Nabe Seizan 鍋 @ Japan Food Town Wisma Atria

Nabe Seizan is the offshoot of Seizan, a 2-Michelin star establishment in Tokyo. While Seizan is a kaiseki restaurant, Nabe Seizan 鍋 specializes in Japanese hotpot. Its prices are rather steep and the staff informed that their strength is in the dashi. Other than that, Seizan also offers mabushi during lunch time. What's a mabushi? It's a variant of hitsumabushi which is an eel rice dish enjoyed 3-ways. For mabushi, it is other protein (usually beef) enjoyed two-ways; as it is and with dashi and condiment.

Currently, they are having Agu Pork Mabushi during weekday lunch only. Decided to give it a try since I was around the area. The Ohmi Wagyu beef mabushi is available everyday during lunch hour.

interior

Discovered that the restaurant is pretty smallish but liked that the tables are adequately apart. There was only another table occupied during that day of visit. Service staff (non-Japanese) were earnest and friendly.

complimentary tea

It was only a short wait before the food was served.Was informed that the dashi is refillable.

Agu Pork Mabushi Set @$25++

Agu Pork

Agu Pork is Okinawan pork and is similar to kurobuta. The slivers of meat was deliciously tender and flavourful. Enjoyable as it is.

There was a small dish of curious paste and it tasted like chicken rice chili paste. Asked the staff about it and she mentioned that usually the sauce would be provided during dinner time to enjoy with the hotpot as a dip. Queried on whether the chili paste was requested by local customers but the staff clarified that it was actually concoted by their Japanese chef, Mr Yamamoto. Perhaps Chef Yamamoto was inspired by our chicken rice?

Chef Yamamoto 'chicken rice' chili paste

Next, one could enjoy the rice with the dashi. The soup was clear and lightly flavoured. Pleasantly mild and the chili paste helped to give a different dimension to the taste.

Style 2 - eaten with dashi

Topped up the lunch set with a dessert. It was a pudding dessert called wasanbon. While wasanbon refers to the fine grained sugar, the pudding has milk and fruits in it and topped with chopped white wine jelly.

wasanbon 和三盆 @$5++

The pudding was very likeable. Soft like tofu with reasonable sweetness. The fruits were pear and peach and the white wine jelly was good. The white wine jelly matches with the pudding.

yums

Expect the spend about $30 to $50 per pax during lunch time and double of that during dinner time.

Ninja Cut @ 32 Seah Street

Eat healthy? Yes, we can at Ninja Cut. Plenty of choices too. Got ourselves a #CrispyGoals and Squid Fix to share. Each of these comes with an onsen egg ontop and no carbs. You could top up for quinoa, soba, rice or garden greens.

the way of the Ninja(Cut)

yummy looking

Sparkling Orange Espresso @$7

The sparkling orange espresso was rather nice. A wake-me-up thirst quencher on a hot day.

#CrispyGoals @$14

Was expecting a more crackly pork belly but it ain't so. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the large pieces of sio bak in this place even though there were some that were too tough on its edges. Couldn't taste the miso in the cucumber but it was enjoyable. More so than the beets. Ugh, the raw taste of beets should only exist in ABC juice.

Squid Fix @$18

Can't help but to stare that bit longer at the plate of gorgeous squid. Tender and yummy. Favourite amongst these two. Similar ingredients as the pork belly except it has honey-glazed carrots in lieu of the beets (yay!). The squid has a nice smokey flavour and it tasted just right.

tuck in

If you're going to check-in here often, do get its lunch card. Terms and conditions applies.

Ninja Cut lunch card

Songfa Bak Kut Teh 松發肉骨茶 @ JEM

It was dinner with family and all had arrived except me. The good thing about that, was that I got to arrive at a table full of food! Hahaa! Songfa @ JEM is located at the basement level (same level as NTUC Fairprice) and at the Watson side.

feeds a family of 5 adults

When having bak kut teh, it is essential to have tea. So out came the tiny teapot with equally tiny tea cups. Kind of felt like 'masak-masak' if you asked me.

tea set

Not sure which tea goes well with the pork ribs, but the Jasmine tea that we had gotten was pretty good since the flavour had intensified into the small pot.

superior grade jasmine

Hmm, since we didn't know how to 'execute' the tea making, there was help from the service staff. She patiently demonstrated the way. If you asked me now, I can't remember the steps but roughly its about warming the teapot and teacups and to pour away the first pour.

tea making

washing the cups?

enjoy

Having had many bak kut teh in my lifetime, I must commend that Songfa pork ribs were quite good. Tender and flavourful. The white pepper soup was not too overpowering too. No need to get the premium ribs as the normal ones were already quite good.

The intestines were also not bitter so that was a plus point. The vegetables were done well with it being crunchy and not overly cooked. The kidneys were a tad too tough but it was washed nicely without any funky smell. Surprisingly, the soup of the pigs stomach was a tad spicier than the pork ribs soup though both should've came from the same soup pot. Just don't choke on the soup like me.

do you like kidney?

pork ribs

If you're a lover of garlic, Songfa seemed pretty generous as our bowls of pork ribs and stomach had quite a lot of those. Cooked till soft and not pungent, these were pretty good snacks and probably good for our health too.

Overall, we had enjoyed our meal at Songfa Bak Kut Teh.

Songfa Bak Kut Teh

Location:  JEM #B1-09, 50 Jurong Gateway Road, Singapore 608549
Website: https://www.songfa.com.sg/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/songfabkt/