The Banana Leaf Apollo

Pretty solid fare here, but doesn’t stack up to some other, smaller joints in Little India. The butter chicken was tasty, but the naan breads (butter as well as garlic) were a little dry. The place was pretty much empty on a Friday evening which was slightly strange, and the service was slow despite this fact. My eating companion and I were in a pinch so we chose this place more based off of proximity than reviews. Not horrible, but would not recommend if you have time and want to find some lip-​smacking Indian food in this part of town.
The prices are also slightly less than palatable given the service and quality of food.

One of my favorite places to have fish head curry. First the fish is fresh and they don’t overcook the fish (well, most of the time). Secondly, they have a ton of other dishes to jazz up your meal or cater to vegetarians or non-​fish head lovers. Those dishes are also quite good. Service is not quite tight especially when busy but just wave your hand and someone will come to you very quickly. Seating can be a bit squeezy in the main dining area.

Stopped here for lunch today Feb 3^rd. Food was not bad but this place really feels like a tourist trap. They charge $ 3 for a wetnap left on the table for you to use. Also the menu shows a serving size of 3 prawns but they actually charge $ 15 or $ 5 per prawn. Also the $ 5 prawns were pre-​cooked and warmed since they insides were tough and without any flavor or spices. Be carful out tab for 2 was $ 76 S. Street /​stall Indian is much much better and tasty than this place.

3 stars due to horrible service. To me, if I wanted hawker service I would have gone to the hawker stands and paid a lot less.
The food was good. I did enjoy it, I’ve also had better elsewhere though.
We ordered the fish head curry, mutton saag and chicken tikka masala (all was ordered spicy but came out mild)

visited last night for the regular dose of indian (god bless this amazing island called Singapore), the restaurant was full and 95% angmoh.
not being rascist here but it can be pretty intimidating and might even appear to be a tourist trap to some.
rest assured, it isnt.
had garlic and butter naan accompanied with palak paneer (spinach and cottage cheese) and butter chicken and it was great.
bill was ~25sgd/​pax for all that and 3 orders of masala tea (which kinda lacks punch for some reason)
naan was crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, perfect.
portions were decent, just right for 2 ladies… but we could do with some more pieces of chicken.
service was excellent and rather entertaining; the guy who was waiting on my table was humorous and friendly, something rare in such a busy restaurant.
efficient service, freeflow of pappadum and veggies (if u have rice) and they dont try to rush you off. it was a great evening.

Visited this restaurant with my wife. We both ordered the Mutton Mughlai Biriyani. The food was promptly served and in a clean fashion. However the food itself was rather disappointing. The Biriyani itself contained far too much ghee and there was no raita /​curd served as part of the dish. We ended up feeling bloated and parched.

Had an Indian craving so did the customary investigations on Unilocal and open rice before settling on this place, which appeared to be in the heart of Little India. Service was slow, even though they were not busy when we arrived. Had to call for a waiter 3 times before someone bothered to come take our order. Had butter chicken, mutton masala, chicken samosas and garlic and plain naan. Yes, the typical westernised indian faire. Taste was ok but certainly not the best (or anywhere close) that I’ve had. It was clearly an indian restaurant who catered to the western market (as evident in their inflated pricing). However, it was good to see quite a number of indians dining in the restaurant. At the end of the day however, was quite disappointed and hence, not likely to return.

Ok.
This place has gotten some great press, but i wasn’t overly impressed. The food was tasty, but the curry was kind of oily. The novelty is nice though — eating your meal on a banana leaf.
The place is large and seems kind of institutionalized.

Inspired by Andrew Zimmern ‘s «Bizarre Foods» episode where he visited Banana Lead Apollo (BLA) and had the so-​called «famous Fish Head Curry» and raved about how flavorful it was, I found myself nearby at the Temple and opted to trek a few blocks further into Little India to this establishment to whet my appetite. Although it is on 48 Serangoon Rd, the entrance is on an adjacent st. (on Hastings Rd) about a block from the Little India MRT station. If you walked passed Campbell Lane, you’ve gone too far. Yesterday, while I was there, it was intensely crowed because of a parade that appeared to be going along Serangoon as part of the Pongal Festival (a Harvest Festival).
Oddly, upon entering BLA, I noticed that it was only around 25% occupied, if that, on a crowded Friday night. The interior is cold lit with what appears to be around 4 – 5 kitchens where there are staff preparing dishes at their respective stations and you’ll often find them unsettlingly staring deeply at you while you’re eating.
Perusing the menu, I saw the Fish Head Curry selling for around $S22−28 depending on the size you wanted to order. If you order this, I suggest you get the small to share with another person. I ordered the medium and it was ridiculously too large. In addition, we ordered the chicken Briyani (an Indian equivalent to chicken rice), some garlic naan, stewed curry vegetables. With the dishes comes a complimentary serving of these circular chips that tastes like dried pig skins or shrimp chips. I tried one and it was awe-​ite. The lingering housefly noticed I wasn’t too keen on it and obnoxiously laid claim to it.
Note that the green mat is actually a banana leaf that you can place your food on. That is to say: the mat=plate.
The chicken Briyani was pretty good and came with two sauces: 1) a curry based sauce; and 2) an interesting tangy yogurt with chopped cucumber (favorite sauce here) While the rice was aromatic, the chicken lacked flavor and wasn’t very appealing.
And now to the Main Event: the Fish Head Curry. The server placed this huge bowl and a gigantic fish head in a red, curry based sauce. This «secret sauce» pretty much tasted like any other curry based sauce in any dish in any Indian Restaurant. While it made an excellent dipping sauce for the naan, would you pay $S26 for a naan dipping sauce?
If anything, I was perplexed at how much meat there is in a fish head. The fish head meat is soft (especially the cheek meat) and has a stewed consistency. Honestly, it is more hype than anything. Yes there is some quality, but it didn’t «wow» me at all, especially given the price.
The curry stewed vegetable dish was blegh. Didn’t do much to my palette and this is coming from a person who walked into this establishment very hungry.
All in all the fish head curry is a dish where you’re guaranteed to get your hands dirty as it’s a messy dish. That means unfortunately, you will have to wash your hands in the filthy bathroom located at the back. Word of warning, do not use the washroom prior to eating. If you do so, you will lose your appetite.
The service is pretty reliable. Though at times, they rush and do not listen carefully as the staff person gave us something we were only considering to order (a mango lassi which was actually not bad) but didn’t commit to.
All in all, the experience is a unique one, but I doubt that I’d ever need to stop by here again. Thumbs up slightly on the quality and service. Thumbs down on the atmosphere (especially the third world quality wash rooms).
For these dishes and a Tiger beer, it will cost you around $S65.

