After Dark Steps into the Light
The Oakham Curry Club (OCC) is a well-respected Institution with multiple international franchises. This review of After Dark being the latest by our Singapore branch.
The OCC takes pride in searching out the finest Indian restaurants and providing impartial reviews of Curry Houses all over the world.
Members vote anonymously without being influenced by other members (we call this “no swaying”) on 5 categories, and an average score out of a maximum 10 is given to each restaurant we review.
On Friday 25th October 2019 – The OCC visited After Dark - 79 Circular Road #01-01 049433
For full transparency, see below scores (out of 10). The voting is based on the votes from OCC members.
Restaurants must score an average of 7/10 or above to receive the OCC sticker of recommendation. All OCC members have been through a rigorous selection process to gain entry into the Club. In short, we all know our curries.
Quality: 6.87
Customer care: 7.84
Value: 6.31
Service: 7.56
Atmosphere: 7.73
Overall: 7.26
After Dark IS awarded the much-coveted OCC sticker of recommendation, making the required 7/10 average.
The OCC SG branch met for pre-drinks at Public House around the corner from the curry house venue, after declining the offer of pre-drinks at After Dark itself. The pub atmosphere and Little Creatures ales proving too moreish to pass up. The group were well dressed in order to make the effort to impress our hosts for the evening, who very kindly invited us to dine at their restaurant. An SG branch first!
After Dark states that it is “an urban oasis that offers an even more chill-out atmosphere on weekends with live DJ spinning sexy beats and al-fresco dining option on the Circular Road. It is an ideal place to stop in Boat Quay for travelers, a date night, business after-meeting, special occasions, private parties or just cause weekend hangout.”
“Chill-out” “DJ” “Sexy” “Hangout”……. Terms of this nature had some of the members extremely worried. To add, their menu is described as: “a rich blend of Indian-Chinese Cuisines”……. Chinese ay? Some attendees definitely entered this venue with eyebrows raised. What was this place we were going to, some sort of dumpling night-club?
The apprehensive lads were greeted warmly by the staff and sat in a good spot in the heart of the restaurant. It’s a decent open plan with an indoor/outdoor vibe, so you could soak up some of the buzzing Circular Road atmosphere as well as enjoying the restaurant air-con. Beers soon followed and we were delivered some good spiel from the manager, who ordered our starters for us.
On the whole the starters were pretty good, kebabs and samosa type things being well received. The only miss being the minced lamb patties, these red velvet splodges didn’t quite hit the mark in terms of texture and flavour being the common group feedback. Chinese dumplings were also served, but we shan’t be reviewing these as they ain’t curry. Unfortunately, we saw our starters before poppadums and when they did arrive sauces were limited. We love a poppadum! Should be an easy win for any curry house.
As the mains were being prepared the beers continued to flow to members delight, these are always very much needed with The Chairman thoroughly reviewing each agenda item. And as chilli (particularly spicy ones by the way) fines started to be distributed the search for a mango lassi on the menu ensued. This they did not have, but were replaced with Pina Coladas and Mango Daiquiris, they did just the job!
The mains were very good, excellent dahl, a well spiced mutton dish, rich paneer and pleasant chicken tikka masala all complimented by delicious hot naan. Rice was a little late to the party sadly.
When the bill came the OCC SG team felt that it was just about reasonable, we had plenty of booze and accept the central location of Circular Road is always going to bump price.
I’m happy After Dark got the nod of a sticker, it wasn’t so scary after all. Some great scores on Service, Customer Care and Atmosphere. It’s a fun spot to visit, we all felt well looked after and enjoyed the evening. Thank you kindly After Dark for the invite we are very grateful for the hospitality.