake was nice. Coffee... we all did not like. But then again, why go to an Indian restaurant and drink coffee? Creatures of habit I guess.

Service was top notch. Baby chair was rather high class looking. You know how some restaurants try to fit in with the theme and end up looking rather sad? Not this place. One could really blink and feel like it was India.

OK so the price. How much would you pay for a lunch time buffet? I thought maybe $25 would be reasonable? Or maybe I'm really too cheapo. Anyhow it was $38++. We gulped of course when we got the bill.

And then gulped down the rest of our water to make it worth it. Joking la. Not that cheapo.

Yes I would return but only if there was a promotion of sorts.

I'm not an expert on Northern Indian food, but the grub at Tandoor certainly tastes good. The naans are light and fluffly, the butter chicken is super rich and creamy and, surprisingly, the tandoori fish is grilled to perfection.

I usually order tandoori lamb or chicken, so it was really a pleasant surprise that the fish was so well done. I can't describe it well, but it was something like eating grilled cod but without the (sometimes too cloying) buttery-ness. Excellent.

Tandoor strikes me as being a rather sleepy restaurant as far as the Singapore food circuit goes, but it was nice how they did try and distinguish themselves from other Northern Indian restaurants with really fancy plates (shot with gold, ink blot shapes...it was really quite pleasing) and cutlery (intriguing fork that's shaped like a spoon...all the better to scoop up the gravy with!).

But seriously, if you want a place in the heart of shopping central that's quiet and serves quality Indian food, Tandoor's a good bet.