Nong Geng Ji is a popular restaurant chain in China. I first found out about the brand from the large ad they have at Raffles Place MRT Station.
They serve Hunan cuisine, similar to Xiang Xiang which I love, so I was excited to give Nong Geng Ji a try and discover more Hunan dishes.
Overall, the dishes were pretty good but all were really oily. We initially did not order rice, but ended up sharing a bowl to help cut the grease.
Table of Contents
Nong Geng Ji Menu
The menu layout and design is very similar to Xiang Xiang Hunan Cuisine with 2 pages highlighting their signature dishes and offering a selection of classic dishes.
However, one difference is that Nong Geng Ji offers quite a few organ innards dishes such as:
- Stir fried beef tripe
- Stir fried pork liver
- Spicy chicken offal
- Dry pot pork intestines
That limited the options I could choose from as I’m not a fan of innards. It’s not really common to see so many dishes centered around organs (or maybe I just don’t notice those) but if that’s your thing, this might be the place to visit because you can get different types of innards dishes.
What We Tried
We were a small group of 2 so we only ordered 3 dishes.
Stir Fried Hunan Pork with Abalone & Chili
This dish was served over a flame which kept the food nice and warm throughout the meal. The pork slices are coated with flavourful oil that pairs really well with rice. Seriously, the oil was super tasty and nice.
I did find that after a while I couldn’t taste the initial ‘flavour burst’ that I experienced on the first bite. My guess is that as everything was oily, I kind of got used to the taste as the meal progressed.
The dish also comes with a generous portion of cute mini abalone. While I did enjoy chewing on it, I felt that it wasn’t really necessary to the dish.
Compared to Xiang Xiang’s pork dish ($22.9) which is very similar, Nong Geng Ji’s pork stir fry is more expensive ($28.8) likely due to the inclusion of the abalone.
Big Shrimp Vermicelli & Garlic
This vermicelli dish came with 6 fresh prawns that were already peeled and with garlic served on each. It was nice and savoury with a hint of sweetness.
It takes 7 minutes to cook and it is done at the table. Midway at around 3 minutes, the server came to check on it.
I love that it is hot and fresh but waiting for it to cook is quite agonising when you’re hungry. I do recommend trying this dish as it is really flavourful but towards the end it was a bit too oily for me.
Stir Fried Hunan Bok Choy with Crispy Pork Lard
This dish is made with some special bok choy that is mammoth sized. The leaf stems were crunchy, juicy and flavourful coated with the grease from the pork lard.
I know some people are not vegetable stem eaters but let me just say this is really different. My dining partner who doesn’t like vegetable stems said this was the best of the 3 we tried in their opinion.
There were ~4-5 large chunks of crispy pork lard in this dish. Again, a very delicious dish but very oily.
Complimentary Snacks
Nong Geng Ji offers complimentary packaged snacks. However, it wasn’t really publicised and the waiter didn’t really promote it to us. We happened to notice the snack trolley tucked away in a dark corner. I guess it’s not a USP they are pushing for as a brand.
They had like 4 different types of snacks including shrimp crackers, onion rings and more. We only tried two but both were meh.
Strawberry Snack
Took this as i’ve never seen or tried this before. It was like a puff coated with strawberry white chocolate.
It was kind of lau hong, and not crispy so texture was a zero for me. Flavour wise was okay as it tasted like the usual strawberry white chocolate flavour. I’m not sure if the texture is meant to be like lau hong or if it was just the pack I took but was not impressed. Don’t waste your calories on it.
Mini Onion Rings
Was expecting a Super Rings sized cracker with onion flavour seasoning but it was lots of tiny mini rings. This was better than the strawberry as it was still somewhat crunchy but so-so.
I’m actually quite a picky packet snack eater so these snacks usually don’t impress me.
Amenities
The table had an amenities drawer including:
- Utensils (chopsticks & spoons)
- Tissues
- Toothpicks
Each table is covered with a stack of disposable table cloth that they peel off and wrap up after each diner is done with their meal. It was interesting to see as they really just had a stack on each table so it saves time for them to prepare for the next diner. Maximum efficiency I guess.
Getting to Nong Geng Ji Orchard Gateway
We visited the Nong Geng Ji outlet at Orchard Gateway which was actually pretty difficult to find as it was tucked away in a section of the B1 where the only store in that area is this restaurant.
To get to the Nong Geng Ji Orchard Gateway outlet without getting lost, take the escalator beside the Uniqlo entrance on L1 down to B1. The only other place that Nong Geng Ji links to from the basement was the car park.
Overall Thoughts
The food we ordered was flavourful but too oily. Might be the combination of dishes that we ordered but I really felt that it was quite surfeiting towards the end. I think their dishes are more suited to the taste buds of mainlanders which makes sense as they are a popular chain restaurant from China.
I made quite a few comparisons to Xiang Xiang Hunan Cuisine as it is the other Hunan cuisine chain restaurant I’ve tried. Personally, Xiang Xiang is better suited to my taste preferences.
Nong Geng Ji Outlets
Last updated 5 Jan 2025. Recommend to double check Google Maps to find the outlet nearest to you.
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Nong Geng Ji @ Great World
- Address: 1 Kim Seng Promenade, #01-115/116 Great World, Singapore 237994
Nong Geng Ji @ VivoCity
- Address: 1 HarbourFront Walk, #01-51A VivoCity, Singapore 098585
Nong Geng Ji @ Raffles Place
- Address: 16 Collyer Quay, #01-01/02, Singapore 049318
Nong Geng Ji @ City Square Mall
- Address: 180 Kitchener Road, #04-35/36 City Square Mall, Singapore 208539
Nong Geng Ji @ Orchardgateway
- Address: 277 Orchard Rd, #B1-13, Orchardgateway Singapore 238858
