FOR briyani fans who are tired of the long queues at Allauddin's Briyani in Tekka Market, there's an alternative for when the craving hits.
The quirkily named Lucky Prata at Lucky Plaza is a clean, bright, air-conditioned restaurant on the first floor of the mall.
Don't be confused by the extensive menu of Indian-Muslim food or the name - the star item is really the briyani, an Indian dish of spiced rice and meat.
The fluffy basmati rice has a mesmerising fragrance from the spices and the almond milk used to cook it. It's rich - there are also cashew halves dotted among the rice grains - but not in a cloying way.
The $5.50 you pay for the Chicken Briyani set (main picture) gets you a heap of rice, a tender chicken leg and thigh piece with a pretty spicy kick and a thickish gravy, a scoop of tangy cucumber salad and a crispy pappadum. It's great value and delicious to boot.
And since we were in a restaurant called Lucky Prata, we just had to try some. The pratas ($2 for two) are quite different from the crispy discs you get at hawker centres. Instead, the flat breads are thicker and more doughy, and alas, less crisp.
Owner Mohamed Jafrullah, 48, says this is how pratas should be done. Anyone can make a crispy prata, he says, you just need to fry it in lots of oil and clarified butter or ghee. His are softer and made with less oil.
They may appeal to the health-conscious, but I still prefer pratas that crackle. But if you do order them, get some Fish Curry ($3.50) too. It's made with fresh seabream and the mildly spicy gravy is perfect for dunking pieces of prata into.
The restaurant sees a steady stream of customers from when it opens at 8am. It's a multi-racial crowd, proving that Mr Mohamed had figured out what was lacking in Orchard Road: a restaurant that served cheap and good Indian food. The businessman, who runs three perfume shops in Lucky Plaza, says: 'I found it hard to find food for lunch. You have high-class restaurants, but they're not for everyday eating.'
So he hired two chefs from Chennai who used to work in five-star hotels there and started Lucky Prata in October last year.
