When it comes to Indian style curry fish head (one of my favourite Singapore dishes), Karu's Banana Leaf is one that comes to the top of my mind. Another is Samy's. Both have something in common - they are near my old workplaces ๐
Karu's Banana Leaf looks pretty nondescript - I walked past without noticing it. There's no signage at the shop along the five foot way ๐ค though there is a big signage visible from the road. I've not been here since I retired over a decade ago.
It's not a problem for Karu's as they've built up a strong following from the community around it. Every table was booked when we stepped in at 11am on a Thursday. When I was working nearby, we come here regularly for small celebrations. It's a place to bond and I have fond memories of it.
Karu's Banana Leaf is one of the few Indian restaurants where we can still smell aromatic spices filling the air.
They have lots of dishes in the menu and also pre-cooked dishes displayed in the cabinet.
Here's what we had for five persons. We felt the prices were reasonable in 2023.
The staff started us off with rice, vegetables and papadum on banana leaf, the way banana leaf restaurants do traditionally. The vegetables served from shiny caddies are "free flow" on request, the way banana leaf restaurants do traditionally.
The rice was clean tasting, soft, slightly lumpy, moist but not wet and so nice with curry. The vegetables cooked till soft were mildly spiced, I love it. The papadum were nicely fried, crisp, crackly and neither too salty nor greasy.
The fish head had meat on both sides, not halved as commonly done in Singapore. At $36, we feel it is competitively priced.
The meaty snapper fish was fresh enough, the meat was tender. (I like snappers way more than farmed sea bass for curry fish head.) The curry was moderately spiced, only mildly hot, and it was just perfect with the plain boiled rice. I flooded my rice with the curry ๐คญ
Fish potato cutlet. Fried tender mash up of fish and potatoes with mild spices. Nice.
Paneer Tikka. Cheese marinated with masala spices then grilled and eaten with a green herby dip.
Looks like cubes of tofu to the uninitiated. Quite firm but not hard. Not much taste of cheese, nor spice.
The naan looked great but were chewy and lost most of its crispness because I was preoccupied with the banana leaf rice and fish head curry. Also chatting a lot. Entirely my own doing, naan is best enjoyed hot off the tandoor ๐คญ๐
By the way, we were busy chatting about our next makan outing while eating which got us all excited, letting the food turn cold on the table ๐
Incorrigible ๐คญ
I had a masala milk tea but forgot to take a picture of it. Not much masala, a bit of ginger but quite diluted.
The best thing we had here today was the curry fish head and the dish that will keep bringing us back to Karu's Banana Leaf Restaurant. Oh, the rice and free flow vegetables on banana leaf also lah, of course.
Who invented curry fish head? ๐ click
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