Yantra

More reviews at http://DanielFoodDiary.com

Yantra has to be one of the finest restaurants locally offering authentic North Indian cuisine – with a rich and elegant setting that enhances the dining experience. The space is huge, enough for events and gatherings, yet comfortable enough to feel the privacy and classiness of the surroundings.

What will probably excite you is the number of kebabs offered, extending to several pages of a mouth-watering pictorial menu.  The Macchi Tukda Haiyali ($33) though looking a little unattractive in a green seasoning of mint, coriander and curry leaves, is enjoyably fresh with melt-in-your-mouth fish.

Almost every table was ordering a Raan-e-Yantra ($39) – tender baby leg of lamb embraced in an earthy marinade of yougurt and special seasoning. Before it is placed on the table, it is set on fire with fennel flavoured rum, thereafter giving the meat a slight-charred crisp layer.

http://danielfooddiary.com/2011/07/25/yantra/

 

We had lunched at Yantra a few months ago and I had forgotten all about the photos I took,  perhaps it was a forgettable experience.

Ambience:  It's a real classy place,  posh, well decorated...,   pity the food ain't that hot.

Food:  They concentrate on only chicken n fish,  Great mogul food must have lamb lah !!  I recall that the Naan was great tasting,  and I ate it with a fish curry ----  I suspect the fish is pacific dory (cat fish from Vietnam) not even the red snapper.  The spinach dishes were good too.  Must not be memorable because I cannot recall much else.

Value:  Pricey,  you get better value at Go India !

Service:  Pleasant,  but understaffed.

Yes, the food is still good....best "bang for buck buffet" for Indian (15 for $15 and 25 for $25).  But, what I once considered "excellent...superb....THE best quality Indian" (once a "9" in my book) has, unfortunately, declined to simply "quite good".(maybe a 6.5-7ish, depending on the day).

The change is most noticeable with the reduced quality of cuts of meat that are now used for the non-veg tandoors and curry items.  Diners once enjoyed thick, meaty chunks of chicken and lamb in these dishes at Yantra.  The meat was completely devoid of the fat and grizzled marbled variety that are the norm in the "other" Indian joints.  Sad to say, when I dined there the past two times (within the past 5 weeks), I spent more time cutting "around" (to spare the embarrassment of the dreaded not-so-subtle "napkin spit" to save from swallowing a mouth full of fat) instead of slicing through the once tender chunks of carnivore bliss.

Service was so-so when I dined a few weeks back on a Sunday (the server kept disappearing indefinitely...and it was NOT a crowded day!), but the staff was attentive and on their toes today (a Saturday).

Nan is still hot and made to order and the veg dishes were quite good (particularly like the bhindi gobi).

I tried Yantra recently for their very enticing 15-dishes-for-15$ weekday lunch buffet. In the spread, among vegetarian dishes were 2-3 appetizers, including mushrooms coated & roasted with spices and chana chaat, 3-4 main course dishes, including kadai paneer, bhindi and yellow daal, and gulab jamun, kheer and jalebi for dessert.

The mushroom appetizer was really good, while the main course dishes were decent (definitely not great enough to be ordered a-la-carte for 30 odd bucks). The gulab jamuns for dessert were freshly made and melting-on-your-tongue good! 

I would definitely recommend trying the buffet - it's good value for money for Indian food in Singapore, especially in a fine-dining ambiance like Yantra's. 

I've heard a lot about this place and finally decided to try it out. I went along with my girlfriend and another friend.

Wednesday evening, dinner, 6:30pm.

Crowd - Apart from us, there was another group of three and a couple entered a few mins after we did.

The ambience is very nice. Good lighting, fancy decor, nicely spaced. nice music!

The service is very good - if i'm picky, i'd say the only part where we felt a bit more attention was required was when we wanted to place the order but couldn't see any of the waitress's around for about three minutes. To be fair to them, they had just opened for dinner. In another 20 minutes, 3-4 more servers had come out of nowhere! For the rest of the dinner, the service was exceptional.