The drill used to be bestie and I would have lunch at Banana Leaf Apollo, and then get our eyebrows threaded at Vanessa Beauty (see other review). Now whenever I make a trip back, this place is always on my to-​eat list. The staples are always chicken masala, bryani rice, fish cutlets and sometimes fishhead curry depending how many people are eating. This time I also discovered chicken 65 — can’t believe that I never had it all these time!

Delicious, fresh food! We ordered the bhaigan bharta, rogan josht, aloo gobi, butter naan, mango lassi, and rice. Everything was flavorable. Very clean facilities and great, friendly service. We spent about $ 50 for two people. Recommended.

Pretty extensive menu. I’m no connoisseur of Indian cuisine but, this was very tasty. I’ll definitely be back!

This is a review of a dinner with a colleague at Banana Leaf Apolo.
The room is very basic and functional. It is a clean space though. It was not very busy (a Wednesday evening) when we were there.
The service is friendly and polite but basic. Your order is taken and your food is brought out. The food came out in a timely procession. It was neither delayed nor rushed.
As you probably already know, the food is eaten from a banana leaf instead of a plate. Possibly because we are westerners, we were provided with forks and spoons. So, we didn’t really do the eat with our fingers things.
The food was all pretty good. Some of it was even great. It was all freshly prepared. While nothing fancy, the food was presented in a pleasing manner.
Vegetable Samosa — Personally, I prefer the larger style samosas with more filling. But these were good. They were crispy on the outside and tender and flavourful on the inside. They went well with the provided sauce.
Vegetable Pakora — These were tasty. But they were not as piping hot and crisp as I like them to be. I did enjoy them though.
Butter Chicken — This was a sweet and buttery dish. It was pretty much exactly what I expect from Butter Chicken. They were generous with the chicken and it was very tender.
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Spicy Prawn Masala — This was a very nice dish. It was not very spicy though. As with the chicken, the prawns were tender. For my tastes, the prawns were perfectly prepared.
Aloo Gobi — This is not something you will hear from me very often. My favourite dish was the Aloo Gobi. Yep, the vegetarian dish won the evening. There was just so much flavour and it all worked so well together. The cauliflower and potatoes were both cooked just right. So good!
Rice and Garlic Naan — Both of these were well prepared. I could have personally handled a bit more garlic on the naan. But, all things considered, it was a good take on one of my favourite breads.
Overall — This is a basic shop that serves better than basic Indian food. I would love to try some of their other dishes. They offer both southern and northern Indian cuisine. We really enjoyed the food.

Very solid Indian food. It’s quite an experience to eat here, as much of the food is expected to be eaten using your hands. It’s clean and has a huge variety of options, but the ambiance is boring and the service is only ok.

Excellent restaurant with great prices. As the name insinuates, they serve the food on a banana leaf. The Chicken Briyani will melt in your mouth!

Wow — the food was so good. I am impressed and will be back, soon!

A happy meal here is an order of fish head curry, and all the refills of rice and vegetables you could want, served by men walking around with silver buckets of food. NOM. I’ve never quite understood why a curry fish head restaurant had to also serve other things like tandoori chicken, but not everyone likes their food looking back at them.
I remember Apolo as the one with the chandeliers (yes, really), and it’s really a sign of how much fish head curry is part of our national identity that busloads of tourists come by ever so often for it.

This place is over the years the most consistent top performer i’ve come across in Singapore. If you want to go out for a guaranteed good meal come to banana leaf apollo on serangoon road. I vouch that all the food items here are good. It’s not cheap but i suppose if you want consistently good quality, you gotta pay for it. The food is also always served on banana leafs. The meat, vegetables, rice, bread everything i’ve ever ordered here was always good. The variety of food here is wide and so my best suggestion to you on each page is close your eyes and point randomly. You can’t go wrong with this place unless your broke.