nana's green tea is a relatively new place (to me at least) and has only one outlet at The Gardens. (Update 23/07/15: A nana's green tea dessert bar opened in Midvalley opposite GSC so you may go there for drinks and desserts) When this article on the Top 10 Long-Queue Restaurants in Klang Valley showed up, I was even more intrigued to try. Heck, if there is a line, herd mentality tells you that they must be good right?
Apologies for the difference in photo quality/editing cause I didn't have my camera with me during the 2nd visit.
It's namesake (obviously) tells you that they specialize in green tea and the menu (and serving tray liners) educates you on the different kinds that they serve.
During our first visit, we ordered a Matcha 'Nama Chocolat' Parfait and a drink each.
LC had the Iced Genmaicha while I had the Matcha Latte. The Genmaicha was nice and strong, the roasted tea flavor really came through. The Matcha Latte was creamy and thick with a nice burst of matcha flavor. Loved both drinks.
The parfait was a towering sight to behold. Right at the bottom was kanten jelly, a layer of vanilla soft serve with cornflakes, nama chocolate pieces, a scoop of green tea ice cream, a scoop of thick red bean paste and finally some whipped cream and green tea syrup.
I was not too pleased to see the cornflakes because they get soggy really quick but I was surprised at how it stayed crunchy till the very last bite. The vanilla soft serve ice cream was fragrant and very practical. Why I say practical? Can you imagine a scoop of hard ice cream in between all that layers? How are you to scoop all the way to the bottom and eat them all together? nana's really had it thought out.
The red been paste was chunky and not too sweet. The green tea was perfect. The nama chocolate pieces were hard to eat with the parfait because it was non-penetrable by spoon. Not to mention the green tea powder coating on the chocolate, it was amazingly thick, too thick in fact that it made the experience literally quite bitter. The kanten jelly is a little lost but it was nice as it gave the parfait different textures.
On our 2nd visit, we decided to have food (despite being told that their food is mediocre).
Just with one look at the menu, LC decided on the Unagi Don. It came with a big slab of unagi and a miso soup on the side.
Really look at the size of that thing! There were 5 large pieces of unagi which tasted decent on top of a bed of sticky millet rice.
It took me awhile to decide on the Hamburg with a creamy kinoko mushroom sauce and millet rice. The beef patty was surprisingly good. It wasn't dry and was properly seasoned. The mushroom sauce was starchy and not too good. Should have gone with the teriyaki version after all. The side salad is dressed with a sesame salad dressing so it was nice. The miso soup tasted like it came from a packet so I only ate the wakame in it.
This time around, we ordered a Matcha Gateux Chocolat Parfait. It was made of layers of kanten jelly, vanilla soft serve, cornflakes, green tea ice cream and...
A slice of Gateux Chocolate cake! The photo might not show but the chocolate cake has a tinge of green. The cake was a bit dry and crumbly. It was quite difficult to eat from that tall glass without worrying that it would tip over. The nama chocolate parfait fared better than this one. The nama chocolate was rich, creamy and thick. Next we'll try the Shiratama Parfait (with balls of mochi!). It would be so much easier to eat.
I went with a Matcha Latte again while LC had the Hoji-cha Latte. The Hoji-cha Latte was surprisingly good! Never would I have imagined that the roasted tea went well with milk. The bitterness of the roasted tea was countered by the creaminess of the milk so it was really good! Definitely worth trying.
In short, I think I'd only go for their dessert and drinks. The food is okay but for the price paid, I'd rather head over to other places for a good rice bowl.