Hangzhou Restaurant Opens First Overseas Outlet In Katong—Here’s Our Review

Nai Nai Flavor opens first overseas outlet at i12 Katong

Another Chinese restaurant?! We hear you saying. But before you jump to any conclusions about the food, we want to say that Nai Nai Flavor offers something markedly different from your usual Sichuanese or Hunanese restaurant. And that’s because it specialises in food from Hangzhou, a city thousands of kilometres away from both Sichuan and Hunan.

Image credit: @nainaiflavor

Nai Nai Flavor, which has multiple locations across Hangzhou, is making its debut beyond its home city by bringing a unique taste of Jiangnan cuisine to i12 Katong. Known for its Hang Bang Cai (杭帮菜), a style of cooking that’s part of China’s eight major culinary traditions, the restaurant uses techniques such as stir-frying, stewing, and steaming, focusing on creating dishes with a lighter, more balanced flavour profile.

Having spent a few weeks in Hangzhou when I was a teenager, I have a certain nostalgia for the city, including its food. But would the fare at Nai Nai Flavor live up to those rose-tinted glasses of mine? We dropped by the restaurant to find out.

Food at Nai Nai Flavor

With an extensive menu featuring regional dishes you don’t often see in Singapore, it might be tough to know where to start. If you’re a fan of braised pork like I am, then your first pick is a no-brainer: the Dongpo Pork ($8.80+).

Just look at how beautiful that slab of pork belly is. That reddish-brown hue, so characteristic of the dish, was on full display here. Deep notes of soy sauce and rice wine were prominent in each bite, as was the subtle sweetness of some brown sugar. As for the meat itself, it was tender and succulent, with a nearly half-and-half meat-to-fat ratio.

Another dish I absolutely loved was the Youbu Chicken Rice Cake ($11.80+). Described as a “regional speciality prepared using a 1,300-year-old technique”, this giant dumpling sees egg worked directly into the dough as it cooks. The result was a textural delight—remarkably crispy and airy on the outside, with layers of egg, chives, and chicken patty on the inside. The patty was seasoned really well, and the aromatic chives made each bite even more addictive.

Grandma’s Secret Dish (from $16.80+) is a chicken and pork soup slow-cooked for up to eight hours, then served in a claypot with an edible beancurd wrapping. The soup tasted exactly like grandma used to make—if I had a grandma from Hangzhou, that is. The savoury goodness of chicken and pork, mixed with the sweetness of corn and the earthiness of cordyceps, made this a complex yet comforting soup. We could do without the beancurd wrapping, though.

I really liked most of what I tried at Nai Nai Flavor, but there were some misses. The first of which is the Taihu Shrimp and Tomato Noodles ($12.80+), which I appreciated for its chewy noodles, but not so much the flavour. The egg-and-tomato combo tasted surprisingly one-dimensional, and this is coming from someone who often orders tomato egg stir-fry at Chinese eateries.

Aside from the Youbu Chicken Rice Cake, the other dumpling dishes we tried were rather lacklustre. That includes the Spicy Tofu Pan-Fried Buns ($12.80+), which had a confusing flavour profile. Within these xiao long bao-looking dumplings is some kind of spicy tofu, which clashed with the skin of the dumplings and the sheet of omelette beneath it.

Ambience at Nai Nai Flavor

Nai Nai Flavor occupies a well-furnished space within i12 Katong, with emerald green and wood brown tones taking centre stage. Though the restaurant gets pretty crowded during peak hours, there seem to be enough tables such that one doesn’t have to wait too long for a seat.

The restaurant is a seven-minute walk from Marine Parade MRT Station.

Nai Nai Flavor – Eatbook Review

While not all the dishes were impressive, Nai Nai Flavour offered delicious renditions of Jiangnan cuisine. It definitely brought me back to my time in Hangzhou, and even if you’ve never been to the Chinese city, I reckon its flavours may win you over.

If you’re craving more Chinese food, check out our list of affordable dim sum spots. In other overseas launches, Hong Kong’s Bari Bari Steak has opened at Junction 8—this popular hot-stone teppan concept lets you cook your meats right at your table.

Address: 112 East Coast Road, #02-13/14-#02-26/27, Singapore 428802
Operating Hours: Daily 11am to 9pm
Tel: 6222 0535
Website
Nai Nai Flavor is not halal-certified.

Photos taken by Enze Kay and edited by Nivian Chiang.
This was a media tasting at Nai Nai Flavor.