Welcome to Clarke Quay. Looking for Indian places?

Saw this restaurant on Burpple and was craving some Butter Chicken so why not? A small establishment located near Clarke Quay MRT, Manam is an upscale restaurant serving an extensive menu of Indian delicacies. We of course chose the Butter Chicken ($20) and for some veges, settled for the Aloo Gobi Masala ($17). Butter Chicken was rich and creamy with only a hint of spice - would have preferred it with a slight bit more kick, but this was still delicious. Aloo Gobi was not bad too, with a large portion of cauliflower and potato chunks. We mopped up the delicious curry with the Garilc Naan ($6) and Parotta ($7). Both were so good, especially the parotta which was buttery and crisp yet soft and airy - much like a good croissant actually! Altogether with Burrple, it came up to $36.30 for both of us which was so value-for-money!

Craving a curry fix? Head over to MANAN at Clarke Quay and indulge in their mouthwatering curries with our #BurppleBeyond 1-for-1 Mains!
Don’t miss out on the rich and flavorful Varutharaicha Kari Kuzhambu, packed with tender mutton in a spicy curry blend, or the always-satisfying Butter Chicken.
Pro tip: Pair your meal with their garlic naan — a perfect balance of chewy and crispy that soaks up every bit of that delicious gravy. Trust us, it’s naan-stop goodness!

Lunch special for 2 @ $22.90 q worth can choose between 2 mains (curry/butter chicken briyani/prata set) and 2 drinks (teh/coffee/lime juice). Prata set comes with 2 plain pratas. Would want to try the curry chicken next time as it is one huge drumstick. The butter chicken is a few pieces of chicken.

Came to know about the newly-opened Quick Muthu whilst going around Hong Lim Complex Food Centre to grab our cuppa at Generation Coffee the other day. Located at the second level of Hong Lim Complex Food Centre, Quick Muthu is a stall that is located The Noodle Memories 古月面 — it is quite difficult to miss seeing Quick Muthu whilst going through the area that it is in, especially since the stall does come decked with a rather prominent dark green signage with a display case where one can have a peek of the various meat options that they have to carry. Quite an interesting concept on its own, Quick Muthu jumps on the bandwagon of places serving up curry rice that had been sprouting up across the island — that being said, the curry rice that Quick Muthu serves up is unlike that of the usual Hainanese-style curry rice that we are starting to get used to seeing around various neighbourhoods in Singapore; what makes Quick Muthu unique is its offering of Indian Curry Rice Sets instead which is also something that they loudly proclaim on the signboard. Visiting Quick Muthu in their early stages of its opening, Quick Muthu serves up only three variants of their Indian Curry Rice Sets during the visit that we had made on a weekday afternoon — the offerings being a Fried Chicken Rice Set, Meatball Rice Set and the Mixed Set (which comprises of both the fried chicken and the meatballs together).

Considering the rather lean menu of curry rice sets that Quick Muthu serves up, it did not take us much time to decide to go for the Fried Chicken Rice Set. Quick Muthu does not describe on its menu on the elements that come with their Indian Curry Rice Sets — that being said, one can observe items such as the chunks of Fried Chicken, curry gravy with potatoes and scraps of meat, lady finger, slices of cucumber and a pappadum that came with our order of the Fried Chicken Rice Set. It is interesting to note that Quick Muthu does offer its patrons two different options when it comes to the egg that comes on the side — we were being recommended to go for the hard-boiled egg option, though we definitely cannot resist ourselves from going with the salted egg variant instead after we have heard about it.

