Nabins at Bali Lane

Having been to the original Samar at Kandahar Street while it was still there, I searched the internet to find out where it had shifted. I heard the owner of the original Samar closed it and some of the staff had opened another Samar Cafe somewhere else.

After much research and search, Samar Cafe at 17 Bali Lane does not exist anymore. It has shifted to 27 Bali Lane and the name has changed to Nabins. Was told by a friend, who is a belly dancer, that Nabins is headed by ex-Samar head waiter, Nabin Naral. Although Nabins has a arabic/middle eastern theme, it serves arabic, greek and nepalese food.

There are chairs and tables downstairs but for those who want to lie on pillows in an "arabic" ambience, upstairs is where you'd want to be. Shoes need to be removed before entering the dining area.

Called up to make reservations for 5 people and specified non-smoking. When we arrived, the waiter invited us to go upstairs. There was a "No Smoking" sign outside the toilet but two groups of people were smoking shisha. The place is air-conditioned but it was not smoky at all. Smoke-less shisha? Since smoke didn't bother us, we decided to go ahead and order food.

For appetizer, we ordered the Samar platter (picture, right), the most interesting food item we had that evening. Mains included lamb rack that was tasty but had little meat, tasty grilled chicken thigh served with tasteless cous cous, and lamb kebabs that were tasty and tender. Portion size of mains were small for the kind of price we paid.

Since two of us were not full, we decided to eat at the Kampong Glam Cafe (17 Bussorah Street) while the rest went home. Had a really mean roti john (picture, below) smothered with mayo and chilli sauce accompanied with susu halia (milk with ginger).

Would I go back to Nabins? Probably not unless I have to. I would rather go back to Kampong Glam Cafe and try the rest of the food there. The guy next to our table was eating mee siam and it looked yummy...