(Halal) Briyani

Nasi Briyani is an Indian Muslim dish, usually served with either curry chicken or mutton, with some cabbage and an egg. Briyani is long grained Bismati rice cooked with saffron, very similar to paella, except the rice is not cooked with the meat, there are some that are, and they are called dom/dum briyani.

Halal, Nasi Briyani

Jun 2022

Briyani that whets your appetite, choice of chicken, lamb or fisg, with excellent meat that fall of the bone lamb briyani.

Visit this area around lunch time and you will notice a long q of people lining up for this briyani stall. You will definitely not the first to take a picture of the q, and won’t be the last…. So I rushed in here when one day I saw this place open and there was not much of a q. It was open! 4th in line, only for the first person to order 50 packets……! Since the opening up of covid restrictions, Qs are less daunting.

12 mims later, I ordered a chicken to eat, and a mutton takeaway for later. Only to see someone who asked to share my table ordered a portion with both! Keep that idea!

The first spoonful and I get why the q. The briyani’s fragrance hit my senses as the steam coming off the rice hitting the roof of my mouth. Every rice grain was a delicious bite like long grained briyanis should, I could eat just the rice and nothing else. I did just that when I finished the chicken, just couldn’t resist.

The chicken was nice and tender but I had seen the mutton on the way to my table and up front from my table mate… it looked much better. When I tried it at home later, it was pretty good, regretted not having the mutton fresh.

Another day, I came back to try it fresh… The mutton briyani here was as impressive as it looked! Meat came from the leg of a lamb, with plenty of meat with each order. The meat was so tender it fell off the bone without effort, so tender I barely needed to bite, and it pretty much melted in my mouth. I was tempted to bring my mom who lost all her teeth here to enjoy the mutton! Tasted heavenly, not spicy at all, and texture just heavenly! The mutton combined very well with the briyani too, a mouthful of mutton plus briyani a mix of wonderful taste and fragrance.

Came late another day and there was only curry fish left, didn't know they had fish so gave it a try. It was pretty good, solid but tender meat with a good bite; taste wise it was more than good. Obviously fish was not the top option for their customers, including this one, but it was definitely not a bad one!

Can’t think of many, if any, places with nicer briyani than here. Fragrant rice, and tasty and tender chicken and mutton. The better choice would be the mutton but the chicken is more than decent too, likewise the fish!

Koothurar Nasi Briyani

17 Beach Road, #01-4705, s190017

11am – 2pm (til they finish, which is around 145-2pm), closed on Tues