Tekka’s Allauddin’s Briyani Opens Stalls In Toa Payoh & Newton As Founder’s Grandson Joins Biz

Jahabarali has been assisting his uncle as a sort of de-facto manager for the better part of a year, plugging the gaps where necessary. His help was especially vital when Haji recently decided to bring Allauddin's Briyani outside of Tekka Centre for the first time - delivery and takeaways notwithstanding - in its 53-year history.

“[My father] always wanted to bring his briyani to the whole of Singapore,” Haji says. “Which is why we’re looking to expand around the island.” The first of these stores to open in May are at Newton Food Centre, Geylang East Food Centre and Toa Payoh Lorong 8 Hawker Centre, which was the one we visited.

“We’re looking to open in West Coast next,” says Haji. “We’re also working out a franchising plan.” Their newest outpost at Toa Payoh is recognisable, even from afar, thanks to the distinct stall signage plastered with mentions in local media over the years. The big difference is their lack of cooking equipment - save for a lone deep-fryer. The food now comes in a gleaming, all-metal pushcart from a central kitchen (more on that later).

Though young Jahabarali has picked up the management part of the business quickly, his biryani-cooking skills aren’t up to scratch just yet - after all, it took Haji himself more than a few years before he could be trusted with handling the food at Allauddin's Briyani. “He just needs a lot more experience,” says Haji.

Photo: Allauddin’s Briyani

However, such an expansion plan requires training a multitude of cooks across the island or a central kitchen. Haji chose the latter. “My roots are always as a hawker, and I’m proud to call myself one,” he says. “But this gives me better quality control.”

Said kitchen, helmed by 20 cooks, is situated within Kampong Ampat, also called KA Foodlink. Prep work begins at midnight, he says, with the chopping and cleaning of fresh chicken and vegetables, as well as mutton. By about 6am, everything is ready to be cooked in a proprietary blend of secret spices “that we mix ourselves”. It’s at this point that Haji comes in to ensure that everything is up to standard, and the process repeats itself for the rest of the day with batches of food going out every four hours or so to the various outlets.

That isn’t the only change they’ve had to make. Footfall in Tekka Centre fell drastically in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially since South Asian migrant workers, which made up a large part of the weekend crowd, disappeared from Little India.

At that time, they turned to food delivery services like Grab and Foodpanda to cope with the loss in demand. Moving forward, they’re looking to maintain the quality of Allauddin’s food while growing the business in the digital world as well, says Haji.

With the current Phase 2 HA no dine-in measures, Haji’s had to temporarily close the outlet at Newton Food Centre. “The business there is mainly from dine-in customers, so the footfall is very weak now,” he says. Other Allauddin’s outposts in Geylang East, Toa Payoh (pictured) and Tekka are “making do with takeaway and delivery.”

As expected from self-proclaimed briyani specialists, briyani takes centre stage here with scarcely anything else on the menu. Don’t expect traditional, rather elegant Hyderabadi biryani, cooked dum-style (where the meat is layered and cooked with the rice and the pot’s lid sealed with dough) here. Instead, the rice and meat are cooked separately, according to a recipe that originated in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu. You’ve got an option of chicken, fish and mutton - either curried (though they’ve labelled it as sambal) or, for the first two proteins, deep-fried. Briyani alone costs $5, regardless of the choice of meat, though you could add a dollar more for a boiled egg and papadum.

Here, they scoop rice onto your plate before adding your meat of choice, ladle on some curry, before covering it in more saffron-and-turmeric-stained rice.

We find the yellow-orange basmati grains a tad inconsistent - they’re fluffy and well-separated in spots, but also clumped and mushy elsewhere. We suspect that the quality probably suffered from the journey from the central kitchen. In terms of aromatics, the fragrance from the fried onions, cardamon, fennel seeds and cloves is present, though relatively subdued. It doesn’t feel overly rich either, though the oily mouthfeel from the ghee remains. It’s all rather light, which is a good thing as we didn’t feel overwhelmed by the grease or the spice as our meal wore on.

You get a bowl of dalcha (a lentil-heavy curry), with every order of biryani. The spice-rich curry here, usually a little more watery than standard curries, comes with brinjal, carrot and potato, giving you a little more bite. It’s a great way to get further with your briyani if you’re used to something with more gravy.

Elsewhere, we see online that Allauddin’s briyani set used to come with achar, though that’s since been phased out in favour of raita ($0.50). The yoghurt-based side is made with cucumber and carrot. The tangy accompaniment cuts through the richness of the biryani and curries rather well, though it’s a little watery.

The accompanying papadum and boiled egg are standard stuff - though at least the former is crispy and generously served by the bag rather than by piece.

The mutton chunks come in a curry that’s just robust enough to partially mask the sometimes-off-putting gaminess of the meat. However, it’s tough - we make no headway at all with our plastic fork, before abandoning it altogether in favour of our hands and teeth. Even then, it’s hard work.

The piece of curry chicken we get is everything the mutton is not. The moist thigh meat falls off the bone easily. The curry here is a little less spicy and full-bodied than the one that coats the mutton, but that makes sense - chicken is a lot milder-tasting. We enjoy it immensely with the long-grained rice.

The fried chicken — pre-cooked then refried to crisp up upon order is rather dry. That said, it’s well-seasoned enough with an aromatic punch from the spice blend.

Good chicken curry, fairly tasty but inconsistently cooked rice — perhaps due to teething problems since all the food prep is now done in a central kitchen for the various new stalls instead of being cooked on-site. Here's hoping that they’ll iron out the kinks soon. On the bright side, it’s far more convenient to get your hands on the heritage biryani here if you’re a fan, thanks to their aggressive expansion around the island.

Allauddin’s Briyani has four outlets, including #01-79, Lor 8 Toa Payoh Hawker Centre, 210 Lor 8 Toa Payoh, S310210. Open daily 8am to 10pm. Available for delivery via Foodpanda and Grabfood.

Other outlets include: #01-67 Geylang East Food Centre, 117 Aljunied Ave 2, S380117; #01-232 & #01-229 Tekka Centre, 665 Buffalo Rd, S210665 & #01-52 Newton Food Centre, 500 Clemenceau Ave, S229495 (Newton branch currently closed during Phase 2 HA).

All photos cannot be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg

Photos: Kelvin Chia