Hawker fare has never looked so good; unless you’ve been to Amoy Street Food Centre. This new joint that boldly slings out only one dish is one such example.
If you’re a meat lover and your ideal meal is one that’s piled high with quality beef, this is a hidden gem we think will quickly become one of your favourites.
Led by a trio of young and passionate foodies who wanted to make high-quality gourmet Japanese fare available for the masses, Gyu Nami is a month-old hawker stall nestled within the bustling food hub on Amoy Street.
For the regular Singaporean, going overseas for a holiday usually means checking off a list of places and foods to eat.
It was the same case for Daniel, one of the co-owners — who was on holiday in Japan. Calling his experience with the food culture in Japan “mind-blowing”, he spent the rest of his time there planning how he could bring something as amazing back to Singapore.
From IT Firm To A Hawker Stall
Given that Daniel had no prior background in F&B, he decided to enlist the help of his cousin, Charles Yoshida — who is coincidentally half Japanese, and his trusted friend Aik Guan.
“We had stumbled upon many hurdles while setting the business up, and surveyed many locations for our concept.”
They had initially planned to set-up shop in a mall or a shop front but decided to pull out when they realised that their current investors would want to own a big part of the business.
Humble Beginnings
“Instead of relying on others, we decided to start small at a humble hawker centre.
Building something we can call our own and driving the company forward with our own vision sounds better to us.”
The trio helming the kitchen and day to day operations admit that “it is definitely exhausting and poses a huge change to our lifestyle”.
Daniel counts himself lucky that he only has the stall to focus on — his two partners Charles and Aik Guan, however, have to divide their time between Gyu Nami and the cafe/restaurant.
For the trio, they’ve learned to be “more disciplined, social life and time for ourselves have decreased due to long working hours.”
25-year-old founder Daniel even joked that running the stall meant much “less partying and socializing.”
The Star Of The Show
Daniel revealed “that they were deciding on the menu which consisted of quite a few special dishes and we had minimized it to 2, however, due to the stall constraints my cousin urged us to focus on 1 dish.”
“Having only 1 dish is actually very unique and we can focus a lot on perfecting and serving it.”
Priced at $10, the Wagyu Roast Beef Donburi is definitely a steep price to pay for a meal at Amoy Street Food Centre but a steal for such a gourmet Japanese fare.
The bowl of lightly spiced Japanese rice is topped with generous slices of roasted wagyu beef, drizzled with creamy yogurt sauce and an onsen egg for good measure. Their signature yogurt sauce complements the tender and juicy slices of beef and the entire bowl is simply a treat for your tastebuds – especially when the different components are mixed together.
Being the new kid on the block, the trio wants to “take everything into consideration as we want to take something like introducing a new dish seriously.”
“We will only put something in our menu if we think it’s delicious and mind-blowing, without deviating too far from our concept — which is not an easy thing to do.”
In the meantime, head down to Amoy Street for this delicious donburi with a mound of medium-rare beef slices. And because they only have one dish to perfect, you can be assured that it’ll be a good meal.
Gyu Nami
Amoy Street Food Centre, #02- 126
Mon – Sat: 11:00 am to 3:00 pm (Lunch)
(Images courtesy of Gyu Nami)
