Wagyu Truffle Pho in the Basement of Raffles City: NamNam

Type pho near me into a phone at City Hall MRT and the answer is often one escalator away. NamNam, at 252 North Bridge Road, #B1-47 Raffles City Shopping Centre, Singapore 179103, is a bright Vietnamese noodle bar on the basement level of the mall that sits on top of the station. It is quick enough for a solo lunch, but the menu goes further than the usual beef bowl, with a chilled wagyu phở finished with truffle that few other pho shops in Singapore attempt.

NamNam is the work of chef-owner Nam Quoc Nguyen, who founded it in 2011 in partnership with Les Amis Group, the Singapore company better known for fine dining. The brand's about page says Nam was inspired by the street food and family dishes of his childhood and wanted to present Vietnamese cooking in a way that feels approachable. Fifteen years later the name has grown from NamNam Noodle Bar into a small chain, and the Raffles City outlet is the one most office workers in the civic district know.

The single most useful thing to know is that most of NamNam's phở comes in two sizes. The Pho Beef Slices & Beef Balls is S$10.90 for a small and S$15.90 for a regular, and the small is a genuine light lunch rather than a token portion. The Pho Deluxe, the fuller house bowl, costs S$13.90 or S$18.90. That pricing makes it easy to order a small bowl and add a bánh mì or a side to share, instead of committing to one huge soup.

The bowl that sets NamNam apart is the Pho Truffle Chilled Austige Wagyu Premium MB 6/7, priced at S$21.90 small and S$35.90 regular. Austige is an Australian wagyu label, and the marbling score of six to seven means the slices are visibly streaked with fat. The menu states that the wagyu is served medium rare, so it arrives rosy rather than grey. At the top of the list sits a Pho Beef Short Rib with ocean-caught tiger prawn and beef ball at S$35.90, and both premium bowls are limited to 15 portions a day, so order them at lunch rather than late in the evening.

Not everyone at the table eats beef, and the menu handles that well. The Pho Kampong Chicken is S$10.90 small or S$15.90 regular, made with free-range kampong chicken. The Pho Vegetarian Brown Rice Noodle, at S$10.90 or S$14.90, swaps white rice noodles for brown rice ones. The restaurant states that its dishes are prepared without MSG and that its broth is simmered for hours, which gives it a clean, savoury depth rather than a sweet one.

Every bowl comes with the usual accompaniments of herbs, lime and chilli, and there are sauces on hand for anyone who likes to customise. A good rule is to drink a few spoonfuls of the clear soup first, then add lime and a little chilli. Leave the hoisin for dipping slices of beef rather than stirring it into the broth, which is how many Vietnamese diners eat it. If you order the wagyu bowl, eat the beef first, while it is still medium rare.

From Monday to Thursday, excluding public holidays and their eves, NamNam runs set meals in three tiers priced from S$17 to S$27. They are the best-value way to eat here at lunch, and they are worth asking about before you order from the main menu. There is no service charge at NamNam, which is unusual for a sit-down restaurant in a central mall, though prices are subject to GST. Because the bowls are portioned in two sizes, a quick solo lunch rarely needs more than one order.

The Raffles City outlet is open from 10am to 10pm daily, which makes it useful for an early lunch at 11am, before the office crowd from Raffles Place and the civic district arrives. The busiest window is roughly 12pm to 1:30pm on weekdays, and the mall's food level gets busy again from about 6:30pm as offices empty. A late weekday dinner after 8pm is the calmest time to sit down. Groups larger than four are easier to seat outside the lunch peak.

Raffles City is directly connected to City Hall MRT station on the North-South and East-West lines, and the Esplanade station on the Circle Line is a short underground walk away. From the City Hall gantries, follow signs for Raffles City and take the basement walkway into the mall. The restaurant is on the B1 food level, among the quick-service counters. If you arrive by taxi, the drop-off on North Bridge Road is the closest entrance to the basement escalators.

NamNam runs several other outlets around Singapore, and their hours differ from this one. The Takashimaya branch on Orchard Road closes earlier, at 9:30pm, while the Changi Airport Terminal 3 counter starts serving at 7am, which makes it one of the few places to get a proper bowl of phở before an early flight. Each branch has its own page on namnam.net listing its menu and opening times.

You are in one of the best walking areas in the city. Cross North Bridge Road and you reach Raffles Hotel, opened in 1887, where the arcade and the lobby courtyard are open to visitors. A few minutes north is CHIJMES, the Gothic former convent chapel and school that now holds restaurants and bars around a sunken lawn. Head south instead and you pass St Andrew's Cathedral, the white Anglican cathedral completed in 1861, on the way to the Padang and the National Gallery Singapore.

NamNam Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road, #B1-47 Raffles City Shopping Centre, Singapore 179103. Hours: 10am to 10pm daily. Founded in 2011 by chef-owner Nam Quoc Nguyen with Les Amis Group. Pho Beef Slices & Beef Balls S$10.90 small or S$15.90 regular; Pho Truffle Chilled Austige Wagyu S$21.90 or S$35.90. No service charge, GST applies. Set meals Monday to Thursday. Website: namnam.net.