Nanta BBQ

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Nanta BBQ has recently opened it’s door last december in Goldhill Centre. They have their menu filled with palatable traditional korean appetizers, mains, stews and bbq for sharing and add on a touch of cheese to their bbq ribs to create a modern fusion to the traditional delights.The very first thing that caught my eyes is none other than this bottle of water with these stones settling at the bottom of the bottle. I was a little perplexed initially and decided to read it up online. Found that these stones are also known as mineral stones that will supposedly help to increase the minerals nutrient content in our drinking water which benefits our health. Interesting fact known from the meal. Refillable 7 side dishes comprises of kimchi, pickled vegetables, fishcake, and green salad was served upon our orders. We decided to go for something that was looking special and unique which is none other then their cheese pork ribs! We also ordered an appetizer to go along.La-bokki ($15) is one dish made with a twist to the traditional tok-bokki with the addition of ramyeon but still keeping the same old flavors. Stir-fried with sweet red pepper sauce with slices of fish cakes and topped with an egg; reduced to a thick gravy before serving the dish up to the dining table. A little sweet with intriguing spicy note to the sauce. Ramyeon was soft and tok-bokki was chewy to the teeth.Cheese Deng-Galbi Set B ($58) comes with a multi-component pot with the middle ring serving the limelight of the dish – CHEESE AND PORK SPARE RIBS! There are actually 3 main stars to this dish, first is the cheese and pork ribs, second is the nacho chip and its accompaniment while last but not least it’s the steam egg. This sharing portion easily served up to 3-4 pax and you can choose your spiciness level; spicy level is manageable for most.Grab a piece of nacho chips and topped it with some salsa mix, minced meat and salad mix. The nacho chips is light on its own not too salty and overpowering in flavor so it can fully bring out the distinct flavor of each accompaniment. A little savory from the minced meat, a little sour from the salsa and a little lightness from the salad. It’s a refreshing snack that complements well with the heavy flavored cheese ribs.Here’s the highlight of the day – Pork spare ribs with melting cheese. Aint those melty golden interstellar cheese looking good and making you to salivate now? So basically, one of their staff headed over to our table to showed us the proper way of savoring this delicacy. Ensure the cheese is really melting in the liquid state, grab a rib stick and wrapped it around with these cheese. Savor it while it’s hot, so the cheese is still a little melty to the palette; otherwise, the cheese really cools down fast and harden shortly thereafter. The luscious pork spare ribs is so well marinated with sweet spicy sauce on the right note right to the core, and the meat is so feathery light and tender, and de-bones easily. Such a toothsome combination of cheese and pork ribs for the night!What’s korean food without some booze right? This Watermelon Soju Cocktail ($38) is totally a hit! You must really give it a try when you’re there. It’s a little sweet and refreshing with minimum astringent taste from the soju. The foam intensify the overall mouthfeel of the cocktail. It’s sweet and as though filled with tiny bits of watermelon. Plus point that the cocktail is served icy cold!It’s surprisingly not too crowded on a weekday night. The dining area is spacious, good for both big and small group gathering. The friendly staffs there are very attentive and most of them are able to converse in korean too. If you’re looking for some good korean food away from the crowd, hop your way down to Nanta BBQ!https://poohlovesfood.wordpress.com/2016/01/01/nanta-bbq/ continue reading

For the complete review, click / copy the below link:http://www.chubbybotakkoala.com/2015/06/nanta-bbq.htmlNanta BBQ is a Korean Restaurant that open its door in Singapore in December 2014. Nanta combines traditional Korean dishes such as its BBQ meat and stew, with modern and fusion Korean cuisine such as incorporating cheese in their dishes. Located in Goldhill Centre, facing the Thomson Road, the Nanta BBQ can be easily recognised by their cool pig mascot. The décor is minimalist but spacious. Light wooden colour was the main theme and materials used to decorate the place. Each of the table can fit up to 4 person, however it also easy to combine to cater to bigger crowd.There were 9 types of banchan (side dishes) served