Best North Indian Cuisine at Copper Chimney

Posted on October 27, 2007 - Filed Under Restaurant Reviews

Yesterday evening, a couple of colleagues invited me to join them for dinner at a North Indian restaurant, The Copper Chimney, located at Race Course Road. I had been there once previously, and remembered that it serves the best North Indian food I have ever tasted. It didn’t take much persuasion for me to join them, and the food was as good as I remembered it. When we arrived, I saw that the restaurant had undergone a recent renovation, and beautiful paintings adorned the wall of warm, rich burnt orange and dirty sea-green, both traditional North Indian colors.

All dishes are cooked only when ordered by customers, so the food is served fresh and hot, not the overcooked, degenerated portions you get when restaurants cook large pots of the dish and leaves it to stew over the stove or oven for ready serving. Because of this, it is one of the rare Indian restaurants where when you bite into the meat served with curry, you are still able to savour the natural taste of the fish and poultry, with the succulence and texture of food that has been cooked for just the right amount of time.

As the food is cooked for individual orders, dishes were served one at a time, starting off with the traditional papadum and hot mint sauce, followed by appetizers like the Shammi kebab, fish and chicken tikka.

Naan is served as an entree together with the butter chicken and fish curry.

Of course, it would be a great regret to miss dessert in such an authentic North Indian restaurant, and we had the Ras Malai and Carrot Halua, which put a nice ending to the dinner.

Herbs and spices are used liberally, accentuating yet complementing the natural taste of the meat dishes. Much care and skill also went into the way the food was cooked, and the curry fish had a nice smoky woodfired taste to it that blended well with the herbs, and the butter chicken had a sweet, succulent texture in a sauce that wasn’t greasy but was packed full of rich flavours that was perfect for dousing onto the naan with.

Dessert was surprisingly light compared to other versions of Indian desserts, and coconut oil was used sparingly - just enough to give a taste of its nutty flavour and fragrance while sugar and dessert spices were lightly applied to complement the natural smell of the curdled milk and carrot halua.

All in all, my ratings for the restaurant below:

Service Rating:
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Overall Rating:

1 star represents poor, and 5 represents excellent.

If you love flavour-rich meals and are looking to try something a little different and truly authentic, you will enjoy an evening out at Copper Chimney. Its a few steps away from the Little India MRT station, and if you are planning to drive there, do try to avoid the weekends or arrive slightly before dinner time, else you will have problems finding a good parking spot. Cabs are difficult to get over there, so your best bet is still the train station.

Address:
Copper Chimney North Indian Restaurant & Bar
42/42A Race Course Road
Singapore 218557

Tel: +65 6398 0774

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