Thanks to my dear friend, I’ve got the opportunity to dine at Ninja Bowl as well as to try out their new seasonal menu. It was my second time here at Ninja Bowl and during my first visit here, I was pretty impressed with the food. But I have to say that the food here is pretty costly given for a small cafe along Duxton Road. It’s slightly more expensive than usual cafe food. However, the quality of food here is excellent. You can tell by the fresh ingredients they used. They served some of the finest bowls of meats, vegetables and healthy carbs in marble porcelain bowls.
Is it similar to Poke bowl? Not at all. It’s like an Asian mixed bowl of rice or carbs with some savoury dishes.
Drinks, on the other hand, is totally worth the price. They were served in large tall glasses. I had their Coconut Lemon Mint ($8) which was an excellent and refreshing drink.
The main items here at Ninja Bowl is their Japanese-inspired fusion bowls with a mixed of vegetables, meats and healthy carbohydrates like quinoa. They also offer some brunch items along with small bites, sandwiches and desserts as well. Business is good and people keep coming back for their Asian bowls.
What’s new on the menu is Ushi ($22) that comes with Grassfed Australian Tenderloin steak slices, truffle butter leek, baby corn, onsen egg, sauteed mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. If you would like to have it with some carbs, you will need to pay additional $3 for quinoa and $2 for Ninja rice, orzo or garden greens. So the total sum would mount up to $25 for this bowl of Ushi.
Underneath all these mouth-watering dishes are scoops of quinoa. Any beef lover would dig for this. Portion-wise is rather large though and I don’t think I can finish this whole bowl on my own. It’s best to order a couple of ‘Ninja bowls’ and then shared it with your friends.
The Torinosu ($18) is my favourite among the three new bowls which we’ve tried. Torinosu is a crispy shrimp and vegetable Kakiage, onsen egg, sauteed mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. The Kakiage is fried to perfection and albeit oily but delicious. It is also best to share it with your friends because you probably wouldn’t want to stomach the whole fried ‘pancake’ on your own.
Kabuki ($16) is a beautiful combination of smoked chicken leg confit glazed with maple mustard glaze served with onsen egg, cherry tomatoes, sauteed zucchini and mushrooms. Ours comes with orzo, a type of short-cut pasta which resembles the grain of rice. I prefer the quinoa to orzo because pasta can be quite filling.
Portion-wise was huge for that particular meal we had. If I were to come back here again, I would skip the carbs.
I also tried their mocha which has a beautiful latte art design but I wasn’t impressed with their coffees. It was below mediocre as it was rather diluted for some reasons.
The show-stopper has got to be their Merry Melon ($19) which comes in this well-constructed brioche french toast topped with fresh rock melon, watermelon, parma ham chips, rock melon ice-cream, mascarpone cheese, chopped almonds and crumble. For the final touch, it has thyme shiso infused honey drizzled all over it. The mini edible flowers added a pop of colour which made this dish so delightful to look at. It also has this interesting combination of summer fruits with parma ham and cheese. I guess the ham was added to balance out the sweetness in the fruits and ice-cream. But for me, I would have prefered if they serve some thinly-sliced waffles (e.g love letters) to add some crunch and texture to the overall dessert as the ham chips do seem quite out of place.
As the cafe is rather small, it is very difficult to get a table during lunch or dinner times. If you want to have a taste of the finest Ninja Bowl, you got to beat the crowd by coming during the non-peak periods.
15 Duxton Road
Singapore
Tel: +65 62228055
Mon-Fri: 9.30am to 7.30pm
Sat-Sundays: 9 am to 6 pm
