Diwali eating in Singapore usually means a visit to Little India and a plate of something fried. The Gully Restaurant at Holiday Inn Singapore Little India is taking a different route this year with a mela buffet that puts several festival dishes on one table, plus a four-course set menu running through November.
Gully’s Diwali mela buffet runs for five days from 5 to 9 November. Image: Gully Restaurant & Garden.
\n’}The mela buffet is S$50++ a person. Dinner runs on 5 and 6 November from 6 to 10pm, and lunch on 7, 8 and 9 November from 12 to 4pm. Those dates sit right around Deepavali itself, which falls on Sunday 8 November, with Monday 9 November a public holiday.
What is on the buffet
The spread is built around the food served at a Diwali mela, the market that springs up before the festival. That means a mix of savoury snacks, curries and sweets rather than a single regional menu, which suits a group where nobody agrees on what Diwali food should be.
The spread at Gully in Holiday Inn Singapore Little India. Image: Gully Restaurant & Garden.
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The live chaat and pani puri station is part of the mela buffet. Image: Gully Restaurant & Garden.
\n’}The restaurant seats inside the hotel on Ah Hood Road, a short walk from the Indian Heritage Centre and the Campbell Lane bazaar, so it works as a lunch stop between the lights and the shopping.
The set menu
The A Taste of Diwali set is S$70++ for four courses, or S$60++ for the vegetarian version. It runs from 1 October to 30 November, so it is available now and through the week after the festival.
Gully serves Indian street food as small plates. Image: Gully Restaurant & Garden.
\n’}Four courses at that price is a reasonable dinner in a hotel restaurant, and the vegetarian option is a proper menu rather than the side dish treatment vegetarian guests usually get at festival promotions.
Booking for the festival week
The buffet dates are the ones to plan around. Deepavali weekend is the busiest in Little India, when the roads around Serangoon Road close for the bazaar and traffic crawls. Book ahead for 5 and 6 November dinner, and expect lunch on 8 and 9 November to be the busiest sittings because both days are holidays.
Ask for a table away from the door if you are bringing children, because the hotel lobby gets busy with festival visitors.
The garden seats beside the pool. Image: Holiday Inn Singapore Little India.
\n’}The Deepavali light-up runs until 8 November, and the Campbell Lane bazaar is at its best after dark, so an early dinner leaves time for both.
