Spice Shop Grinding Curry Powder Since 1976: Selvi Mills

Selvi Mills, at 63 Quality Road, Singapore 618819, is the rare spice shop near me search result that is also a working mill. Its store hours on the official contact page are Monday to Friday from 8am to 5pm and Saturday from 8am to 4:30pm. Come here when supermarket curry powder tastes flat and you want masala ground in Singapore, or when you want your own recipe milled to order.

The story starts with the founder, Kasinathan, who was born in 1929. According to the company's About page, he came to Singapore from Tamil Nadu in 1949, joined a provision store, ran a few provision stores on lease, and opened his own shop in 1960 under the name Selvi Stores. Grinding was the next logical step. He started Selvi Mills in 1976, mainly to supply the spices and flours that Selvi Stores was selling over the counter.

The history page quotes a Tamil Murasu report from 11 September 1976 describing the opening the day before at Block 19 of Marsiling Industrial Estate. The ceremony began at 12:30pm, and the report notes that the new mill would offer both wholesale and retail service to the local community. That mix of trade and walk-in selling is still the character of the place today. Restaurants buy in bulk, while home cooks come in for a single bag of chilli powder.

The company moved and grew with Singapore's industrial estates. A second facility opened at Pandan Loop in 2000, and the Quality Road facility followed in 2018 with newer milling equipment. The managing director, Veeramani, trained as a metallurgical engineer in India and moved to Singapore in 1995 to join the business. He took over management in 2000 under Kasinathan's guidance and now oversees a team of more than 70 staff. Kasinathan died in 2018, the same year the Quality Road plant opened.

The homepage describes Selvi Mills as a one-stop shop for spice powders, curry powders, whole spices, lentils, cereals and rice, and says the range runs to more than 300 products. Its own label, Selvi's, covers the everyday core of a South Indian kitchen. Featured items include hot chilli powder, Chicken 65 masala, kuzhambu masala for tamarind gravies, ground black pepper and cardamom powder. The history page also shows urad dal flour, idli podi and vathal kuzhambu masala, which tells you who the regulars are.

The most useful service for a visitor is custom grinding. The homepage puts it plainly: be it masala, flour or medicine, you tell the mill what you need and it grinds it for you. Bring your own roasted seeds for a family garam masala, or ask the staff to grind rice and lentils for dosa batter flour. A Google reviewer writing on 21 October 2026 singled out the in-house mills for fresh flour and called the shop a great place for Indian cooking essentials.

Freshness is the selling point. The mill says its local manufacturing means the powders on the shelf have not sat in a container ship for weeks, and that home deliveries usually arrive within one to three working days. The site carries a 4.6 rating from 98 Google reviews, with recent ones dated October and September 2026. One shopper summed it up as the best quality and reasonable prices for all goods.

This is an industrial-estate shop, not a mall unit, so timing matters. The contact page asks customers to avoid the 12pm to 2pm window and to send a WhatsApp message before coming in during those hours. Aim for a weekday morning, when the grinders are running and the staff have time to talk. Saturday closes earlier at 4:30pm, and the page lists no Sunday hours, so plan a weekday or Saturday visit.

Ordering on the website is paused for now. A banner across every page says the website is under construction, that no online orders will be fulfilled. In practice that means you should phone ahead for bulk quantities or custom grinding, and then collect at the shop. If you are buying for a restaurant, ask about OEM work, which the homepage lists as a service for food and beverage partners.

Bring a bag that seals. Freshly ground chilli and turmeric will scent everything in a car or a backpack, and powders keep best in airtight jars away from light once you are home. If you are new to South Indian cooking, start small with sambar powder, rasam powder and a kuzhambu masala, and ask the counter staff which blend suits fish, mutton or vegetables.

The official directions are by bus. For the Quality Road branch, take bus 79 or 246 from Boon Lay Bus Interchange. The interchange sits beside Boon Lay MRT station on the East-West Line, so the journey is MRT to Boon Lay, then a short bus ride into the industrial estate. The second shop, Selvi Mills Pandan Loop at 189 Pandan Loop, Singapore 126891, is reached on the 285 feeder service from Clementi Bus Interchange, and it shares the same phone numbers.

Pair the visit with a stop at Jurong Point, the large mall above Boon Lay MRT, for lunch before heading out during the midday break the mill asks you to avoid. If you go to the Pandan Loop branch instead, Pandan Reservoir is close by, and its long embankment path is a breezy place for a walk with the reservoir on one side and the industrial skyline on the other. Both trips feel very different from the tourist routes of Little India, and that is part of the appeal.

Address: 63 Quality Road, Singapore 618819. Second branch: 189 Pandan Loop, Singapore 126891. Store hours: Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm and Saturday 8am to 4:30pm, with customers asked to avoid 12pm to 2pm. Online orders are paused, so call to order. The range covers more than 300 products, including custom grinding of masala and flour.

Founded: 1976 at Marsiling Industrial Estate. Best for South Indian curry powders, sambar and rasam blends, flours and made-to-order grinding. Ask Karpo for a route from your hotel to Boon Lay, and a Little India spice stop to compare on the same day.