Samy's Curry at 25A Dempsey Rd in the Senior Civil Service Club (opposite the previous Central Man Power Base) is a Singapore institution. Having withstood the test of more than twenty years, they are still going strong.
This place serves traditional banana leaf curry where you basically get a large banana leaf for your plate and order an array of dishes to accompany your rice. The curry of the day is quite interesting and I've had on different occasions had the standard dhal ranging to more interesting curries like pumpkin and chickpeas.
Since we ordered quite a lot of dishes, I'll just focus on my favorites. The chicken tikka is actually fried here instead of grilled which doesn't really sacrifice on the taste because these little morsels of chook are so well-marinated they go down really well with your meal or just as finger food. Another plus point is that they're completely boneless as well.
Fried mutton, greasy, spicy and salty. This is like a moist beef jerky and goes really well with an icy cold beer. You can stir this into your bryani rice as well and although it's not as saucy as a rendang, it'll still impart an additional fragrant aroma to the rice.
Their masala chicken is another popular dish and although I wished the chicken was slightly more well marinated, the rather potent sauce on it makes up for this. I still wished that the masala chilli gravy on it would be hotter (chilli-wise) though, but maybe if it were, it would overpower the rest of the spices. I guess it's all about balance here.
Despite claiming to be "specialized in South Indian cuisine" they make a pretty kick-ass naan bread which was very fluffy and chewy. In fact these naans were as good or even better than some I've had in North Indian restaurants. Being generous with the butter and garlic also helped score some major points. I don't know if they actually baked these in a tandoor oven because I didn't see one but even if they were baked in a conventional oven, they still tasted awesome.
Their recommended drink to douse the spiciness of their dishes is the lime juice. I normally go for the iced milk tea instead. As you can see, the upsized version gives you much more bang for your buck. In the background of this picture, you can catch a glimpse of Samy's famous fish head curry but despite ordering two serves of it, I didn't really have much because I'm not really a fan of fish head curry and I guess that subconsciously made me forget to take any photographs of it either!Nestled nicely in an airy, spacious bungalow (colonial detached house) with ample parking. Samy's abundantly feeds for about 20SGD per person.
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2 comments:
Oooo, I always consistently comment on Samy's to say that: My family and I went there and were disappointed. I found their fish head curry TOO spicy, I mean so much so it overwhelmed the flavour of anything else. All 5 or 6 of us agreed Apolo's is much better.
I didn't like that they were very pushy, the guy kept trying to scoop different things onto our banana leafs even before we had a look at them. We had to insist very firmly he stop.
My boyfriend and i simply loveeee Samy's curry. Great food with great service. But its not exactly cheap though. And there's another one at Katong I heard.
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