The first time I ate it, it was a revelation. It was better than Samy’s Curry. It made me hook on biryani like Ke$ha’s “Your Love is My Drug.” Your Biryani is My Drug. At one point, I ate it 4 times a week, but unlike Lindsey Lohan’s beneficial and anorexic relationship with cocaine, I gained weight. Do you know a serving of biryani with meat can go up to 1, 200? That’s the calories needed for body maintenance for an entire day – or to feed Ethiopia for a year. The biryani better be worth 1200 calories and Shami’s biryani used to be worth it. In the past, every grain of rain was coated with spice; the mutton was as tender as a woman’s breasts (not that I’ve touched any before); the serving was generous; and it was cheap.

Now, the success of the shop is the ruin of the shop. The rice has less spices than before; the mutton is now served in a miserable tiny styroform bowl. (The servers used to just *piak* the mutton directly on the plate, so the serving was huge.) There were so many workers in the shop, about ten, but only one was serving the long queue of customers. The rest were just walking about, chatting. A boneless mutton biryani, which used to cost about $4.50, now costs $6.50, 44.44% increment. I added a very tiny piece of fish, totaling up to $9. $9 in food court leh! Robbery. Why doesn’t the boss sack some of the extra workers and lower the cost of the biryani so that more people will buy and the boss can have higher profit? (You can pick a free vegetable. In the picture, bottom left, I picked bitter gourd.)

And today, the mutton was burnt! I was thinking this wasn’t a restaurant so I just quietly ate my burnt mutton. I was too kind and stupid and should have just gone up to the boss regardless. Now my mouth still has a lingering charred taste.

I would go back again because I gym nearby. (Yeah, I know the irony, spend an hour on the treadmill just to eat biryani.) But don’t bother making a trip down until the standard improves. It used to be worth the trip.

Shami Banana Leaf Delights

Northpoint foodcourt, Yishun

#B2-10

Daily 10am to 8.45 pm.