Samy's Curry Restaurant

Blk 25 Dempsey Road, Civil Service Club. T. 6472 2080
samyscurry.com

This is a restaurant that I had frequented as a child. It serves a variety of Southern Indian dishes on banana leaves laid out on the table. I cant quite recall what I used to eat here as a child, but these days, my preference is for the fish curry, mutton mysore (mutton stir fry), and when available, the fish roe. It is served with complimentary veges of the day - in an Indian restaurant, it could be a refreshing salad, usually cucumber and onions, with yoghurt or some other vegetable that's been cooked into a mush - and pampadams, a light Indian cracker. I also like my meal with some rassam - a light assam-based soup that can also be used as gravy over rice. I used to have the chicken masala as well - a version of a dry curry - but I find the Samy’s version so overwhelming chilli hot that it takes away the joy of eating it.

The trick to eating at Samy’s is to take your time selecting your dishes. The flurry of activity when you first arrive, with multiple waiters offering you a variety of dishes to pick from at your table, can be overwhelming. Once you conquer this, eating at this old style colonial building that also houses the Civil Service Club is quite a nice way to spend an afternoon. It’s also open for dinner.