Biryani Near Me on Race Course Road: Banana Leaf Apolo's Mutton Dum

Apolo Mutton Dum Briyani costs S$21.90 on the restaurant's official online ordering menu, and The Banana Leaf Apolo names mutton briyani as one of six signature dishes on its website. The restaurant has been at 54 Race Course Road in Little India since 1983, a short walk from Little India MRT, and it opens daily from 10:30 am to 10:30 pm. If you need biryani near me in Little India with room for a big group, start here.

The official history begins in 1974, when founder S. Chellappan ran a humble thosai stall before opening the first Banana Leaf Apolo restaurant on Cuff Road. Nine years later the business moved to its current home on Race Course Road, and it has stayed there for more than four decades while the street became one of the busiest dining strips in Little India. Today the restaurant is led by S. Rajeswari and S. Nirmal Raj.

The kitchen built its name on fish head curry, and that dish still heads the signature list alongside flower crab, mutton briyani, a naan platter, tandoori chicken and vegetarian meals. The family also runs sister outlets in Little India Arcade, on Sixth Avenue and at Rivervale Mall, but Race Course Road is the long-standing flagship and the place most regulars mean when they say they are going to Apolo.

The street itself explains the name. Race Course Road follows the edge of the old Farrer Park racecourse, where Singapore held horse races from the 1840s until the turf club moved away in the 1930s. The shophouses facing the former track filled with Indian restaurants over the following decades, and Apolo now shares the strip with fellow fish head curry houses, which is why the stretch smells of curry leaves from late morning onward.

The menu describes the mutton version as long-grained basmati cooked with Indian spices and mutton in dum style, steamed over charcoal. Apolo Chicken Dum Briyani is S$20.90. For a lighter plate, Biryani Rice with Vegetables costs S$7.90 and comes as fragrant basmati cooked with cashew nuts and saffron, served with two vegetable dishes. These are the prices shown on the official Oddle ordering page, the restaurant's own delivery and pickup channel.

Everything arrives on a banana leaf. A 2012 TheSmartLocal feature explains that serving guests on the leaf is a mark of Indian hospitality, and diners are welcome to eat with their fingers, using the right hand to mix rice with gravy. OpenRice reviewers add that a basket of papadum lands on the table as soon as you sit down, so you have something to crunch while the briyani comes out.

Apolo Fish Head Curry costs S$38.90 and is meant for sharing, which is why the room is full of long tables pushed together for families and office groups. A table of four can order one fish head curry, one mutton dum briyani, a Tandoori Chicken at S$20.90 and a vegetarian side, then split everything across the leaves. That combination gives you the house speciality and the rice in one sitting.

Our honest advice comes from an OpenRice reviewer: forget plain white rice and go straight for the biryani rice, which the reviewer found very fragrant and not soggy. Skip takeaway as well. When MS News reported on a Banana Leaf Apolo outlet in 2023, a customer complained about a S$1.90 packing charge on two packets of mutton briyani, so eating at the table is better value.

Weekend lunch and dinner bring large family groups, and reviewers note that waiters can be stretched thin, so you may need to remind them about dishes you ordered. Catch a server's eye early, order the rice and the curry together, and add extra papadum or vegetables at the same time rather than in rounds. A weekday lunch around 11 am is the calmest time for a first visit.

Solo diners can do well here too. The South Indian Vegetarian Meal costs S$13.90 and arrives as a full spread on one leaf, a good way to taste the kitchen without committing to a whole briyani. Take a counter-free seat at the end of a long table and you will share it with families and workers on their lunch break, which is part of the appeal of a room this size.

On busy weekends the queue on Race Course Road can stretch beyond the pavement tables. Rather than wait more than twenty minutes, walk up the same road to Anjappar, which serves Chettinad dum biryani in a large dining room, or head toward Mr Biryani on Chander Road, which cooks Hyderabadi pots and takes reservations. Both are within ten minutes on foot.

From the restaurant, walk south along Race Course Road and turn onto Campbell Lane to reach the Indian Heritage Centre, a museum whose glowing facade lights up at night. Its galleries trace the history of the Indian community in Singapore and the wider region, and it makes a good indoor stop when the afternoon heat or a sudden rainstorm rolls across Little India.

Continue a few minutes further to Dunlop Street, where the Abdul Gafoor Mosque, completed in the early twentieth century, mixes Moorish and South Indian details around a sundial-inspired facade. The narrow lanes between the mosque and Serangoon Road are lined with spice shops, sari stores and garland sellers, and the whole loop takes about forty minutes at an easy pace.

Address: The Banana Leaf Apolo, 54 Race Course Road, Singapore 218564. Hours: daily 10:30 am to 10:30 pm, per the official website. Signature dishes: fish head curry, flower crab, mutton briyani, naan platter, tandoori chicken and vegetarian meals. Prices on the official online menu: mutton dum briyani S$21.90, chicken dum briyani S$20.90, fish head curry S$38.90. Ask Karpo in the Karpo APP for a dessert stop on Serangoon Road after dinner.