Food for the Giants! Chicken Briyani @ Sri Kamala Vilas Restaurant

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Having visited Singapore's Best Briyani, I thought I would not visit other places for Nasi Briyani but with "Allauddin's Briyani" closing early, I can only look for alternatives. In the same precint of Tekka Centre/Market, "Sri Kamala Vilas Restaurant" resides at the ground level of a HDB. My first visit to Sri Kamala Vilas was about ten years ago! That was during my Polytechnic days when I was fat beyond hope! Even then I had always faced diffculty with their huge portions. This time I decided to take up the challenge again. Since I have always sang their praises, I seek to justify my claim, after all, its been ten freaking years!

Sri Kamala Vilas Restaurant
Block 662, Buffalo Road, #01-16, Singapore 210662
The same old signboard and stall interior gives a nostalgia feeling. From inside the restaurant, it leads to another larger enclosed seating area. The image on right shows the take-away counter and the shelf on the right displays a wide range of authentic indian sweets. The small window in the wall is where hot cripsy thosai are tossed into the take-away counter. Through the small window, a huge hidden kitchen is visible.


Chicken Briyani
S$5.70
with diet cola S$1.20
On a large serving tray, larger than those in the food courts, a huge piece of take-away paper lines the tray instead of the good old banana leaf. The briyani rice lacks color variations in the grains, unlike those from most briyani stalls. Despite this, the rice is flavoured by other visible ingredients/spices such as cashew nut, star anise, fennel and fried shallots. The chicken is fried in dried chilli paste instead of being stewed in curry. Scraping away the ingredients and chilli paste reveals the lovely white tender chicken meat. The chilli paste coating the chicken gives the punch to the whole briyani with the spicyness. Too worsen things, on the sides, a small bowl of curry which has a slight tangyness, and another mean-looking dollop of chilli paste which gives the kick! The salad on the sides are good for suppressing the spicyness if necessary. But I prefer to drown everything with an ice-cold fizzy diet-cola, though it would be nice to go with a cup of hot teh halia (ginger milk tea).





Verdict
If you are faced with closed shutters at "Allauddin's Briyani", fret not, 'cos there is still "Sri Kamala Vilas Restaurant". Sri Kama Vilas is conveniently located under Block 662, beside Tekka Centre, facing Bukit Timah Road (yes, Bukit Timah Road starts here!). There are POSB ATMs outside the restaurant should you eat till you burst your belt and need to buy a new one. This is really food fit for the giants! The deceiving small portion of briyani rice turns out to be insanely huge! Though I have already shed my past, I still had the stomach for huge portions! However, even present day, by the time had finished my meal, I was 150% full! I should have fasted during lunch! Nevertheless, the meal is value for the money. The rice is fragrant and the cashew nets added texture to it altogether. The chicken is fresh and tender soft. Most importantly, the mean chilli pastes are excellent for those who loves spicy food. At Sri Kamala Vilas, they serve thosai as well and it seemed rather popular. I will definitely re-visit and try it some day. The only disappointment is that I missed the nostalgia of eating from a banana leaf.
Highly recommended! Must try!

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