Sandwich is my new best friend and it’s something that I cannot live without especially on days when I need a quick lunch or a relaxing no-cook dinner. Besides Subway’s sandwiches, NamNam Noodle Bar is probably my only preferred choice of what I call Vietnamese fast food because of its wickedly tasty pork belly banh mi. Plus the food here at NamNam are really not expensive at all whether you’re dining in or packing them to go.
I last blogged about NamNam’s banh mi in January this year and I had revisited many times since then but I hadn’t shared its revised menu with some adjustments to their pho and banh mi selections.
A look at their current menu:
They now have pho pork balls! Perfect for those who don’t consume beef.
They now use chicken pate instead of pork pate in their banh mi which isn’t a bad choice as some people may not like the stronger stench of pork liver. Ingredients for the fillings have been swapped around too to create new flavours and they have also introduced a new sardines banh mi.
Iced Viet Black Coffee and Iced Viet Coffee with Condensed Milk ($2.60 each)
The husband and I came by NamNam for a late dinner at 9pm on a weekend and decided to go ahead and order coffee though it was already late as we confidently thought ‘caffeine no longer affects us’. We were so wrong. Both of us were kept awake till 5am the next morning as we didn’t even feel a tinge of sleepiness at all, lol. So yes, that was how potent these Viet coffees were even though we were quite regular coffee drinkers!
These coffees tasted full-bodied, not as bitter as we expected and were really aromatic. The one with condensed milk was obviously nicer because of its smoother and more milky texture. Best thing was, both were subtly sweetened (‘siu dai’ style) exactly the way we liked it.
Sauteed lemongrass pork, cream cheese banh mi ($6.90)
We ordered this because of the cream cheese, lol. But sad to say, we didn’t taste much of the cream cheese in it. Either the lemongrass flavour of the pork was just too overpowering or there were simply not enough cream cheese in the filling to really stand out. Overall, it was decent but just not spectacular enough.
Cold cuts, caramelized 5-spice pork belly, chicken floss banh mi ($6.90)
Previously, we had enjoyed their 5-spice pork belly banh mi and now on the revised menu, they had combined the pork belly with cold cuts and chicken floss. It was like a fusion, east-meets-west kind of combination and surprisingly, everything worked out so well. There wasn’t a conflict of flavours at all. In fact, we could taste the subtle 5-spice flavour of the tender, succulent pork and the sweet chicken floss distinctively. The cold cuts simply added layers of textures to the sandwich to give it a more meaty bite. Sweet, sour, salty and savoury. Packed with a punch. Two thumbs up!
Grilled chicken, egg omelette, chicken floss banh mi ($6.90)
On a separate occasion, we grabbed two banh mi to go and managed to try another new flavour. The grilled chicken was tender and moist but in terms of flavour, it just wasn’t as exciting as the cold cuts and pork belly one.
No doubt, our second banh mi had got to be our top favourite – cold cuts, pork belly and chicken floss. Still as amazing as the first time we had it. Must try!
NamNam Noodle Bar @ Plaza Singapura
68 Orchard Road
#01-55, Plaza Singapura
Tel: 6837 2234
Website
Opening hours: 8.00am to 9.30pm daily
My sister and myself were in Singapore somewhere in middle of January. The set lunch of slice beef looked really enticing on the menu,so we ordered that together with Cny meal if I’m not mistaken prosperity noodles and iced coffee. Both noodles were very tasty loaded with lots of meats and vegetables. The iced coffee drink was refreshingly good,not too sweet. The staff were friendly, very fast and attentive. I still remember one your staff, not sure whether she is One of manager there, recommended us to try prosperity meal,she was humorous and witty.
That’s delicious meal left me yearning for more two month later. Now, my husband along with 2 kids is here. We ordered the same noodles but sadly this time no prosperity, so we decided to change our menu to pork ball noodles. We also had fresh spring roll, fried roll and together with chicken wings. I was shocked when they bought out both noodles, not only had the portion shrunk to half a bowl, but instead of the nicely presented dish of meats and vegetables, the top of bowl was just scattered with a few of fresh onion. The condiments that came with the noodles were simply pathetic, a few strands of onion,2-3 rings of chili and thinny of lime, so thin you’ve have trouble to squeeze it to get some juice out. The iced coffee came out packed with ice cube,so at the end you get just about a few tablespoons of actual drink. The staff have change and while the restaurant wasn’t half full, we were waiting for staff the clears our table, I guess the next step would be to go the kitchen and get you own food yourself. Sad that lots of businesses start out excellent, then they try to get rich quick and find ways to cut cost at the expense of quality and quantity of their food. Will not be going back to this one! Suntec city!
Hello Joey, thanks for sharing your experience. I absolutely agree with your point about restaurants compromising on quality and quantity just to cut costs. Really a sad situation. I haven’t had a poor experience at NamNam as yet including their Suntec City’s outlet as their portion of noodles has always been consistent for me i.e. half bowl as you have described with ‘pathetic condiments’ so likely the first time when you were there, you were ‘lucky’ to be served a larger portion than usual. The challenge with most food chains is that they never could maintain the same service or food standard across all outlets – definitely something they need to work on. Cheers!
Your post was in 2015. Fast forward to 2023, their carmelised 5 spice pork belly bahn mi is now $13.90. In your 2015 photo, it was $8.90