Lunch at Dempsey | Samy's Curry

24th November 2013.

After attending the tour with Geraldene Lowe, Singapore’soldest tour guide, my tutor brought me to Samy’s his old lunch spot during his army days as part of the Public Affairs Department when Dempsey is still operating as an army camp. Samy’s dates back to 1950 and started out at Tank Road before moving to Dempsey Road in the early 1980s. Unlike Muthu’s Curry (which started out in 1969) which has turned hip and upscale, Samy’s retains an old-school no frills attitude and has not branched out like Muthu’s Curry.

The restaurant reminded me of the Gillman Barracks when there was still a canteen serving Thai and Indonesian food and on a Sunday morning, it was rather crowded with expatriates, tourists and locals. While the staffs have smartphones to do the order taking, you could head to the curry country and pick the curry of your choice. Do be warned though that the staff here love to sell as many food as possible to you…“How about some fish head curry?”, “How about the fish? It is really fresh!”, “Do you want Teh Tarik too?”

That aside, the food here was great. The Tandoori Chicken here was tender, with a nice roasted skin coated with spices. For the first time, tandoori chicken tasted more than just a red-coloured chicken. This is easily on par as the ones I had at Restoran Kapitan in Penang or perhaps even better.

The Biryani Rice was just okay for me, it wasn’t as fragrant as the one I had at Upper Boon Keng Road but this was made up for with its tasty and tangy Mutton Curry with tender chunks of mutton and delectable Palak Paneer. The paneer cheese was creamy and rather soft and the spinach puree based curry was just right.

Both my tutor and I couldn’t resist trying the huge prawns on display too and we ordered two of them, it was not bad too.

The fresh deep-fried papadoms are an essential when enjoying curries at Samy’s. Would love to come back here one day for their Fish Head Curry, saw a number of people having it.

Samy's Curry

25 Dempsey Rd

Singapore 249670