After visiting the museum of Shanghai toys in Little India recently, my friend and I hunted around for some nice Indian cuisine. That’s when I had the opportunity to savor the first North Indian meal of my life.
We were at khansama tandoori restaurant, a place that serves authentic North Indian delicacies as opposed to the more ubiquitous South Indian eateries. The alfresco dining area on the ground floor was brimming with customers, mostly tourists. We were escorted to the second level that had air conditioning, purple walls and almost no customer.

SGD1
For drinks, we ordered teh tarik (“pulled” tea). It was frothy enough, but a tad too sweet. I was fine with it though.
We also had samosas as appetisers. These came with two dips — green curry and sweet chili sauce. This fried turnover is more commonly known as the curry puff.

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The samosas turned out to be instant favorites! They were of a generous size and went well with the tasty dips. The spicy potato filling was yummy while the turnover itself was not too oily. I almost felt like I could eat it guilt-free!
Being new to North Indian cuisine, we spent a long time scrutinising the menu before deciding on what dishes to order. Almost all the menu items had Indian names. We had to read the English descriptions carefully to find out what each dish was.

SGD6.50
Going for something that seems familiar, we opted for chicken curry as our first dish. Surely chicken curry can’t go wrong! The dish was cooked traditional North Indian style with a curry that’s thicker than your average Chinese curry, which tends to be quite soupy.
The gravy was satisfactory, but the chicken needed more work. The meat wasn’t as tender as I had hoped, and I felt we got more bone than meat.

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The fish masala was definitely more delicious. It was cooked in onion sauce with tomatoes and cream. The onion sauce was one mean concoction of various Indian spices; it was bursting with flavor!

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Along with our chicken and fish dishes, we had saffron rice, one of the many rice variations they served. It was a shade of yellow and had a tinge of sweetness.

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With all the curry and all the spice, we needed a vegetable dish and found our choice in the green salad. It consisted of onion, cucumber, carrot, radish, green chili, lemon and tomato. On paper it looked good, but in actual fact it was nothing more than an arrangement of fruit slices and cut vegetables on a dish! That was one dish we virtually left untouched. I rate it one star.

Still, I enjoyed my first North Indian meal very much despite being a picky eater. The service was prompt. The appetiser and gravy dishes were good. The restaurant was also nicely decorated in very “indian” colors (purple, red). With Indian music in the background and Indian music videos on the two flat screen television sets, all of it makes for a very unique Indian experience.
Little India
166 Serangoon Road
Singapore 218050
(65) 6299 0300
Service:

www.khansama.net
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chup
May 24
Wah, how can u tell north indian delicacies from south indian food? Teach me?
And also, i just realise that Fish Masala is the most exp dish of the day, but then it worth it anyway =)
Veron
May 24
North Indian food is milder and less spicy as compared to South Indian food. That is the prime difference. The food we had wasn’t really spicy, unlike the usual hawker center Indian food.
rr
June 8
Green salad in india is as u see there !
Salad concept is different in india..
btw i won’t recommend Khansama to anyone…. a big cockroach dropped on our table when we were dining there….fortunately we had finished our dishes….
the staff didn’t bother about what happened …even tried to cover up saying that it doesn’t happen every day !!
Didn’t see a pinch of apology in their behaviour.
Veron
June 8
Every culture has its own unique way of preparing salads, I guess!
Thanks for warning us. That cockroach incident sounds nasty and I wouldn’t want that to happen to anyone. Yikes!
Shawn
February 13
Yummy!
It’s a mouth watering food!
I just love Samosas with a cup of Tea.
Veron
February 13
That’s a great combination right there! I love a hot teh tarik with Indian food.