Bikini Babe or Bijin Nabe @ Tsukada Nojo

Where shall we meet for lunch today?
Bikini Babe.
??? You calling me bikini babe!!
Oops. Bijin Nabe.

Another classic Auto-correct Fail.

Even without the phone trying to help with its auto-correct function, the name of this Japanese restaurant in Chinatown Point is confusing enough. The signs seem to suggest that the name is Bijin Nabe or Bijin Nabe by Tsukada Nojo. However, it would seem that the proper name for the restaurant is Tsukada Nojo and Bijin Nabe (美人鍋), or Beauty Collagen Hot Pot, is their specialty dish.

Tsukada Nojo first Singapore outlet is in Plaza Singapura and now also has restaurants in Liang Court and West Gate. According to their website, Tsukada Nojo serves “Golden Collagen chicken soup in Singapore. We raise free range of JIDORI chickens in our own poultry farms, stew and the chicken stock and ship it in Singapore”.

Tsukada Nojo in Chinatown Point is located on the second level, right next to Peach Garden. It is quite big with booth seats and regular dining tables. The use of light wood furnishing with wooden counters and fabric curtains help to make the place look and feel like a traditional Japanese eatery.

Tsukada Nojo’s Menu

Bijin Nabe (美人鍋) is a combination of the vegetables, seafood and chicken cooked in their Signature Golden Collagen Chicken Stock. However, their menu also allows you to enjoy their Collagen Chicken Stock without ordering the beauty hotpot. They have Bijin Men, which is noodles with the beauty collagen stock. They also offer rice balls, chicken dishes as well as a variety of sides and desserts. Below are pictures of sections of Tsukada Nojo’s menu.

Bijin Men Lunch

In spite of the mixup regarding the name and the auto-correct gaffe, we did eventually meet up for lunch at Tsukada Nojo. We ordered the recommended Shio Bijin Men with thin noodles ($16.80), Shoyu Bijin Men with beauty noodles ($17) and Nanban Chicken ($8.50) for our lunch. Service charge and GST would be added to the bill.

The wait for the food was fairly short and the presentation of the food was quite interesting.

The various toppings were laid out in a red tray placed on top of a black hotpot containing piping hot chicken stock and noodles. Both the Shio Bijin Men and Shoyu Bijin Men were presented in the same way and had similar toppings.

The thin noodles had a nice texture with a good bite. The beauty noodles were essentially the same except they were pinkish. The broth for both were very rich and flavourful. We don’t know if Tsukada Nojo’s noodles and collagen chicken broth would make us more beautiful but they certainly made us happy.

Nanban Chicken was essentially fried chicken coated with a batter soaked in the sweet and sour nanban sauce. The chicken was well fried and very crispy with tender and juicy meat.

Tsukada Nojo Chinatown Point

At Tsukada Nojo Chinatown Point, Bijin Nabe (美人鍋) is served only during dinner, and during lunch on weekends and public holidays. For weekday lunch, you can get the same goodness and taste by just having their Bijin Men, which we found to be very enjoyable.

If you are having beauty collagen noodles at Tsukada Nojo and someone from the office text you to ask what you are having for lunch, be careful with your reply. You may or may not want to say you are having Bikini Men for lunch.