Hey Hive!
If you keep up with the other series on my blog I also post a lot of travel stuff, writing about all the different trips we've been on together. So I thought of sharing more about the food we've tried in all the countries we've visited! We don't eat out often when we're at home (in the interest of health and financials), so tbh I've kind of run out of stuff to write about regarding Singaporean food. Not because there's not enough variety or anything like that, it's just that we haven't really gone out of our way to try new places in recent times.
I've written about quite a few restaurants we've tried in Japan for previous foodie competitions, but there's one I have yet to introduce called Nakau!
Nakau (pronounced nah-kah-oo) is a popular Japanese fast food restaurant chain with 470 outlets across Japan, located mainly in Tokyo and Osaka. They specialise in donburi (rice bowls) topped with variety of meat and other toppings, as well as Kyoto-style udon noodles that are soft and delicately flavored with a light dashi broth. Theey have a diverse selection of different rice bowls but their signature and best selling dish is the Oyakodon, which is a rice bowl topped with chicken and thinly sliced onion simmered in sweet soy sauce, and soft scrambled eggs.
Technically this is Japan's "fast food" although I wouldn't really put them in the same category as McDonalds' and KFC. I think some people would look down on us for eating these chain stores but they actually have good food and it's economical; which makes it common among regular salary workers in Japan. We've never really had a taste for expensive foods, and I believe that food that doesn't have to be expensive to taste good. Similarly, cheap food doesn't mean it's bad despite what a lot of people think.
This Nakau outlet we went to was right around the corner from our hotel in Ginza and it's a pretty small outlet. There's an aisle with counter seats on either side, some booths in the middle and along the sides.
Common in these types of Japanese fast food restaurants is the ticket vending machine right beside the entrance where you place your order. I've expressed this before but I think these machines are so much more efficient than getting the staff to take your orders. It's always such a hassle getting the waiter's attention and I hate that. Of course now a lot of restaurants also use tablets at the tables and that's even more efficient since the order gets sent straight to the kitchen.
Here's a closer look at the vending machine. I swear these are so much more convenient and I'm glad Singapore's fast food chains has something similar now too. There are kiosks in McDonalds' you can self-order from which makes it so much more efficient.
These also come with different languages so restaurants and patrons don't have to worry about physical menus not being in the right language.
Sean and I each chose a rice bowl and we received a ticket for each of our orders. After ordering, we passed the ticket to the staff who gave us a stub as a receipt at our seat.
The tables also have physical menus I guess for people who like to do order the traditional way, or for boomers who don't know how to use the machine.
They have quite a variety of rice bowls to choose from and the karaage one looked good, but I wanted to give their signature one a try since it was our first time. They even have curry rice and udon noodles.
They even have different kids' meal sets which come with either dessert, juice box or a toy/stationery which I thought was quite cute.
After about 10 minutes, our order was ready and we were so excited! This was Sean's karaage bowl, which is Japanese fried chicken. It looked good, and we were really curious about this side of chili oil since Japanese food is not known for being spicy. We love mixing chili oil in our food at home and were surprised to see a restaurant using it as well.
I ordered the oyakodon of course, and I guess I also got the soft boiled egg even though it already came with scrambled eggs. I think I might've shared it with Sean though.
I've tried oyakodon before in other restaurants and tbh they're not really my favourite since they tend to be a little sweet, and also a bit bland after a while. But I was curious about this one since it was their signature dish after all.
To be fair it was really tasty! The scrambled eggs were a bit runny but good and the chicken had a nice seasoning to it as well. But it was indeed a little sweet because of the sweet soy sauce. Despite how the chili oil looks it wasn't that spicy at all, but the flakes inside it were crispy and added a nice crunch to the oyakodon.
Overall it was still really good but I did like Sean's karaage better compared to my chicken. It was crispy on the outside with a unique batter, but still tender and juicy on the inside. I thought his bowl would be a bit dry but the chili oil and the soft boiled egg helped to alleviate that.
I think my chicken blended too well with the scrambled egg that there wasn't really a distinct taste so it was kinda meh. Maybe the oyakodon isn't to my taste. Besides, who doesn't like fried chicken? It was a really good meal regardless, and I was satisfied. But the next time we ate it I made sure to get the karaage bowl instead.
Thanks so much for reading!
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