Flying Monkey - modern Indian restaurant in Kampong Glam

Flying Monkey is a relatively new Indian restaurant in Kampong Glam. It is located in a nondescript white shophouse on Bussorah Street which leads directly to the impressive Sultan Mosque. There is no obvious signboard, only a hardly visible Flying Monkey name and logo printed on the glass door. With a name like this, we had to check out this restaurant.

The Flying Monkey space is long and narrow. It is bright at the entrance and dark inside. Except for the wall murals, the restaurant was simply decorated. According to their website, Flying Monkey offers “authentic Pan-Indian cuisine with a pinch of excitement.”

Flying Monkey Menu

The Flying Monkey food menu is a simple one. The dishes are divided into the Small Plates and Big Plates, tapas style. We decided on three small plates and one big plate.

The chilli poppers ($10) was a dish of three big chilli, stuffed with potato masala and deep-fried. The heat of chilli is usually inversely proportionate to its size and we had assumed it would be something like those we find at yong tau foo stalls. But these big chilli were surprising fiery. The potato stuffing was tasty. A nice dish but be prepared for the heat.

The calamari 65 ($10) was deep-fried squid prepared with an interesting mix of herbs and spices. This was an interesting Indian interpretation of the usual calamari dish. This is a good finger food to go with drinks.

The tandoori chicken ($10) was the most beautifully plated dish of the day. We thought that the chicken was a bit dry and the seasoning too strong – both in terms of spices and salt used.

Our only large dish was lamb shank ($26). We liked the bold presentation of this dish. It was not a large piece of lamb but the texture and flavour was very good. This was the best dish of the day. Overall, lunch at the Flying Monkey was an interesting experience. The creativity of the chef to blend elements of western cuisine into Indian cooking is applauded. If only the level of the spiciness / flavour could be customised, we would have enjoyed the meal even more. Service at the restaurant was attentive and friendly.