Biryani Near Me in Little India: Seera Samba Mutton Dum at Anjappar

Mutton Biriyani costs S$16 at Anjappar, and the server will ask a question most Singapore biryani counters never do: basmati or seera samba rice. The Chettinad restaurant sits at 76-78 Race Course Road in Little India, opens Monday to Sunday from 11 am to 11 pm, and lists eleven dum biryanis on its current menu. For a biryani near me search that ends in a cool dining room rather than a hawker queue, this is the address.

The Dum Biriyani page describes aromatic rice cooked with spices and your choice of protein, with Basmati or Seera Samba printed next to it. Chicken is S$14, mutton S$16, country chicken S$16 and quail S$16. Fish and prawn are S$17 each, paneer is S$17, and turkey, the unusual one, tops the list at S$18. Egg biryani and vegetable biryani are both S$11, the cheapest ways to taste the masala.

Seera samba is the short, fragrant grain used for biryani in the Chettinad region of Tamil Nadu, where the Anjappar family recipes come from. It cooks softer than basmati and holds more of the spiced fat, so it suits the mutton better than the chicken. Plain Biriyani at S$9.90 is a clever order for a group: the menu describes it as the rice from the mutton dum biriyani, served without the meat.

Chettinad cooking leans on black pepper, fennel and dried red chilli, and the starters show it best. Chicken 65 is S$14.50 for boneless cubes fried in house spices, and Kaadai 65 at S$18 does the same with Japanese quail, an echo of the quail biryani. Chettinad Mutton Bone Soup at S$7.20 is a peppery lamb broth that many tables order first, and the Chettinad Crab Soup is S$8.30.

Our honest view is that the turkey biryani is a novelty rather than the best plate here. Turkey dries out faster than goat in a long dum, and the S$18 price buys less flavour than the S$16 mutton. If you are two people, share one mutton biryani on seera samba, add a half Anjappar Fried Chicken at S$16, and finish the rice with the pepper soup instead of a second curry.

Anjappar opened in Chennai in 1964, and the restaurant's own about page says it arrived in Singapore in 2005, setting up on Race Course Road. The group now counts more than 50 outlets worldwide, and the website describes its recipes as passed down through generations of the family. The Race Course Road flagship is the one that carries the banquet hall, and the FAQ says it can host groups from 50 to 500 guests.

The name has become shorthand for Chettinad food across South India, and the Singapore menu still reads like a Tamil Nadu canteen with extra pages. Beyond biryani there are tandoor skewers, Indo-Chinese stir fries, dosai and the Anjappar Regular Meals at S$12, which bring three vegetables, white rice, chicken, mutton and fish gravies, rasam, curd and pappad on one plate. That set is the best value on the street.

The restaurant spans the shophouse frontage at numbers 76 and 78 with a wide glass frontage, and inside it is air conditioned and spacious, which a recent Google review reproduced on WhereHalal singled out. That matters in Little India, where a midday walk from the MRT can leave you soaked. The same reviewer came for a chicken biryani, which is the order most Google reviews of this branch mention, and the banquet hall is set up for weddings, engagements and birthday parties booked through the website.

Service is table service with printed menus, and you can book online through the reservation link on the homepage. The FAQ says guests who reserve in advance can receive special discounts, so booking is worth doing for a group of six or more. Delivery runs through the website, the Anjappar app, GrabFood and Foodpanda, though biryani on seera samba travels less well than basmati once the steam is gone.

The long opening day is the main advantage: the kitchen serves from 11 am straight through to 11 pm, so a late biryani after a shift or a film is realistic here when many Tekka Centre stalls have shut. Deepavali weeks bring heavy crowds to the whole district, so book ahead for festival dates.

If the dining room is full and the wait looks longer than twenty minutes, walk ten minutes south to Mr Biryani on Chander Road, which cooks Hyderabadi dum pots and takes free reservations. For a cheaper plate, the hawker stalls at Tekka Centre on Buffalo Road serve biryani from early morning, though they close by evening and offer no air conditioning.

From Anjappar, the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple on Serangoon Road is a short walk north-east, its tall gopuram covered in carved figures of Vishnu's avatars. Head south along Serangoon Road and you reach the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, dedicated to the goddess Kali and one of the oldest temples in the district, with shoe racks by the entrance and a steady line of worshippers at dusk.

A few lanes further on, the Indian Heritage Centre on Campbell Lane tells the story of Singapore's Indian communities in a glass building that glows at night. Between the temples, Campbell Lane and Dunlop Street are lined with flower-garland sellers, spice shops and gold jewellers, and the walk takes about forty minutes at an easy pace, enough to make room for dessert.

Address: Anjappar, 76-78 Race Course Road, Singapore 218575. Hours: Monday to Sunday, 11 am to 11 pm, according to the restaurant's contact page. Nearest MRT: Little India, about a 12-minute walk from Exit D, with Farrer Park station on the other side. Other Anjappar branches include Syed Alwi Road, VivoCity and Westgate, but the Race Course Road flagship has the largest menu.

For dessert, the menu lists traditional wheat halwa at S$7. The dum biryani comes in a single portion, so for four people order two biryanis, one set meal and one fried starter rather than four separate rice plates. Ask Karpo in the Karpo APP for a filter kopi stop near Farrer Park or a late supper spot if you want to keep the evening going after the meal.