We ordered two shikanjvis and one jeera paani for drinks. Both the shikanjvi and the jeera paani were good. The skikanjvi was tastier.

For starters, we had papdi chaat. Very stylishly served and certainly enough portion for three.

For the main course, chicken biryani, dal yantra, bharwaan bhindi, lachcha paranthas and plain naans. Biryani - one of the better ones I have tried. The rice quality is good. Dal - good. Bharwaan Bhindi - well prepared, nice masala. The portions served for all the dishes were very satisfying.

Considering the high standards of the restaurant, the breads were something we felt they could improve on - both the lachcha paranthas and the naans.

We didn't have the time (the friend had to rush for a 9:30 flight) to try the desserts but will try when i go next!

As for the price, it is on the expensive side, but this is one of the few indian fine dining places where I felt the entire experience was value for money. Also, I got a 15% off on my bill so perhaps that added to the value for money experience (I paid by Amex)

 

 

Having heard so much about the food here, I did not hesitate when the fiance suggested to check out the food here when even his indian colleagues highly recommend this place.

Unable to resist the temptation of dining here again, Panerai joined for dinner too!

It was indeed high points on ambience and decor where one will not equate to the usual Indian dining joints. Depending on the location of the table, one can get a nice view of the tandoor ovens where the chefs are busy working.

1) Chicken Kali Mirch

Chicken chunks marinated in a mix of chilli paste, garlic, ginger and pepper. The chicken chunks were tender and well marinated. Addictive stuff.

2) Dahakte Jhinga

Grilled tiger prawns (un-shelled) marinated in spiced vinegar served on sizzling hot plate. Prawns were fresh and not overcooked.

3) Rogan Josh

Traditional North Indian mutton curry, standard order at any Indian food outlets we patronize. Mutton was tender with not 'funny' taste, not that I am very sensitive to it though. Curry not very spicy and thus good for people who do not have high spice tolerance.

4) Garlic naan and Vegetable Briyani

Garlic naan is fragrant and served hot. Not to be taken for granted as I do get naan served warm or luke warm elsewhere before.

Vegetable Briyani has a good mix of veg and fragrant too. One of the good briyani around.

All the items above were good stuff, but if I had to choose, it will be the Chicken Kali Mirch. Must try.

A friend and I went to try their Indian buffet lunch. It was $15++ and worth every penny! Most things on offer were not overly spicy. One of the dishes was a watery seafood curry with scallops, fish and prawns. The scallops were a little tough and the smell of the seafood was still quite strong in spite of the spices used. Perhaps the seafood could have been fresher? 

I loved the posh and spacious ambience of the restaurant, particularly because it has lots of natural light coming in from tall windows along one side of the restaurant. Surprisingly for such a upmarket looking eatery, there were 2 pieces of crockery I used that had a chipped edge. One was a plate and one was a soup bowl. That was quite surprising. 

The restaurant's obviously very popular with the tai tais.. We had two tables of FOUR expats (one ang moh batch and one India-Indian batch) on either side of us, so it did get a little noisy as lots of catching up was conducted over lunch and dessert.

On the whole, it was excellent and I will probably go there again after a few months. 

Everyone said how great Yantra was so we had dinner there. For me, it's ok, nothing fantastic given the price tag. We had the leg of lamb and chicken tikka as starters. The lamb is supposed to be a signature dish of Yantra but I thought it was average. The chicken was actually a much better dish.

For main, we had the mixed dhal, naan, paneer and the pomfret. They were alright, nothing impressive. 

The service, however, was good and our waitress was keen on explaining the menu and giving us guidance in ordering the food. 

Rasmalai was good but kulfi for me was average. 

I heard they do a lunch buffet though for a bargain of $15 per person!

For a net price of S$15 per pax, I am definitely not complaining!  The restaurant's deco is tastefully done-up; indeed a hidden gem when you are only charged S$15 nett per person for a buffet. Love the tender tandoori chicken. A piece of advice, you need to make reservations before coming down... best if you call a day or two prior.