I have lived in the country for more than 2 decades and I thought I have seen it all. It isn't until last Ramadan that the Kingdom of Unexpected Treasure decided to reveal to me an "Unexpected Treasure". It is an unassuming, restaurant lost in the middle of Kiulap. Kiulap is truly the best place for culinary experience in Brunei. Even though it is a relatively new urban area, it has top restaurants for different types of Cuisine. Most noticeably, Pan-Asian cuisine like Saffron, Japanese cuisine like Misato (A.K.A. Edo Ichi in other countries), Indian cuisine like Le Taj and many others including Chinese, Thai, Korean, Italian and, of course local Malay cuisine from powerhouses like Aminah Arif and Aneka Rasa. The restaurant hidden by these titans is in fact a restaurant offering Pakistani cuisine.
The restaurant is called Seri Damai Restaurant located in Hau Man Yong Complex. It is at the end of the block that has Chong Hock and Easy Way. If you go to De Fountain and Dreamcones often you would have passed through it without a glance. The restaurant proclaims that is serves authentic Pakistani, North-Indian and Kashmiri food. That seems like an awful lot of cuisines but if you look at the menu, the choices are surprisingly few. 90 percent of the names of food are unfamiliar to me even though I love Indian food which I assume to be pretty close. I stumbled upon it when we were looking for lunch and many restaurant are closed and we are not in the mood for over-priced food in de Fountain. We walk into the deserted restaurant and the waitress are actually surprised!
So far, I went there only twice but those two experiences are pretty positive. Great food, good service. The most important thing they seem to lack are customers. Which are pretty sad because their food is very good and the portion are huge. In fact the portions are so huge that I have to take away part of it which is as rare as the alignment of all the solar system's 8 planets and 3 dwarf planets!
This here is the Lassi that I order 100% of the time I were there. It taste marvelous and just as good as Zaika's. There is nothing better than yoghurt drink to cool the tongue and the stomach especially since the food it going to be hot and spicy. By the way, the lassi they serve costs only $1.50 which are very cheap.
This here is ... I can't remember the name but I remember it is in the set meal section (3 choices only and $6 each) and it the only one served with supposedly pulao rice. When they served it, it does not come with the rice I expected. Anyway I am not super disappointed because they replaced it with Basmati rice. It ain't no normal rice. If you look closely, the grain is extra long and they are all (or 99%) unbroken and don't really stick together. You put some in the mouth and you can taste the richness in the rice with a nasi lemak quality even though there are no coconut milk in it. That is the reason why Basmati rice is considered the best rice in the world. (Bario rice is also considered one but I think it is a false claim) Oh yeah, other than the rice, it comes with two other dishes (similar colour), a nan bread and mint sauce. The dishes are delicious with the intense spicy flavour that I absolutely love. The nan they serve are pretty different from the normal fare because these have sesame seeds and very thick. The mint sauce are pretty nice and sourish but it is not minty enough.
The second time I went there, I ordered another set meal. And this time I order a more familiar food. This comes with the absolutely delicious basmati rice, a piece of papadum, shish kebab and chicken tikka. The Shish kebab is delicious with many spice and unlike some, this is pretty soft and not a toughie to bite. Good. And the Chicken tikka is utterly delicious. Nice and juicy when you bite and oh, so flavourful. The thigh (my favourite part for chicken) is heavenly!So, if you want to try something new like Pakistani food, you can drop by here. But you have to prepare for long waiting time.
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