Digging into the rice bowl, it is interesting to see how Quick Muthu has went with using Basmati Rice as their choice of rice to serve their Indian Curry Rice with — perhaps to bring it closer to the flavours and textures that it is inspired by. The rice was light and fluffy, carefully drenched with two different types of curry gravy — one that was more of just being simply a gravy, while the other one coming with the meat and potatoes. We could not detect a distinction between the two; perhaps both having been incorporated into one another when we had started to dig in — that being said, there were strong notes of Indian spices in the curry here for sure which we found it close to the links of the fish curry that we are accustomed to when enjoying Roti Prata, which we found to be really comforting and familiar. The addition of salted egg gave it that slight saltishness that the dish needs especially for those who crave for stronger flavours, though we are also able to see why they have also offered the hard-boiled egg option at the same time. The folks at Quick Muthu seemed to have chosen chicken breast as the chicken part for the fried chicken to be served with the dish — don’t get us wrong; we did like how there was a slight sweetness and a slight note of turmeric amidst while feels rather identical to Ayam Goreng Berempah here, though the thoughtfulness of serving up boneless chicken parts also meant that despite the meat itself being rather juicy and moist, it did feel a little tougher than we would have liked. The pappadum on the meanwhile was satisfying; crisp without being limp from being aired out for too long — we have a hunch that the pappadum seems to be made in-house / specifically for them considering how it does look slightly different from that of commercially-made ones often sold as tidbits around supermarkets. At $4.90, the Fried Chicken Rice Set is undeniably value-for-money; the portion is particularly substantial considering the amount of rice and size of the fried chicken chunks it comes with — a pretty interesting and wallet-friendly option worth checking out if one happens to be in the area!

Tearing into the crispy exterior of the OVEN-BAKED PRATAS with our forks revealed fluffy layers that tasted savoury and buttery - kinda like puff pastry. Between the plain & spring onion flavour, we preferred the latter as a standalone (as it reminded us of scallion pancake/葱油饼) but loved dipping the former into the meaty curry to soak the hearty flavours!   
   
The Midas Touch Chicken Curry lives up to its namesake, with a robust & flavorful rempah and umami chicken broth making up the golden yellow concoction. The consistency of the Indian-Thai curry slightly leans towards the thicker side, which is good because watery curry is a no-go for me! Found it interesting that the curry also came with a hard-boiled egg, which was equally well integrated into the curry like the meat & potatoes. Our only gripe was the potatoes could be cooked longer for a softer texture, but that's just us nitpicking! 🍲   

The set is not any cheaper than ala carte(6nett for curry, 1.2nett each for "prata")

The spring onion prata and the "butter ckn" were both not available when I went at 12pm, very annoying there's something about one of them being only avail on wed and Thurs

The curry was different from normal for sure, but it's not special. It's creamier and less heavy on spices. Ckn was ckn cutlet cut into chunks and warmed in the sauce which was nice because it's boneless, but the curry doesn't penetrate as deeply as something which has been stewing in the curry for hours

The "prata" was basically pastry skin, except only the centre of the top is crispy and the rest of the "prata" is pretty flabby

Somewhat special but no need to visit, portion is hearty but price is high as well

Curry Chicken was thick and flavourful. Generous amount of chicken & Potatoes. Chicken was tender.

Their Oven-Baked Prata was crispy and comes in plain and spring onion flavour.

Overall quite filling.

7.5/10 for me. Will return to try their other dishes

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Murgh Malai Kebab - $22
Mutton Rogan Josh -  $21
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Modern restaurant that sells homely Indian cuisines. From their array of dishes, the chicken kebab (Murgh Malai Kebab) won my heart. Tender chicken that’s mildly seasoned with herbs, and cooked in traditional tandoor oven. Goes well with their Biryani. You can’t miss their wide range of curries! Mutton Rogan Josh comes with succulent mutton that’s braised in gravy till flavourful. Curries goes well with their thosai and naan
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Manam
@manam.sg

was craving indian food so we decided to try out manam as it was near my dad's office. a little hesitant at first because we were afraid that the food would be too westernized/commercialised but it turned out to be extremely mouthwatering and tantalizing! the mutton biryani ($24+) used good quality basmati grains that were fluffy & not dry, and the mutton was only very slightly gamey! as a non-mutton eater, i thoroughly enjoyed the flavour & went back for more. the butter chicken ($20+) was decently portioned and the sauce was just so flavourful. would order with garlic naan when i go back again 🤭 highly recommend!! great service by anitha too 🫶🏻 the interior of the restaurant is dimly lit & gave off mbs hotel restaurant vibes so that is 😍😍😍 so happy to have found this

Pretty cocktails to try here too!

▫️Kari Varuval - Crispy Fried Mutton with Coconut and Roasted Southern Spices💯💯💯

✨Been so long since I had Indian food 🇮🇳✨ got the chance to visit @nalan_restaurant_singapore ‘s sister restaurant focusing on meat and seafood @manam.sg along upper circular road near Clarke quay😋 it’s a cosy small shophouse space for about 20 pax - quite a good set up for a private dining session or for a small scale fancy event (with the muted gold interior finishes✨).