The Place Hawkerpreneurship is a real business the past few years as we have seen young hawkers venturing into unfamiliar territories. Meet Gyu Nami, a stall located at Amoy Street Food Centre which sells only one dish – Wagyu Roast Beef Donburi (S$10). Gyu means beef I. Japanese and Nami means wave, so it is literally waves of beef on your bowl. Started by two young chaps, I walked past the stall on weekdays before but dismissed the notion of trying as the queue is usually insane. Finally, I headed down a quiet Saturday to give it a try.

The Food I was drawn by the fact that such Gyu Don, or beef bowl, is uncommon in hawker centres. The first question I asked one of the staff is which cut of beef they are using. Interestingly, the stall uses eye round beef, which is part of the rear leg of a cow. The round beef cut is a lean one, with almost no marbling and tends to lean towards the tougher spectrum.

As I watched my Beef Donburi being prepared, the chef wraps the thin slices of the eye round beef around the mini mountain of Japanese rice, before compressing a little at the tip to make space for the onsen egg. Some secret black sauce is then added, before the homemade yogurt sauce is being squeezed at the side of the bowl.

On first look, the beef looks really dry and bland and I wasn’t harbouring much expectations. I was surprised. The black sauce adds much flavour to the beef, which is not too tough. However, the winning formula here for me is the homemade yogurt sauce, which is surprisingly savoury and balances the flavour of the beef so well.

Rants Be prepared for a long wait on weekday lunch hours. It also doesn’t help that finding a table at Amoy Food Centre during peak hours is quite a chore too.

Will I Return Again? Truth is that this is not a life changing bowl of beef donburi but for the price, it is good value if you are looking for something for your hawker fare.

TheRantingPanda says:
Taste bud: 3.5/5
Hole in the pocket: 2.5/5
Ambience: N/A
Overall Experience: 3.5/5

Gyu Nami
7 Maxwell Road, #02-126
Singapore 069111

Opening Hours
Monday to Saturday: 11am to 3pm
Closed on Sunday

Ranted by The Ranter