Bijin Nabe 美人鍋 Tsukada Nojo – was just a 30min wait for that delicious dinner!

Bijin Nabe Tsukada Nojo

Liang Court near Clarke Quay Station

It could have been the longest time that I have ever wanted to try a restaurant since its opening. More than 2 years since Tsukada Nojo‘s first branch at Dhoby Ghaut, the notoriously long queue has never failed to put me off every time, even for the branch at Chinatown. And I was quite skeptical when the buddy mentioned that the one at Liang Court doesn’t have a mental queue and indeed, it was just a 30min wait at 8pm on a Saturday night. All thanks to the buddy.

Thick intense umami packed collagen broth Tsukada Nojo serves for their Bijin Nabe and it comes just like that, as a wobbly pudding at room temperature. Knowing the procedure in making these puddings by fully dissolving the chicken bones in an 8 hour stew, you could already imagine the amount of collagen goodness tasted when that blob melts!

And as the heating plate gets switched on…

And coming together with that hotpot is this boat of really fresh ingredients; soaking up that rich broth, these chewy meatballs, golden mushrooms, and fresh crunchy greens were on point. $50 for the hotpot set.

The royal flush set of sauces for your meat and the yuzu pepper was my favourite!

The original chicken namban was fried to a perfect crisp and with its batter not sticking onto its meat, these tender chicken cubes are made even fluffier and crispier. And that thick decadent egg mayo coating there gave it an even fuller body. We wished we could have some bread to make it into a sandwich though! $8.50.

Some fries with the cutie sauce that the buddy redeemed!

I rarely take alcohol but that OT night the stress just had to be let off by getting a glass of frozen beer. Frozen froth at the top that makes the beer even icier; and as you could have guessed, this isn’t found just anywhere. $9.

A few options for the carbo and while most people go for the familiar egg noodles, we opted for the Mochi Mochi noodles as that sounds springier and tastier. And indeed, this had the perfect consistency that I have always been looking for!

Not having to queue for a few mental hours, and with such a tasty, gratifying hotpot served together with many spot on sides, all at a reasonable pricing of about $45 each, this is indeed one of the must go branches I reckon.

Verdict: An excellent restaurant. 4.8/5.

Beauty in the pot – Battle of the Collagen-ic Hotpot!

Beauty in the pot

OneKM Mall near Paya Lebar MRT

Knowing the potential windfall that a collagen hotpot could bring after Tsukada Nojo has proven so (the pioneer collagen hotpot restaurant that easily requires a 2h wait), the Paradise Group has opened its first, aptly named as Beauty in the pot in the East at OneKM Mall. Being my first collagen hotpot and having nothing to benchmark against, this indeed tasted genuinely thick, creamy, slightly viscous (due to the collagen) and is packed with loads of umami; unmistakable definitely, the chef must have made it undergo long hours of boiling with quality ingredients.

Not totally convinced that it’s fat free as the texture of broth really felt like an addictive tontotsu ramen, I decided to clarify further and was triply assured that it was purely prepared from collagen (Fish collagen if i did not hear wrongly). That led to the impulsive yet joyous binge on three bowls of collagen-ic soup!

And ingredients over here were expectedly fresh and evidently high quality as they tasted so good still even when we only remembered to fish them out after quite a while, forgetting about their existence in the soup. One of the commendable ingredients would be the cuttlefish which still tasted soft, slightly chewy and palatable even though it has been cooked for quite a while. Beef tripe and assorted balls shown above!