during that day. Ranging from the aged kimchi and fresh kimchi, beans sprout, fish cake, Gyeran Mari (Korean egg rolls) and salads. The kimchis are a hit on our tables, especially with LD and another dining partner.For starters, we begin with Cajun Chicken Salad. This is a new dish in Nanta. Combination of boneless fried chicken piece with raw salad, mayonnaise and onion. The chicken was succulent and made a refreshing combination with the salad. It can be better if the chicken is crispier to provide a contrasting texture to the dish.For the grill meat, we have Wagyu Short Ribs ($35 for 200 gram), Aged Black Pork / Kurobuta Pork Belly ($29 for 200 gram) and Kurobuta Pork Collar ($29 for 200 gram). The wagyu short ribs was grill using cast iron pan in front of us. It has a nice marbling and grilled to about medium. To accentuate the flavour, I dipped it in the mixture of salt and sesame oil. While it was tender and juicy, it is missing the melts in your mouth feeling or what I called the beefgasm.The porky went through two steps of cooking. First, it was grilled over high quality charcoal in the kitchen up to 80% cooked and finished at the table so it create thick smoke like a normal BBQ restaurant. While it is good to consider not smoking the customers, it causes the pork to contract during the changes in cooking temperature (hot – cold – hot) therefore the meat become slightly chewy. We suggest to just cook it 100% in one location, the kitchen or in front of the customers. We guarantee that it will produce a more succulent and tender kurobuta pork.Moving to the Fusion dishes, we sample their Cheese Deng-galbi (Cheese Pork Spare Ribs). It comes in two different set. The set A ($55) is just a spicy pork spare ribs, tok-bokki with melted cheese. While Set B ($58), you have additional cheese egg, cheese corn, potato and spaghetti carbonara. The pork ribs are quite spicy, however roll with the cheese, it subdue the spiciness level will providing a creamy chewy texture to it. You must try the tok-bokki / rice cake as well, as it absorbs the sauce that the ribs was cooked it.For set B, the spaghetti was al-dente and creamy, while the corn cheese is sweet and creamy. LD like the egg as it was slowly cooked and moist. I also tried the unique combination of boiled potatoes with melted cheese. The set B is actually something you can order when you bring your kids or any non-spicy eater. It has enough variety that suited for everyone’s taste buds. In case the set is not tummy satisfying, you can add another $12 for Spam mixed rice to go with your Set A or Set B.If spare ribs are not your thing, you can try the cheese Tok-bokki ($18). The spicy version of the red pepper rice cake, topped with mozzarella cheese and torched until the cheese melted. Not only it has a plus point for WOW factor, it also provide a unique charred flavour on the cheese. LD says its good, the rice cake absorbs gravy well and those who like the chewy rice cake, will enjoy this dish.Of course a Korean dinner won't be complete without their stew dishes. We sample three of their dishes: Seafood Budae Jjigae (Traditional army stew using beef broth with Seafood); the inspired healthy version, tomato Budae Jjigae ($42 - using chicken broth and milk); and Bullak-jeongol ($45 – Beef Bulgogi and Octopus). These stews are just mammoth in size, which can easily satisfy 4 to 6 person. Each of the ingredients are neatly arrange in the pot before the broth were added. The beef bulgogi and octopus have a robust and sweet texture to the broth. The beef are tender and flavourful while the octopus was a tad more springy compare to what I prefer, especially near the end of the tentacles.Surprisingly, the healthy version of army stew is something that I might incline to order in the future. It has a mild level of spiciness, while the sourness will stimulate your palate. The ingredients such as fish cake, tofu and spam are closely similar to the original army stew, however I feel it was missing the instant noodle in it. Meanwhile LD enjoys the Seafood Budae Jjigae, especially the freshness of the crab and cuttlefish. Not so much of the big headed bean sprout though.Overall, the food served by Nanta is very interesting. We really enjoy their cheese influenced fusion dishes as well as their stews. If we order the bbq next time around, we will just ask them to do the cooking at the back all in one shot. There are some little things that can be improve, other than that it is a good place for some Fusion Korean BBQ and stew. Cheers!!Thank you very much Nanta BBQ and H3(Cube) for the tasting invitation. continue reading