Salaam Bombay – Delicious and Excellent Value Indian Meal

Egg Biryani

We were introduced to this place by M&A, our friends living in the South of Singapore. Located in Fusionfolis, the restaurant name of Salaam Bombay (“SB”) means salutation to Bombay, the historic name of Mumbai, a melting pot of Indian cuisine. In addition to North and South Indian Cuisine, SB also serves the quintessential Bombay Street Food (Chaats, Pav Bhaji’s, Vada Pav’s and the Unique “Bombay Chinese”). 

Our starter is Papadum with Mint Sauce. This starter is complimentary from the restaurant. Light and crispy lentil crackers served with a refreshing mint sauce that will entice your appetite. 

Papadum with Mint Sauce

Fish Tikka ($18.90) boneless cubed fish marinated with yoghurt and Indian spices and bbq in tandoor. The flesh used for this dish, normally come from a bigger fish that have a firm texture. The fish is moist and juicy. Though the texture is good, we find the seasoning was too heavy, making the dish salty. 

Fish Tikka

Fish Tikka

Mutton Bhuna Gosht ($18.90). The Indian version of mutton rendang. The mutton is fork-tender filled with the multi-layer taste of spices. The hint of sweetness from the onion and garlic is just delicious. 

Mutton Bhuna Gosht 

Butter Chicken ($16.90). This is probably the most common dish that we order in any Indian Restaurant. It is creamy, buttery, sweet and tangy gravy together with succulent chicken thigh is just irresistible. The version at SB hits all the right spots and a definite must-order here. 

Butter Chicken

Palak Paneer ($16.90). A second dish that we likely to order in any Indian restaurant. Creamy blended spinach, mixed with feta cheese and blend with spices. This dish will not win the prettiest dishes, however, the subtle texture of the blended spinach with the spices and savoury flavour of feta cheese is just comforting. 

Palak Paneer

Egg Biryani ($14.90). Instead of the usual chicken or mutton biryani, we ordered egg biryani. This biryani served with hard-boiled eggs and without any gravy in it. The basmati rice is al-dente, infused with saffron and different spices. I like the version at SB because it is very well balanced and the cardamon flavour does not sticks out. It is easily mixed with the butter chicken, mutton bhuna gosht and palak paneer. 

Egg Biryani

Aloo Gobi ($13.90). Classic Indian dish made of spiced potato and cauliflower. We specially ordered this dish without the cauliflower, so our version is just potatoes. Creamy, soft, yet with a distinct potato crunchiness in it. 

Aloo Gobi

Garlic Naan ($5 for 2). Fluffy with subtle garlic flavour. For those that really like their garlic, you might want to ask them to whack extra garlic into the naan. 

Garlic Naan

Dessert, Gulab Jamun (Complimentary). Fried milk balls soaked with saffron flavoured sugar syrup. Think of it as donut soaks in maple syrup. Those who like their desserts extra sweet, this dish is perfect for you. 

Gulab Jamun

The restaurant setting is casual, modern and filled with lots of natural lights due to the tall windows. Service is friendly and efficient. This restaurant is also value for money, if you make your reservation from Eatigo (or you can call the restaurant directly), you can expect 50% discount on the ala carte menu especially during the off-peak time on the weekday and all day on the weekends for dine-in and takeaway. 

CBK verdict a must try Indian restaurant in the South of Singapore. The food is delicious and with the 50% promo it is just value for money. Cheers!! 

Food & Drinks: 7.5/10 

Value: 9/10 

Service: 6.5/10 

Ambiance: 7.25/10 

Budget per Person: $11 - $25 

Salaam Bombay 

86 Robertson's Quay

#01-04, Robertson Blue

Bar Bar Black Sheep

Singapore 238245 

T: +65 9111 6995

W: https://www.salaambombay.sg/

F: https://www.facebook.com/SalaamBombaySingapore

IG: @Salaambombaysingapore 

OH: Daily 11.30 – 21.30 

Previous Location:

1 Fusionopolis Place 

#02-03. Galaxis. 

Singapore 138522 

[CLOSED] Paddy Hills – Creatively Curated Cafe Menu

Berry Muffcake

Paddy Hills is a quaint cafe located at one of the shop houses along South Buona Vista Road. Our monthly food hopping kakis decided to do the “Journey to The West”, so we have even coverage around Singapore.

