Restaurant Review: Tamarind Hill Singapore

Restaurant Review: Tamarind Hill Singapore

30 Labrador Villa Road
Singapore 119189
+65 6278 6364

Tamarind Hill restaurant is located in a colonial building situated on top of a hill in the green oasis of Labrador Park. Formerly known as Labrador Villa, this building was once the home of businessman George John Mansfield. As you can see in the below picture, the entrance to Tamarind Hill restaurant is nothing short of spectacular, with a staircase more befitting a royal palace than a home.

Copyright: Samadhi

In line with the elegant setting, the dress code at Tamarin Hill is smart casual and so as not to disturb dinner guests, children below the age of 14 are not permitted entrance. Arriving at Labrador Villa, one might get the impression that the place is deserted, as no signs of occupation are visible from the outside. However, once you enter the restaurant, you will quickly notice that the many tables are taken for the most part, at least on a weekend night.

For starters, we ordered the Tamarind Hill Platter, which is one of the restaurant's signature dishes and combines 4 different starters, with two items of each caramelized minced chicken and peanut embedded in tangerine, breaded calamari, prawn cake and salmon tataki. While this platter was not huge, and in line with what you'd expect from most elegant restaurants, it made up for it in flavor, with especially the salmon tataki and prawn cake standing out.

When our two main courses arrived (grilled fish and deep-fried duck, as per the waiter's recommendation also signature dishes at Tamarind Hill), I was very positively surprised by their sheer size. Usually, and as was the case with the starters and desert platters at Tamarind Hill, the portions in fancy restaurants tend to be rather inadequate for a hungry person. However, in this Labrador Park restaurant, the serving size for the main dishes is very, very generous. I'm not entirely sure how many ducks had to give their lives to fill this big platter with duck breast, and the grilled fish was quite decently sized as well. Of the two, the Thai-style grilled fish was the clear winner, hands down. The meat was succulent and doused with the accompanying sauce, this was by far the best dish we tried at Tamarind Hill, and I highly recommend giving it a try. Unfortunately, the deep-fried duck was not up to par, as the deepfrying apparently sapped most of the flavor from the duck meat, and even with the good tamarind sauce, the flavor was disappointing. Given the generous serving sizes, we were barely able to finish both dishes.

To finish our meal at Labrador Park, we decided on Tamarind Hill's desert platter. There were a few more or less traditional Thai deserts, and the only two I found tasty, my companion refused to eat, saying they were way too sweet. Now, I do have a sweet tooth, but I have to say they were indeed rather intensively sweet. The other desert items I found to be average at best, and my companion was also not impressed by this course.

Two items saved our dining experience at Tamarind Hill. First, the very nice location and atmosphere, and second the best grilled fish I have eaten in Singapore to date. On the downside, the other dishes we had varied below and above average, and service was merely ok (had to ask for cold water twice), although the staff was friendly. In line with its reputation, dinner at Tamarind Hill was not a cheap affair at a total of SGD ~250, including a bottle of  wine.

4/5 Stars