Biryani Near Me at Tekka Centre: the S$7 Mutton Plate at Allauddin's Briyani

The Mutton Briyani at Allauddin's Briyani costs S$7, and it arrives as a heavy mound of yellow-orange basmati with a piece of mutton, its curry and a papadum on top. The stall is at Tekka Centre, units 01-229 to 01-232, 665 Buffalo Road, and its Michelin Guide listing gives the hours as 8 am to 8 pm every day. If your biryani near me search lands in Little India, this is the plate with the longest queue.

The Michelin Guide describes the set simply: yellow basmati rice enhanced with a spice mix, a choice of mutton, chicken or fish curry, and papadums. A May 2026 review on Singapore Hawkers priced the mutton plate at S$7 and the Chicken Briyani Set at S$6.50, with a hard-boiled egg and papadum on the side. The same reviewer added a piece of fried chicken for S$4 and put a full meal at S$6 to S$11 per person.

HalalBoleh lists the add-ons at S$4 each: chicken sambal, fried chicken, fried fish and mutton cutlet. That makes the stall easy to tailor. Mutton is the order regulars and reviewers point to, because the meat is braised soft and its gravy soaks into the rice. The fried chicken add-on is a good second piece for a hungry eater, and the egg in the chicken set is a cheap way to bulk up the plate.

The stall also sells mee goreng and Maggi goreng, but the briyani is the reason the queue forms, and a second dish only slows you down at a shared table. Our honest advice is to skip the noodles and spend the extra S$4 on a mutton cutlet instead. Mix a little curry into the rice as you go rather than pouring it all at once, because the basmati is already moist and the plate is large.

Some recent Google reviews quoted on HalalBoleh complain that the rice and meat taste as if they were cooked separately, so this is not a sealed dum biryani in the Hyderabadi sense. Think of it as a Singapore nasi briyani, where spiced rice and slow-cooked curry meet on the plate. Judged on those terms, a S$7 mutton plate with this much meat is one of the best-value lunches in the district.

The Michelin Guide says the family has been selling its biryani since the 1950s, while a 2022 Seth Lui profile dates the signature dish to 1968, so the stall has at least half a century behind it. HalalBoleh notes Michelin Plate recognition in 2021. The signboard above the counter carries photographs of former Presidents S R Nathan and Tony Tan, both of whom ate here, according to Seth Lui.

Eatbook describes the business as Muslim-owned rather than halal-certified, a distinction that matters to some diners and is worth knowing before you queue. The family runs the counter at speed, and the Singapore Hawkers reviewer advises knowing your order before you reach the front, since hesitation earns a slightly impatient look from the uncle ladling rice.

There are no reservations. You queue, pay, then hunt for a seat at a shared table in the food centre. The Singapore Hawkers review recommends arriving before 11:30 am on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, and warns that a Friday, Saturday or Sunday visit at noon means a long wait. The stall opens at 8 am, so a mid-morning briyani at ten is the surest way to avoid the line altogether.

Tekka Centre has no air conditioning, the tables are shared and the room is loud, so wear something light. Plan around the hawker centre's scheduled cleaning: Seth Lui's 2026 closure guide lists Tekka Centre as shut from 30 November to 1 December 2026. If the queue is longer than twenty minutes, Anjappar on Race Course Road is a ten-minute walk north and serves biryani in an air-conditioned dining room until 11 pm.

The name Tekka comes from the Hokkien Tek Kia Kha, the foot of the small bamboos that once grew along the Rochor Canal. The complex opened as Zhujiao Centre and was officially renamed Tekka Centre in 2000, and Buffalo Road itself recalls the Malay Kandang Kerbau, the buffalo pens and slaughterhouses that worked here until the 1920s. The market was renovated in 2008 and reopened in 2009.

Tekka Centre itself is worth a lap before or after lunch. The wet market on the same level sells crabs from Sri Lanka and vegetables flown in from India, and the upper floor holds shops selling traditional Indian costumes and tailors who alter clothes in minutes. Across Serangoon Road, the Little India Arcade is a row of restored shophouses with henna artists, sweet shops and stalls selling festival lights in the weeks before Deepavali.

Walk up Serangoon Road for about five minutes to reach the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, its colourful tower crowded with figures of Kali and her consorts. Then cut through Campbell Lane to the Indian Heritage Centre, a modern glass building with galleries on the history of Singapore's Indian communities. Together the loop takes under an hour and passes plenty of places for a cold sugarcane juice.

Address: Allauddin's Briyani, Tekka Centre, #01-229/232, 665 Buffalo Road, Singapore 210665. Hours: 8 am to 8 pm daily, per the Michelin Guide listing. Nearest MRT: Little India, about a three-minute walk from Exit C. Prices: Mutton Briyani S$7, Chicken Briyani Set S$6.50, add-ons such as fried chicken or mutton cutlet S$4 each. Payment and seating follow the usual hawker system, with orders and payment at the counter.

Bring tissue packets to reserve a seat, as most locals do, and take your tray back to the return point when you finish, since Singapore hawker centres now expect diners to clear their own tables. For a sweet ending, the drinks stalls in the same centre pour teh tarik and fresh lime juice. Ask Karpo in the Karpo APP for a dessert stop on Serangoon Road or a quieter lunch nearby on a busy weekend.