Sri Kamala Vilas Restaurant

Add: Blk 662 Buffalo Road (Tekka Market), #01-16
$$$: $4-$10/pax
Cuisine: South Indian
Great for: Thosai, Bryani Rice and some say, chicken masala

Paid a visit to Sri Kamala Vilas one Saturday with an intention to introduce spicy Indian cuisine to Sha - a Chinese-Canadian-wanderer friend of mine who decided to check out the Singapore scene mid last year and has stayed here ever since. -waves to Sha-

My original plan was to gallivant around the entire Little India neighbourhood within 2 hours, popping by stores that have been featured on cyberspace for their fabled Indian cuisine. However, grand plan failed due to the sweltering weather and people who were still in bed 1/2 an hour before our meet-up time. -glares-
Anyways... I ended up picking Sri Kamala Vilas Restaurant as our one and only stop for the Indian food "hunt" as its location was convenient, which means no wasting of precious eating time winding through the intricate maze surrounding Serangoon Road.


I have done my research on this place and have heard people raving about their thosai and chicken masala. These 2 dishes naturally made it into my order list. Besides that, I also ordered the masala thosai and chicken bryani set. On hindsight, I should have just stuck to the (n-1) rule as the food that was piled onto the table afterwards would have been enough to feed an army! I am of course exaggerating, but you catch my drift..

Chicken Bryani
This was one surprising dish. It was not brought up in many of the sites that I visited, but it turned out to be a pleasant experience. The texture/wetness and the flavourings of the rice were done just right. I love bryani rice because of the thousand and one spices that go in there. Cumin, garlic, saffron, corriander, bay leaves...just to name a few. Its just magical how these spices come together to bring you the end result. I shall leave my comments about the chicken to the next section.
Chicken Masala
This was one of the most exalted dishes that reviewers claimed was a 'must-try'. Maybe the bar was set too high- the chicken masala was one of the few dishes that did not meet my (and some of the dining partners') expectations. The sauce/coating was great -crazily spicy (please have some ice cold Coke on stand-by) and aromatic. The meat however, was simply too dry and tough for enjoyable human consumption. The flavorings also failed to penetrate into the depths of the poultry. That being said, i am not expert at Indian cuisine, so if there are any readers out there who has tasted a good Chicken Masala before, please let me know so I could have a benchmark!
Paper Thosai and Masala Thosai
The paper thosai was awesome. Just the right thickness, and very large. The accompanying coconut chutney, sambal and curries complemented the dish really well. It was the biggest paper thosai i have eaten. Enough to feed 2 grown man!
The Masala thosai was also another popular dish. After a couple of bites though, you get very 'jelah' or 腻 ( someone enlighten me with proper english words to describe this phenomenon please). Masala thosai fyi, is simply thosai stuffed with spiced mash potatoes. It was a bit of a carb overkill. Thank goodness we had a 'rotation' system to prevent getting really sick after the meal.

Overall, I would recommend a visit to this stall...but definitely not just because of their Chicken Masala. It has a great atmosphere, popular with the Malays & Indians, good thosai and most importantly, very affordable! The above dishes + 2 masala tea at only $20.90. And..as mentioned, these 4 dishes would be enough to feed 6 grown adults (okok, not an army..).I went with 3 others and there were so much leftovers I felt bad about it.

Do recommend great Indian food if you have any in mind:) drop a comment!