Nadaman – Lunch | Hungry Bird

I’ve tried all other restaurants at Shangri La before, except for Shang Palace, and I like all of them. I’ve wanted to try out Nadaman for the longest time and finally, I had the chance to today!

The interior is classy looking, living up to the standards of a 5 star hotel. When we arrived at 1:45pm, it was almost empty.

The menu they served for lunch was different from the menu offered for dinner. Me and my partner both took the Teppanyaki Mini Course. They serve the lunch menu daily.

The green tea served here isn’t free of charge. It cost $5.00++/pax and is refillable. However, the tea was tasty and it didn’t taste ubiquitous.

Appetizer

The one on the right was fish and the one on the right was prawn. It was very tasty! I liked this a lot more than any appetizer I had at other Japanese restaurants.

This isn’t miso soup.

Clear soup

I’m not sure what soup stock is this made of but the soup was very tasty and unique! I’ve not tasted anything like this before. The soup had a faint charcoal taste to it. It didn’t taste anything like chicken, pork, miso, shoyu or shio stock.

Chawanmushi

The chawanmushi was super silky and soft; it could disintegrate in my mouth within seconds. However, I wasn’t impressed by the taste of it. It was rather bland and tasteless. Not that it was terrible, but the taste failed to impress me, which was a pity, as the texture was lovely. There were almost no bubbles at all in the egg custard.

Sashimi

The sashimi type depends and is not the same everyday. For today, it was maguro and hamachi. I’m not a fan of these two, hence I chose chawanmushi over sashimi.

Salad

When I knew there was salad I expected it to be the typical lettuce with Japanese sesame dressing. However, I was pleasantly surprised that they actually served mesclun leaves, including my favourite arugla leaves. The dressing was somewhat like ceasar, and there was parmasen. I like this salad a lot more than the typical lettuce Japanese salad!

Beef Tenderloin

My partner chose the beef for his main course, and ordered it medium rare. However, it looks overcooked to me. The taste of it was tasty, but it wasn’t very outstanding.

Cod with butter sauce

This was my choice of main course. The size of the cod was quite generous. The butter sauce was very tasty and with lemon juice it was even better. However, the cod wasn’t exactly how I like cod to be. I like my cod to be soft, with strong oily cod taste. This cod, however, was more towards firm and chewy, non oily and the distinctive cod taste was minimal. However, my partner who detests cod for the oily cod taste and texture actually like the chewiness and lack of cod taste.

The vegetables were good too. I like spinach. I like how it was cooked just right – not wilted but doesn’t taste raw. However, it was a bit too oily and salty.

Fried rice, miso soup and pickle

Inaniwa Udon

I was offered hot or cold udon and I chose it cold. The udon was good, but in general, I prefer soba.

Red bean mousse

This was the dessert of the month. Even though it’s called a mousse, the texture was somewhat like mochi. There was coconut milk on top. This was the first of its kind I ever tried and it was great! It wasn’t too sweet. The taste and the texture was exceptional. The blueberry on it pleased me even more. This was outstanding.

For this meal, we had a 40% discount as we reserved our table online. This promotion is in conjunction with their 40^th Anniversary.

*****

Ambiance: 9.5/10

Food: 9/10

Value: 9/10 (with discount)

Overall: I will visit again definitely! One of the best Japanese restaurants I’ve ever dined at.

*****

Nadaman

22 Orange Grove Road,

Shangri-la Hotel

Tel: (65) 6213 4598

*****