Nasi Don

Came to know about the new Nasi-Don whilst scrolling through social media one day. Nasi-Don is not a particularly newcomer to the F&B scene in Singapore — the concept does seem to be affiliated to Knock Knock : Dawn & Dusk which had recently closed their only location that is situated at Geylang Road. Whilst Knock Knock : Dawn & Dusk has mentioned that their close is temporary and that they are undergoing some form of re-branding efforts, they have also stated that Nasi-Don (which was listed in a sub-category of the menu page of Knock Knock : Dawn & Dusk) are striking out on their own. Nasi-Don’s choice of location after its move out of Knock Knock : Dawn & Dusk can be said as a little peculiar — they are situated within the Koufu food court that is located at Solaris @ Kallang (not to be confused with Solaris at Fusionopolis in one-north); they are also the only stall that is operating in the food court apart from the drinks stall when we made our visit there on a weekday afternoon. Given how they are located within a food court within an industrial complex in an industrial estate, Nasi-Don is only open during weekdays for lunch service. The stall, as its social media pages suggests, serves up a “revolutionary fusion of Japanese and local Singaporean delights” — in essence, they serve up a fusion form of Nasi Lemak with a Japanese touch. The menu at Nasi-Don revolves around its Nasi Lemak served in a Donburi-like form, comprising of different choices of seafood and protein to go along with.

Having skimmed through the rather extensive range of Nasi-Don items that they have to offer, we went for the Honey Miso Chicken Karaage — this adds on the Honey Miso Chicken Karaage on top of their standard Nasi-Don; the basic Nasi-Don comes with elements such as fried Enoki mushrooms, sambal chili, peanuts and anchovies, Takuan (i.e. Japanese Yellow Pickled Radish) and sous-vide egg.

Eagerly digging into the rice here, it is interesting to see how Nasi-Don has used the Japanese short-grain rice for their rendition of the “Nasi Lemak” here — does bring quite a bit of that Japanese fusion into the local Nasi Lemak. The menu describe the rice to be cooked in a Nasi Lemak-style coconut broth; we cannot deny how the rice comes with an evident fragrance of coconut here that was pretty prominent, though the stickiness of the grains here did provide the Nasi Lemak with a rather uncanny resemblance to that of glutinous rice in Nonya Kueh-Kueh — something that nah not necessarily gel well with some. The Honey Miso Chicken Karaage itself was rather decent; these were tender and easy to chew through — comes with a light drizzling of honey miso sauce for a bit of a sweet-savouriness. In retrospect, we found that the deep-fried Enoki Mushroom came with too thick a batter — these were crunchy, but lacked the usual chew and bite that Enoki Mushrooms typically would have carried. The sous-vide egg was decent but could have been better; the sous-vide egg came with a wobbly egg white but a creamy yolk — stops short of coming with a molten yolk that some people would have preferred more. The sambal chili itself comes a bit more savoury than sweet, though the chili does come with quite a fiery punch of spiciness that tickles the tastebuds even for those tolerable to moderate levels of spiciness; meanwhile, we did note that they could be a little more generous with the anchovies though — the ones used here seemed to be smaller than that of the usual. Though they were crisp, it just did not seem like enough when compared to the proportion of the peanuts that comes along with it. The complimentary bowl of Miso Soup that accompanies all Nasi-Don items comes with kelp and small pieces of tofu — a good-to-have.

It does seems like the folks working around Solaris @ Kallang does not have much of a choice when it comes to food choices within their immediate vicinity — despite the Koufu food court being in operation, there is only this much that can be said when Nasi-Don is the only stall that is open apart from the beverage stall there. This makes Nasi-Don an especially interesting option for food, especially since Nasi-Don isn’t quite a typical stall that one would find in any food court, let alone one that is situated within an industrial estate. If Nasi-Don were to be an establishment of its own being a standalone eatery, we would find their offerings to lean a bit closer to the average side — there are elements in which we felt that the execution could have been slightly better. Taking it into account that Nasi-Don is an operator of a food court stall now, we would find that there is a bit of a novelty element in the food that they are serving up — definitely an interesting addition to the lack of options that the area suffers from. Prices of the various Nasi-Don ranges from $4.90 to $9.90 here — the $4.90 Nasi-Don being the most basic creation that does not feature any meats, while the $9.90 Nasi-Don is the Twin Combi Meal whereby patrons can opt for any two items that are being served up in their other Nasi-Don offerings featuring meats or seafood. With their offerings being priced at rather affordable rates, we do think that Nasi-Don would be an option that the folks around the area would be relying on for their meals for a while …