Cafe Mariam

Enough has been said about this hidden and elusive gem. It really blew us away. It may be tiny and understaffed, but the food was gourmet level. This is the giant plate they usually serve in and two of us shared this. We actually ordered two portions but the boss was kind enough to tell us it's too much. In other words, he declined the business. Respect. The mandi looks unremarkable but it's so fragrant. The chicken leg was torched and so smoky yet incredibly tender. The mutton could be gamier, but definitely tasty enough. Some parts were tender, some less so. The mutton biryani was full of flavour in a different way, mainly from the curry, and its meat was gamier. Comes with raw greens, chilli sauce and yogurt.

Perhaps some of the appeal of this delicious biryani lies in how rare and challenging it is to get.
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This humble, hole-in-the-wall joint is owned by Chef Hassan Abdul Majeed, whose grandfather founded the legendary Islamic Restaurant at North Bridge Road, a place reowned for their biryani.
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Chef makes nearly everything from scratch, and his labour-intensive 3-stage cooking process means each dish is top notch, though it also limits his menu to only 5 items; all a variation of either biryani or mandi rice.
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His belief that saffron is key, means the dish is generously and luxuriously flavoured, and along with other spices, impart a rich grainy spice sweet savoury flavour to the loose and fluffy basmati rice.
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The large and generous mutton is fall-apart tender, with meaty savoury spice flavour, complimenting the rice. Was so large that chef handed me an additional empty plate for portioning it out.
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Completed with an intensely sour spicy pickles, and a side of curry (although the biryani is good enough on its own).
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Chef only opens for a mere 4-hours for lunch each day, and often sells out before closing. This, along with the limited 12 - 14 seats at the stall, means careful advance planning is needed to dine.
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Still, this biryani is the gold medal standard for me.
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Biryani
Cafe Mariam
@ WIS @ Changi, 116 Changi Road #01-02
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More details:
https://ivanteh-runningman.blogspot.com/2022/04/best-of-singapore-hawkers-biryani.html

The boss is very kind and friendly and they have the best briyani in Sg! Love coming back to this place.

Surprising find in Joo Chiat area. Strongly recommend the mandi which came with a strong unique smokey taste. Their sauce was also on point. Mutton and chicken were very fresh and tender. Very generous with the rice too. Will definitely be back!

If it’s up to me to choose, I will say to go for both of them! The Chicken Dum Biryani ($6.50) is the version that we are all familiar with, in which the marinated chicken is cooked together with the basmati rice while the Chicken Mandi Biryani ($6.50) is not commonly seen elsewhere. What makes the mandi unique is that the rice is cooked in a mandi spice mixture and separate from the chicken. Upon each order, the chicken is then blow-torched to give it a smoky aroma and charred flavour. Just the appearance and colour alone is able to distinguish both biryanis and each is served with a different condiment. The mandi comes with a side of yogurt and green chilli chutney, the latter very similar to the Thai green chilli sauce, while the dum briyani comes with a dhal and a chutney that I suspect is made from plums. Overall, an excellent go-to for biryanis which you will surely feel satisfied and fulfilled at the end of the meal.
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📍Café Mariam
116 Changi Road, Unit 01-02, Singapore 419718

This massive platter with chicken and mutton fed 5 of us comfortably and we could not stop digging in! The long grained rice was tasty and full of flavour, but not at all oily, and the tender meat had been torched to give it that lovely smokey flavour. Am usually not a fan of mutton but in this case, the mutton was very well cooked and not too Camry. We also had a separate serving of chicken dum briyani and it was very very good as well. Huge fan of this. Go early since there is little seating!