Paddy Hills

Paddy Hills

From the outside, Paddy Hills is set up in the minimalist industrial décor. Combination of steel and wooden furnitures together with the neon sign just reaffirm the funky look of this cafe. The furniture indoor slightly deviated from the outdoor, however focusing more on comfortable décor with a slight 80s theme. Since Paddy Hills occupied the corner shop house, the left side of the wall has huge windows, and it allows the natural light brighten up the cafe. Hint: best place to sit and take your IG Photos.

Interior - Paddy Hills

While waiting for other kakis to arrive, we started with Lotus Root Chips ($10). Paper thin sliced lotus root chips sprinkle with Pop Rocks and Sumac Powder. Definitely, have the look for a healthy appetizer followed with airy crispiness from the paper thin sliced lotus roots. The pop rocks and sumac powder is very subtle, it can be mistaken for lack of seasoning in this dish.

Lotus Root Chips 

The complete meal started with NZ Mussels ($20). NZ Mussels cooked with Guinness Stout, Bacon Crumbs and Italian Parsley. I like the flesh juicy mini NZ Mussels. However, the gravy is just too salty and bitter. It is possible that the saltiness derived from the jus of the mussels while the bitterness is due to the reduction of the stout. I think a serving of fries or bread will help to balanced the gravy.

NZ Mussels

Christmas Burger ($26). A creative dish by Paddy Hills. The turkey breast patty is juicy, sandwich between brioche bun, Gruyere cheese, bacon and cranberry mayo, it sure tastes like Christmas. The fries are seasoned with salt and vinegar gave this burger the acidity to offset the “Jelakness” feel to it. It is best to use your hands to eat the burger and don't try to slice it.

Christmas Burger

I actually dipped the fries from the burger to the broth of NZ mussels. It turns out nicely and offset the excessive bitterness and saltiness in the broth.

Crispy Pork Belly ($26). I almost flipped when this dish was served. At the first sight, the pork belly was skinless. It's like you are deprived the best part of the pork. Instead, it was sliced and roasted separately to create a healthy pork skin crackers. The pork itself is juicy on the lower part, while slightly dry on the top (fat) part. The roasted purple cabbage, confit garlic puree and apple jus definitely jazz up the plate for flavour. Not sure if the caramel popcorn makes any difference in this dish.

Crispy Pork Belly 

Uni Truffle Pasta ($35). This is a serious Fine Dining Standard. Al-dente homemade squid ink spaghetti cooked with tangy tomato cream. Finished off with generous servings of uni, serrano ham and Himalayan truffle is just a sight to behold. Yum Yum.

Uni Truffle Pasta

Duck & Waffles ($25). Crispy Coffee Waffle with Crispy Duck Confit topped with a fried egg. I was amazed by the red apple sheets. I am sure there is a machinery involved in making the red apple sheets, but it sure gives the WOW factor in the plating. Though the overall dish is delicious, the waffle seems tasted a bit burned, like it was left a bit too long in the waffle maker. Other than that, it was just delish.

Duck & Waffles

For dessert, Berry Muffcake ($23) is a must order. A cross between Muffin and Pancake desserts, topped with Berries, Compote, Yoghurt Balls, Vanilla Ice Cream. The muffcake have the exterior of the pancake followed with the interior of a muffin. They are moist, crumbly while each of the toppings has its own unique characters: sweet, savoury, tangy, fruity and awesome yoghurt burst of flavour. This is signature dessert at Paddy Hills and it is a must order.

Berry Muffcake

For Caffeine junky, the coffee is not to be missed. My iced Americano is well balanced, minimum acidity and easy on the palate. The beans are sourced from Tiong Hoe, which we are familiar with.

Iced Americano

Service is friendly and accommodating. We did not make a reservation for our visit, they manage to slot us right it. Also, if you can see from the photos, the portion of the servings is big.

Overall, I really enjoyed the visit to Paddy Hills. The dishes here are creatively curated, delightful and definitely a sensory treat. Although the execution is not perfect, it sets the standard for cafes in Singapore. Definitely a destination for a superb Cafe Hopping Experience. Cheers!!

Sharing the calories for this hopping trip are: Ivan Teh – Running Man, Purple Eats, The Artic Star, Jelly Loves Food, Msginginly, and Her Pen & Fork.

Food & Drinks: 7.5/10

Value: 7.25/10

Service: 7.5/10

Ambiance: 8/10

Budget per Person: $26 - $50, $51 - $80

Paddy Hills

38 South Buona Vista Road

Singapore 118164

T: +65 6479 0800

F: https://www.facebook.com/paddyhills.sg/

IG: @Paddyhills.sg

OH:

Mon – Fri: 10.30 – 17.00, 18.00 – 21.30

Sat & Sun: 09.00 - 17.00, 18.00 – 21.30

The Lawn Grill & Salad Cafe – Come Meat Your Greens [MEDIA INVITE]

Thanks to Jonathan and The Lawn Team for inviting us for this food tasting.

