Good Eat: Nanjya Monjya

Posted by spots (Singapore, Singapore) on 15 July 2005 in Food & Cuisine and Portfolio.

This restaurant has a hard-to-pronounce name. (In fact, it's so hard, I'm not even going to attempt pronouncing it!) Nevertheless, it's got fantastic izakaya. Izakaya refers to both a type of restaurant as well a type of food. In terms of restaurant, there are various types of Jap restaurants in the market - from the fast food joints (Mos Burger & Yoshinoya) to the family restaurant chains (Restaurant Hoshigaoka), the high-end, usually zen-decor gourmet Japanese eateries (Wasabi Bistro at The Oriental & Shiro at Greenwood) to the much-more-humble & informal Japanese taverns, usually serving yummy meals, replete with lots of sake, and a shelf stacked full of Japanese comics for you to browse through, if you want. An izakaya joint refers to such an informal Japanese tavern. However, as mentioned earlier, izakaya also refers to a type of food, or rather, a style of serving food. Portions are usually small, a la Spanish tapas style, and it is common for patrons to order many many small dishes, so that they can try lots of different things. In other words, an izakaya restaurant does not serve up bento sets or large bowls of noodles. Instead, it specialises in Japanese tapas!

Nanjya Monjya is located on the ground floor of Allson Hotel. Perhaps because of the hotel setting, it is not quite as informal as your typical neighbourhood Japanese tavern (i.e., no shelf stacked full of Japanese comics in sight, like the one in Chako, another of our favourite restaurants which I blogged about earlier!) But, the atmosphere is distinctly informal and you'll feel at home dressed in jeans, bermudas or sandals. On the two occasions we visited, the place was packed out with Japanese clientele! Who knows where they all came from, but there were loads of them! The first time we visited, our friend had the good sense to book a table for the 5 of us. The second time round, just last Friday, we showed up quite spontaneously after ditching an attempt to find good chicken rice in the surrounding region (I had a pregger craving! What to do...). Nevertheless, we managed to squeeze two seats at the counter facing the teppanyaki / bar area and it was fairly quiet, not too rowdy or smelly.

I don't know about you, but I feel that the pictures really do not do justice to the quality of food. In particular, the unagi rice was absolutely fantastic! I've had unagi rice at other Jap eateries, including En @ Mohamed Sultan, but the one at Nanjya Monjya was simply the best we've tried! Also, you may be thinking - tofu with grilled cheese? What's up with that? But, surprisingly, it was really yummy! Even the tuna & asparagus salad, what one might call a rather boring or common dish, was above average. And, just to point out, although portions were small, each serving was definitely big enough for Husband & I. When we dined with friends there the first time round, each dish was sufficient to fill 5 people, of course given that we all ate small portions - but that's tapas after all!

I would thoroughly recommend Nanjya Monjya to all. But be warned, the prices are slightly above average, with each dish priced between $10-20. With such costs involved, it's better to go with a larger group of friends (also so that you get to try more dishes!). Nanjya Monjya also serves teppanyaki and sashimi. Oh and yes, like any other izakaya, there is plenty of variety of sake too! Remember to book in advance!