BIJIN NABE? Tsukada Nojo? Aiyo I don’t know nabe what nabe, I swear this place has the most confusing name ever because up till now, like omg what should I geotag you on my instagam? You may not know what nabe or Tsukada Nojo, but I’m pretty sure you guys have heard so much about this Beauty Collagen Hot Pot –美人鍋 right?! Because omg collagen very important, later got wrinkles.
I did a quick google search and realized that ah, this place is called Tsukada Nojo, and the collagen hot pot is called BIJIN NABE (in caps, I don’t know why), or what we know it better by – Beauty pot.
Why is it called beauty pot, you may ask. Tsukada Nojo is not your usual steamboat place, they pride themselves in serving up their Signature Golden Collagen Chicken Stock. This stock has been stewed for more than 8 hours until the chicken bones are fully dissolved and becomes the smooth, silky collagen pudding that we see in the beginning of our meal! WOW.
Super cool right! I was so excited when this arrived at my table cause you see my face. BEAUTY POT VIRGIN. My mother must have thought that I’m getting really ugly, that’s why she brought me here. I wonder how it tastes like if I were to just eat it like that.
Please pardon the low quality pictures on this post, because I didn’t bring my camera out on this fateful day, I also didn’t take a picture of the place because it is massively crowded (it’s crazy), and we had to wait for 30 minutes in the line to get seated at like 8.30pm. Wow.
The Menu
These are the ingredients included in a beauty pot! For $25++, it’s okay lah, don’t see like so little, we were actually pretty stuffed halfway through!
You guys GOT TO ORDER THIS! It is BACON WRAPPED RICE, and it is the ONIGIRI RICE, SO GOOD GOOD it doesn’t even taste like rice. My mum who doesn’t eat a single grain of rice had like more than half of it and enjoyed it thoroughly!
The Food
We had 2 starters on top of our beauty pot!
This is the highly recommended chicken nanban – original ($8.50), which is basically just fried chicken with Japanese mayo like sauce. The chicken was surprisingly very tender and juicy! Although the mayo tasted a lot like tar tar sauce, I’d do without it really, or maybe go with the spicy hot version, for the extra kick! Oh, there are 4 pieces of chicken with every plate of this!
Apparently the hot favorite in Tsukada Nojo is not only their collagen pot, it is this Nikumaki Onigiri – bacon wrapped with onigiri rice, and for ours, we chose the cheese version ($3.80). Mmmm.
So good I tell you, I lovd everything about this, and this is so popular in Tsukada Nojo, it is the only dish that can be ordered for take away, and also probably because 2-3 of these can make a pretty delish meal!
Okay, now on to the star of the place – the collagen hot pot!
Order some sides lah, so while waiting for this collagen jelly to melt into your amazing broth, you can FEAST!
OOOH MELT ALREADY!
The servers here are REALLY experienced and sincere, and they have very attentive service in general, just that I personally get a little turn off when they talk to me A LOT, when I’m actually having a conversation with my partner. It’s quite a number of occasions, and not just once, so it’s a bit argh ok. Nevertheless, really sincere, and they do help you portion your food too! Like grabbing this chicken! Which was by the way, SO GOOD. I don’t even eat chicken like that, but everything with the broth has that tinge of sweetness in it, I cannot!
After you are done with your chicken, the platter will be served and the server will actually cook and do everything for you!
YUM! There are 4 sauces provided – leek oil, chili sauce, yuzu pepper and soy sauce. The yuzu pepper is damn salty so take caution.
Our prawns still had shit in them. So.. NADA. But the broth made up for everything. In fact, like I said, the portions seem really little, but my mum and I were pretty stuffed halfway through it. If you’re a meat eater though, get more meats, because the only protein dishes you can find in here are these prawns and the meat balls. For me, I found it too little, and too much vegetables lah cannot.
These noodles were so good too. SO good. My mum and I are really not the rice and noodle people, but we slurped these all up because SO QQ ah. Toing Toing. BUT PLEASE AH PLEASE DONT DRINK THE SOUP DIRECTLY FROM THE POT. IT IS SCALDING HOT. I swear both of us tried cooling it down for 30 seconds, slurped it, and set our throats on fire.
And hey look, is this what you call a happy ending? JELLO on a cute plate as their complimentary dessert! HOW CUTE!
She also very cute!
Closing Remarks
I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Tsukada Nojo, and the broth was really really yummy! I was actually really surprised because I had my doubts and I’m not quite the steamboat kind of person! Having this with so much greens made me feel very healthy too, and not forgetting those collagen that will be going to my face to reduce the frown lines.
I’d say they have outlets now islandwide, mostly in the central, so.. go try them if you have the chance!
How to get there?
Plaza Singapura Atrium
68B Orchard Road
#03-81
Singapore 238891
Chinatown Point (RESERVATIONS ALLOWED HERE)
133 New Bridge Road
#02-37
Singapore 059413
Westgate
04A Westgate 3 Gateway Drive
#03-04
Singapore 608532
Liang Court
177 River Valley Road
#B1-03
Singapore 179030
Opening Hours
Lunch: 11.30am to 3pm (last order: 2.30pm)
Dinner: 5pm to 1opm (last order: 9.30pm)