I really indulged it the fact that you can eat out at relatively small prices in Singapore (particularly translated back into the £!) with many decent quality meals in the food court costing about S$3 or £1. It is where the majority of Singaporean people apparently eat in, and though restaurants also abound, they tend to be quite a number of multiple of these prices.
One such restaurant I visited was Dharma’s Kebabs that I first read about on the blog of Nibbles & Scribbles. Fortunately the trek on my first day in Singapore around all the major sight seeing districts landed me right near this area for a rather late and lazy lunch.
Dharma’s Kebabs is located on Boat Quay, a street filled with overly touristy restaurants and bars taking advantage of the dockside views. Fortunately Dharma’s is not so over the top with the glitz and glamour, seemingly not much more than a larger hole-in-the-wall type place. It is associated with the BQ Bar next door, but at least serves decent food. I think they have air conditioned seating upstairs, but their industrial fans literally blew away the unbearable heat and humidity made it quite enjoyable sitting on high chairs next to the water.
Their menu is not overly complex, filled with various types of kebabs and a number of other plates and sharing platters. I ordered the Chicken Tikka plate (S$15) containing chicken tikka, garlic naan, some salad and dipping sauces. The chicken tikka was amazingly juicy and its coating gave it just the right of tang and flavour that went down a treat. The “naan” was more disappointing with a texture closer to flat bread instead of the proper soft tandoor cooked bread I was expecting but was still flavoursome nevertheless. The salad was literally from some other world, with an overly zealous chef really going to work on it with the salt and pepper shakers. The lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes would have been refreshing had it not been covered with a heart-attack inducing amount of salt!
This place serves some awesome foods and I read that the curry fries are supposed to be good. Service from the attendants was good, but then it was a very late lunch and there is always something magical about dining by the water at any time of day.
Details: Dharma’s Kebabs
Found On: 40 Boat Quay, 6236-0980 (Singapore)
Highlights: Great chicken tikka, platters offer seemingly good value
Improvements: Not so much salt!
The Kua Rating: 7 out of 10
Hey Pat,
You might like to join the Slow Food movement when you get back to London – they have monthly meets, which revolves around the fine art of preparing and enjoying quality food. People in the movement have the same objective – to return to the good ol traditions of enjoying a good meal with good company. They try to purchase seasonal food, local food and organic food if possible. I too want to join the Movement…(so if you join, let me know!)
It sounds like a pretty fun club but since I moved to London (or least since I’ve been more recently travelling a bit for work) I haven’t really had much of a chance to cook.
If it just means enjoying a good meal with good company, then where do I sign up? 🙂 I do love the variety of stuff available in London. I’ll have a look up when I get back and let you know. Thanks for the tip though!