Roast Pork Belly & Pork Ribs @ Nambawan, Taman Sri Manja, Petaling Jaya

roast pork belly and grilled lamb shoulder with butter mint sauce

Last week I stumbled upon a reference on this porky delight place and after drooling over the pictures, we decided to give it a try. While this place was at a completely new unexplored territory (I remember it as a landfill in the olden days!), the map given was clear and concise that searching for it was pretty easy.


pork ribs slathered with sauce and served with crispy fries

The place is relatively quiet - throughout our lunch there, we only saw one to two tables occupied. The restaurant is nice and airy with high ceilings and a double frontage. The commercial area also doubles up as a residential area as on top of the commercial ground floor, there are 2 floors of flats. We reckon rental around here must be very reasonable since the prices are relatively cheaper compared to more central areas such as SS2 and etc. There's a Mydin, 99 Supermarket, 7-11 and Ipoh White Coffee that is now becoming as common as a 7-11 convenience store.

stone charbroil pork belly

It is best to make your appearance here after 1pm during the weekends as they do these weekend specials - pork ribs, roast pork belly and barbeque chicken. Since there were a few of us, we ordered loads to sample. Winner of the day was their roast pork belly (RM12.90) - more like a rolled pork loin, it came with three thick slices topped with a pork crackling. At the bottom were roasted potatoes, the brown and apple sauces while the sides were gem lettuces, a tomato slice and Japanese cucumber slices. The crackling was dissapointing, as it was hard even though it was super crunchy. What we loved was the soft juicy pork loin slices - a steal at that price.

Also on the regular dailymenu there is another pork belly dish - the stone charbroil pork belly (RM13.90), which we ordered to compare. This one came without any skin in a thin strip with a bit of fat on top and the meat at the bottom. However, it was a little too tough for our liking. Another weekend specialty were the pork ribs (RM25.80). Served with crispy french fries (crisp on the outside and soft in the middle) and coleslaw, the meat on the pork ribs was tender and slathered with a nice smoky sauce. However the sauce didn't penetrate the meat of the pork ribs making it tasteless without the thin layer of sauce. Cooking seems a little uneven as some ribs were juicy while others had dry bits.

We also ordered the grilled lamb with butter mint sauce (RM12.90) that was nice - lamb shoulder slice grilled till crisp with some not too tender bits slathered with brown sauce and the butter mint sauce. I was eyeing this pan fried chicken and bacon (they call it beacon in their menu!) roll on the wall pictures - looked so good with a bacon strip wrapped around a piece of chicken and pineapple. It came looking the complete opposite as the piece of chicken (RM8.90) was slit in the middle and stuffed with the bacon instead. Even though the chicken was tender and juicy, we were dissapointed since we expected a different looking dish.

Even though there were some misses, we reckon this place deserves a mention for its value for money food and if we did return, it will be only for their tender and juicy roast pork belly slices that we all enjoyed. The lady also told me they do orders for a minimum of 6 people for the roast pork belly. Just call them one day in advance to prepare the roast.

Nambawan No. 1 Cafe
No. 10, Jalan PJS3/48

Manja Square One

Taman Sri Manja
6 1/2 Miles, Off Old Klang Road

Petaling Jaya

Tel: 016-224 1533

(Non Halal. Open from 11am to 11pm daily. Weekend specials are ready by 1pm. For more pictures and the location map, see the Flickr set.)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. This review is time sensitive; changes may occur to the place later on that can affect this opinion. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from this place for writing the review.

Tagged with: Roast Pork Belly+ Pork Ribs

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