This was our second visit to Khansama to indulge in scrumptious North Indian food. The food ordered at our first time here was so mindblowingly yummy that we decided to order the same dishes as before!
Khansama holds a special place in my heart - I've visited quite a few north indian places around little india and I found this place to be one of the best.
Before the avalanche of awesome food was presented to our table, we had a little teaser in the form of crispy and spicy Roasted Papad/ Papadum. For $3 you get two big pieces of this incredibly flavourful crackers. This is unlike any of the typical kinds that is piled on briyani. Best thing was the accompanying very spicy mint dip! Papadum (known as papad in North India), roasted instead of fried so it's completely devoid of oil, and I think this is one of the few if not only places which serve INSANELY SPICY mint dip! We chortled and snortled as we dunked papad into copious amounts of green death sauce - yum.
I do not claim to be an expert in North Indian food, but I must proclaim that the naan breads here at Khansama are the bestest I've had in my 23+ years of existence. We ordered one plain (~$2.50) and one cheese naan (~$5.50).
Portions of each are very generous, and so you really do get your fill of scrummy carbs. The naans are just slightly crispy outside, and so fluffy yet dense on the inside. The cheese one especially - my goodness - there is an ABUNDANCE of cheese CHUNKS in it. The cheese naans are arguably one of the best I've ever had, anywhere - tons of cheese, melty and strong in flavour, buttery oily goodness. Plain naans are big and slightly crispy!Palak Paneer, spinach with cottage cheese ($10.50) - one of the most well known north indian dishes to go phantasmically fantastic with naans, this messy green goop is one of the best renditions I've ever had - ultra duper generous with the cheese chunks, a lot more oil to really bring out the flavour in everything. And the cheese seems to be of a higher quality than many others I've had - firm and fragrant as opposed to flaky and marginally tasteless. And believe you me, these indian metal bowls are deceptively large - there's enough stuff here to polish off 4 - 5 naans.
This dark green mess fortunately does not taste like how it looks. I love this to bits, and would personally eat this every day if I could! Ultra thick mushy spinach lathered in oil and brimming with cottage cheese the size of icebergs. A must order!
Having had too much butter chicken, we asked the waitress to suggest a spicy mutton dish and was presented with Mutton Rogan Josh, cubes of baby lamb cooked in herbs and spices in dhaba style ($10.50). Well, baby lamb or not, the mutton was not overly soft, firm to the bite, and fullll of spice and flavour. Looks and tastes a lot like an extremely gao indian mutton curry with a gazillion more herbs. So fantastic with naan.
The bite-sized lamb cubes were tender, and not overly lamb-y/gamey. Curry was quite spicy and you just want to mop up everything with the naan (which we happily did). Seemed like too little food but boy were we wrong - we ended up ordering another plain naan which kinda tipped our fullness factor from "just nice" to "kill me nOOWWW", and after the 3 naan were gone there was still plenty of mutton and spinach for another round or two. With the soft light ambience, prompt service, great food and two cups of tea, a bill of ~$45 was well worth it.HGW Link : http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/khansama_tandoori_village/
Rating (out of 4) :
THANK YOU
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The staff is wonderful and the chef/owner often will come to the dining room to talk to the guests, explain his take on the foods, and recommend from the menu and off the menu if you so wish. In addition to fantastic non-spicy food, Khansama will also cater to your spicy side and add different levels of spicy "heat" to any dish you wish to your liking.
When compared to some of the more touristy establishments. Don't be fooled. This place is amazing.
Go there and then go there again and again. If you are only visiting Singapore, make this one of your dinner engagements. You will not be disappointed.