Briyani 47 @ Hougang - Briyani 47 @ Hougang

Briyani 47 serves something different from the usual. Their briyani smells wonderful Ang taste even better. Unlike others, you are not given any curry sauce but the curry is incorporated into the rice. I have yet to try the lamb but both the chicken and fish briyani are wonderfully delicious with the fish my favourite. The briyani is also garnished with lots of shallots and this give the serving more unique. Try them and you'll be satisfied.

Order: mutton briyani and pappadom takeaway First time trying Bangladeshi style briyani and not quite impressed. Flavour was muted and did not come with gravy, making it drier than what I've always been having. The mutton while nicely tender, lacked a tad more taste. No doubt import meat prices had increased, seller could be more generous with portion rather than four miserable "half bites". Basmati rice was alright in terms of chewiness though the lack of gravy dryness made it slightly difficult to swallow. Pappadom fresh without rancid oil taste. Not much of a queue when I was there. The briyani were prepacked in disposable bowls ready to be dispatched upon order - speedy though not sure if this could compromise on standard. Lady seller was pretty friendly.

Different from what I expected, the spices in the rice wasn't as strong as the typically biryani and would be suitable for children to it. However this also reduced the flavour in the food. I had the mutton biryani, which was both tender, creamy and tasty. Overall I would say I enjoyed it and it was different from what I expected, but the taste wasn't as great as what I heard about it.

I had arrived at 12:45pm looking at a queue of around 20 to 25 person. I got my pack of mutton briyani at around 2:30pm which makes it a 1h 45mins wait. In between about 5 to 10 people gave up waiting. The mutton is tender and nicely cooked. However the rice is rather disappointing and does not look like briyani we get from the usual mamaks. For such a long time, one could had bought any of the other food in the coffeeshop, including Collin's western food which was quick to serve. The stall is dependent on 1 rice cooker for its briyani and they have to recook the rice once its finished. Until 47 briyani can sort out their workflow, I suggest to give them a miss.

This place is not your typical Indian style briyani. Most of the reviews here do not understand that this is a Bangladeshi style briyani. There are alot of differences between Indian briyani and Bangladeshi briyani. There is no seperate curry given in Bangladeshi briyani as the rice would contain a little bit of gravy/stew from the protein you're buying. The rice would be nicely cooked and would not be colourful nor very flavourful as it is only cooked with ghee unlike your traditional Indian shop that you visit twice a month. The food is very well prepared and delicious. The pickled cucumber goes well with the rice and the meat. The food is slightly on the pricier side, however, it is delicious thus if you're willing to spend over 10 dollars on fast food restaurant, it is totally reasonable to try this. Half of the comments here, have no idea what Bangladeshi food is. If you don't like it, it's not because it isn't good, it's because, you are NOT USED to eating it. Ignore these reviews and try it for yourself. Because everyone has different tastes. I would rate this a 4/5.

I have no idea why there are so many people queuing. Perhaps they are like me, who came because of the migrant worker story. 1 hour of queue during weekday is no joke. It's even worse during weekends. Taste wise, it isn't like the usual briyani. No taste of spice. Strangely, there is fried onion strips (油葱头). Chicken is tender, but cut into small cubes. And a quarter of a boiled potato with skin. Rice is basmati. Lacks flavour. Neither it's cheap nor delicious. Really not worth queuing.

To be fair..I originally rated this at 4 stars when I visited the Maxwell market branch. As the rice was great and the fish and mutton was tasty not that oily..today's variant at Hougang left a poor pallete to my tastebuds..the rice was still good but lacked the taste..and the fish plus the mutton were both quite oily..leaving A LOT of oil underneath my rice..but...being a hungry man and spending the $8.50. I figured I should finish my food as it was still edible..I just skipped the bottom part and didn't clean my plate. I hope they read this and have the kitchen improve on this.

The humble briyani, showing that you don't need much to stand out and sometimes less is more. While many people commented the rice was leaving in flavor, I thought it was a well balanced to accompany the flavourful curry that came with it so that it was not overwhelming at all.