Gurkha Palace Restaurant - Satisfying Indian Cuisine!

This week, for no reason, we decided to go "Indiana"! There we were, strolling down the streets at Little India, we found our small palace located right at Chander road. Ghurka Palace Restaurant caught our attention as they serve authentic Nepalese and Northern Indian food. We never had Nepalese cuisine before and hence we decided to try it out! Sitting in the "palace" made us feel homely and cosy.
We were indeed just like Queens to be served.
*We were the only customers in the restaurant then. Haha*

Complimentary Papadum with Mint sauce was served swiftly after we placed our order.
The mint sauce was really refreshing and good! It went pretty well with the keropok. Salty, sweet and minty.
A unique taste indeed!

Chapati, $1.50
For only $1.50, you get 2 large pieces of chapati! The soft chewy texture goes very well with the butter chicken. However, our jaws were aching from chewing the chapati as we left it to the last.

J's & A's rating: 3.5/5

Cheese Naan, $3.50
The cheese naan here tasted like plain naan. We couldn't detect the taste of cheese, only a thin layer was spread onto the naan which added slight saltiness to it. However, we do love the softness and crispiness of the naan.

A's rating: 3.5/5, J's rating: 3/5

Kukhura Makhani (Butter Chicken), $8
We ordered this dish as it was highly recommended by the waiter. Kukhura Makhani is actually chicken marinated with Nepalese herbs, tender cooked and serve with creamy butter gravy. The creamy and tangy gravy reminded us of japanese curry except that it was non-spicy. The gravy infused with herbs and spices was very addictive! We kept dipping our naans and chapti into it. Besides, the chicken morsels were very tender and succulent!

*The butter here refers to 'malai' or cream*

J: I can't really taste the butter from the sauce. The 1st mouthful actually turned me off as I felt it was too salty for my palate. However, I eventually found it to be a better dip than Daal Makhani! Perhaps due to the thicker gravy used in Kukhura Makhani, the full-bodied taste left a lingering aroma in my mouth, which made Daal Makhani taste more bland after a while.

J's & A's rating: 4.25/5

They gave generous amount of chicken morsels! So much that we actually ordered additional garlic naan later on to go with the gravy dip.

Garlic Naan, $2
The garlic naan was much better than the cheese naan. Intense garlic flavour was so satisfying that we can almost keep zombies at bay lol. It tasted exceptionally palatable when eaten hot!

A & J's rating: 4.25/5

Our way of eating: Tear off a small portion of the naan and wrap with it around the chicken morsel. Yummy!

Daal Makhani, $5
Daal Makhani is a delicacy from Punjab in India. This thick stew was prepared using black lentils and red kidney beans which were cooked and simmered for hours. This savoury stew has a slight sweetness with a minty flavour. It was a great match with the naans, and even on its own. Love the beany bites! Perhaps due to addition of the various spices, for the 1st time we could actually accept the Makhani even though they added lots of disgusting coriander leaves!

A's rating: 4.25/5, J's rating: 4/5

Dinner at Gurkha was pleasant. The service here was attentive and fast. Food were served promptly. In addition, the waiter was very friendly and knowledgeable. He gave excellent recommendations and took effort to explain each dish to us. Kudos to him!

Besides, Gurkha already have their groups of loyal customers. We could hear many regulars saying
"We are back again!"
We've yet to try out the butter chicken and daal from other restaurant. The rating given is based on our first impression of the dishes. But in general, we must say the food here is really reasonable and delicious!

Gurkha Palace Restaurant

51 Chander Rd
Tel: 62924316
Lunch: 11am - 3pm
Dinner: 6pm - 11pm

Sofra Turkish Cafe and Restaurant

J: I've never appreciated Turkish cuisine until I went Berlin. When I was in Berlin, we tried the Doner Kebap and Durum Doner. Basically, both contain kebap sliced from the giant skewer along with onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, yoghurt sauce and pepper. The difference is that the former is a sliced flatbread while the latter is an extra-thin pita.

When we entered Sofra, we were immediately greeted by a waitress and service was really great. She gave us many recommendations and told us which are the ones that are popular with ladies. Sofra has also earned HPB's healthier choice label and gained much press.

Moving on to the food, we had sesame bread with

hummus for starters. The sesame bread is really crispy and the toasted sesame makes the bread really fragrant. The bread didnt lose its crispyness despite us taking a long time to finish eating it!

Hummus is something new to me. I've always loved chickpeas and this is the perfect appetizer for me. It's creamy and bursting with beany flavor of the chickpeas. I find that the best way to eat it with the bread is to spread it inside the sesame bread and when u bite it, hummus spread out onto ur tongue and complemented well with the sesame.

We had the Beyti Kebap ($16.50) which is spiced meat patties

rolled in the sesame bread. U have a choice of mixed beef & lamb, lamb or chicken. We ordered mixed beef & lamb. All along I'm not fond of mutton because I dislike strong mutton smell. I was really surprised as the meat patty covered the mutton smell really well, prob due to the inclusion of beef patty. The tomato sauce added a tangy flavor to this beef and lamb combination and prevented them from being too dry. One complaint is that once I slice the kebap, the meat patties and sesame bread fall apart which makes eating very cumbersome.

A: Next time I would like to try out the Chef's Plate. Combination of kebap, meat and bread. Hopefully it will be better than Beyti Kebap. :)

J & A's ratings: 4.5/5 for sesame bread, 4.25/5 for hummus, 4.25/5 for Beyti Kebap

Sofra Turkish Cafe and Restaurant

100 Beach Road #02-42/43/44
Shaw Tower
Shaw Leisure Gallery
Singapore 189702

http://www.sofra.com.sg

p/s: They're closed from 230 - 630pm.