The Lawn Grill & Salad Cafe is a unconventional salad bar, bringing the current salad eating trends from California, USA which serve tantalising premium grills with unique and wacky salad dressing to Singapore food scene. Forget about the cold and plain salads, get ready for mind blowing and healthy food to tingle your palates.

Located in Biopolis, The Lawn cater for the professionals working in the area during weekday and regulars on Sunday. Don't come on Saturday, as they are close. Although the indoor seating is limited, they are more than enough seating in the alfresco area.

Alfresco dining area

As The Lawn concept is based on a salad bar, the following is the SOP on placing your order:

1. Choose Base: Salad Box or Olive Rice (for those that need their carbo)
2. Choose your Grill (protein: such as chicken, prawn, dory fish, duck, beef or even vegs)
3. For Salad Box, Choose your toppings & dressings, you have 26 type toppings (such as vegs,fruits, pasta, nuts, cheese, etc) and 9 types of dressing options. For Olive rice, you have a standard side salad with no dressing.

Ordering and Grill Station

The Menu

We were quite lucky that we tried most of the grills menu and all the 9 types of dressing. As a salad bar, the greens are as fresh as you can get. To make it easier, the Little Devil and I will just give you the run down of which grill pair with the dressing according to our taste buds.

For the grills, we like the Acento Balsamico Beef Cuts and Ben's Beef Rubs the most. The beef are tender and juicy, especially on the balsamico. Next come dory fish & prawns. Both type of the grill dory fish are generous in size, well marinated and not flaky. The garlic prawn here is suppose to be one of the most popular grilled ingredients. It is fresh, juicy with subtle garlic flavour thus we are not surprise on why it is the top seller. Our least favourite grill on the menu is the chicken. The Lawn uses chicken breast and they are cut to bite size, we find the meat is a bit dry and chewy. The marinate used on the chicken is quite good though. We can't comment on the duck and vegetarian grills we did not try them, those who had tried please give us your comments. :p

Pacific Dory with Salads - The Actual Salad Box

Acento Balsamico Beef Cuts

Mojo Chicken

Char-Grilled Garlic Prawns

For the dressings, Mi So Spicy is on top of the list. It started off with the subtle tom yum flavour, slowly the spiciness will come whack you from nowhere. Good with everything except for the beef. For the beef, we like the Honeyball dressing. The natural sweetness of the honey really compliment the seasoning of the beef. For fish, beachy peachy and manly mango are the best pairing as the fruity flavour in the dressing give a Mediterranean feel to the fish. For the prawn, wasahonie dressing will be a good choice. The combination of wasabi and honey bring out the familiar taste of wasabi prawn which you get in the most Chinese restaurant here.

The Nine Dressings

To complement the grill chicken, the maple peanut dressing goes well with maple chicken, while Red island goes well with the rest of other grill chicken. For those, who wants to try the maple peanut dressing, please be prepared for the sweetness that it brings, as some will find it overwhelming and for those with sweet-toothed, this might be a nice choice.

Maple Chicken

With the management always trying out new recipe for their grill, The Lawn will have a monthly special, and this month is a special grilled curry chicken set menu.

Curry Chicken

The olive rice is Teochew version of olive fried rice. It has comforting home flavour, just like what littledevil's mum cook at home. A good substitute for salad, however you don't get any dressing or toppings from this.

Olive Rice with Ben's Beef Rub

For those that need their caffeine fix, you can try their coffee here. They use the beans from the artisan coffee roaster Smittens.

The Coffee

Overall, The Lawn provide a refreshing and healthy dining options. It is definitely not your conventional salad bar. It is modern, trendy and bringing the funk into eating salads. We suggest that you go to their website, to check out their menu. We rate this place 7.5/10. Cheers and Eat Fresh!!.

The Lawn Grill & Salad Cafe

31 Biopolis Way,

Nanos #01-07

Singapore 138669

T: +65 6478 9739

W: http://www.thelawn.com.sg/

F: https://www.facebook.com/thelawncafe

OH:

Mon – Fri: 11.15 – 21.00 (LO 20.15)

Sun: 10.00 – 16.00 ( LO 15.15)

Closed on Saturday