Restaurant Review: The Bazaar Review, North Indian Cuisine
For good authentic North Indian food in the east.
This is a brief review of The Bazaar, a North Indian restaurant in the east. I have been craving for good North Indian cuisine for a while recently and when my Brother told me about The Bazaar, I was really keen to try. Especially when he is a foodie and tells me that it is better than Zaffron, which we feel have some hits and misses and pretty expensive for the small portions.
Somehow each time we want to go, it will start pouring once we reach i12, making it impossible to cross the road to reach The Bazaar!!! Finally had good fortune shine on us yesterday and we are glad!
I love the rich flavours of Indian cuisine. Not being able to take heat very well, I find Indian cuisine flavourful and not necessarily spicy hot. To be honest, beyond the Indian food we get at hawkers and coffeeshops, we do not have North Indian cuisine regularly. Probably few times a year, partly because we are quite overwhelmed by the extensive menus and we are not sure which places are good. I really do love the rich flavours and in fact made an Indian spiced turkey this year to satisfy my craving alas, it is not as authentic.
So when we hear of a good place, we will definitely want to give it a try. Besides this, there is another North Indian restaurant called Tandoori Corner at Balestier Plaza that we love and will frequent. That is also very delicious!
I have been curious to try Pani Puri ($7.90) so we tried that for appetiser. It was a tad disappointing as it was cold like they just removed it from the fridge including the potatoes. I did not mind the cold pani which is refreshing, but would like warm potatoes. Otherwise it tastes great. In fact I like the pani so much, I was dipping my pappadum in it.
You are supposed to use the spoon to crack a hole on the crackers and fill it with potato and the panis. The pani is basically a spiced water. Not too sure what the darker pani contains, but the red one is sweet, lightly spicy with a little tang. Love it!
For mains we decided to try the Fish Methi Malai ($15.90) and Chicken Tikka Masala ($15.90) with Onion Chilli Kulcha ($4.90).
We have never had kulcha and thought we will try something new. And it is good!!! Soft and chewy flavoured with pieces of sweet and slightly spicy purple onions. Could have eaten on its own! This is a leavened bread filled with green chillis (totally not spicy) and onions.
The 2 curries were great except the Chicken Tikka Masala was a tad salty. We were considering ordering this home using ubereats next time so we asked if we could request for less salt in future and are happy to hear it is possible. Hope that really happens!!
The Chicken Tikka Masala was really fragrant otherwise with well marinated and roasted pieces of Chicken Tikka, which are marinated in spices and yoghurt then fire grilled for a sweet and smokey flavour. Even through the flavourful cashew and spice gravy, we could taste the smoky meats, making it all the more so flavourful.
The Fish Methi Malai had fresh tender slices of fish with fenugreek leaves. Only complain is maybe to have slightly bigger pieces of fish! Lol… Great balance of flavours. Sauce wise, I prefer the Tikaa Masala for it’s robust flavours. A pity it was too salty. The Methi Malai was lighter and Ed prefers that.
We were pretty well filled after the meal which costed us $49.00. The restaurant was empty except us on a Wednesday night but the whole stretch was actually unusually quiet. But there were many ubereats orders (6 when we were there) and a walk in take away by an Indian. Guess delivery is now the thing! Maybe we will finally try that one day. FOR now, I eat out only because I want to get out of the house, so happy to be eating in a restaurant!
The Bazaar is located at 115 East Coast Road, across Katong i12.
