Samsara

My Friday pre-​salsa Unilocal food quest continues. At the suggestion of my salsa friend Hilary, we headed to Cheam Village tonight in search of previously un-​Yelped restaurants
Our little wander through the village brought us to Samsara, and Indian restaurant which had a lot of intriguing sounding unique dishes on its menu.
As we hadn’t booked, we were ushered to a table right in the corner of the restaurant. The restaurant did half fill up while we were there and the staff did make sure that we were well attended, continuously checking back several times during our meal.
The waiters described the restaurant food as pan-​Indian with some European influences with their spices being imported from India. Certainly, the specials on their menu were quite unique.
We shared a lamb jhankar to start — lamb patty filled with chutney, rolled in noodles and fried with lacy egg covering. This came with streaks of 2 sauces on the plate which were sweet and aromatic. The meat was of shami kebab consistency and the combination tasted lovely if eaten all in one forkful
For main course, we found it hard to choose from so many intriguing dishes but in the end, we settled on a duck and chicken dish. The Samsara special chicken was a little generic in its taste though the meat was cooked perfectly — tender and not dry in the least
However, the star of the show was the tawa duck. Beautifully cooked tender duck with a subtle yet powerful thick sauce just covering the duck. It was a served with vermicelli noodles. This is a top class dish in imagination and execution.
Other noteworthy points about Samsara were a lovely thick mango lassi packed with mango flavour, attentive service and flexibility in the kitchen — they made Hilary a vegetable naan though it wasn’t on the menu. Popodums were also served as lots of little curled pieces rather than one big round one
I think Samsara so nearly gets 5 stars but the ordinary chicken dish held it back. However, I’m going to eat here again and I suspect by trying other dishes on the menu, they will earn that 5^th star in the near future