New culinary concept from the Paradise Group, Lenu is promoted as a Taiwanese beef noodle bar. Unpretentious and laid back vibe. Nice to have piping hot, generous portions of beef noodles served at the table without having to pay service charge. The beef shank noodles are tasty, with three thick, tender and flavourful slices of good quality shank. Opt for the thin noodles or rice noodles. Thick noodles resemble fettuccine. Chilli dip is provided but the beef is tasty enough to do without it.

Pizza Hut has just launched its new range of Hawaiian pizzas with a one for one promotion on regular sized 9.5inch pizzas. This is great value as each pizza is divided into six slices making it possible for three or four persons to share two pizzas, yielding four or three slices per person respectively. At only $17.90++ with one for one promotion, each person pays only $5.30 (group of four diners) or $7.00 nett (group of three). Iced water is served free of charge. Diners can choose any two from their classic range (such as Pepperoni Pizza, Veggie Delite Pizza) and/or their Hawaiian themed pizzas viz:
• Hawaiian Pizza (ham, pineapple and mozzarella);
• Spicy Waikiki (new flavour with toppings of ham, pepperoni, pineapple and mozzarella);
• Aloha Chicken (new flavour with toppings of roast chicken strips, ham, pineapple or mozzarella).
For the pizza base, choose either pan pizza or thin crust pizza (stuffed crust pizzas are excluded from the promotion).

Although the waiter who took our orders primed us to expect about 20minutes' wait for our pizzas, the first pizza arrived within 15minutes later.

Comments on our pizzas:
• Aloha Chicken, thin crust - the toppings were generous and it was bliss to bite into the light and crunchy thin crust.
• Spicy Waikiki, thin crust - not spicy at all, a tad dry but still tasty, though it had less toppings than the Aloha Chicken.
• Curry Chicken, thin crust - this was yummy, oozing with cheese and topped with generous chunks of lean curried chicken.
• Aloha Chicken, pan pizza - best eaten hot as the dough turned too chewy upon cooling. Not enough cheese on the pan pizza so this new flavour works better on the thin crust version.

My dining companions agreed that the two new Hawaiian themed pizzas Aloha Chicken and Waikiki were tasty - lighter and less cheesy than the typical Pizza Hut pies. As they had less cheese, the thin crust version of the pizzas tasted better than the pan pizzas. The latter, due to the relatively thicker crust, requires a heavier cheese topping. Cheese lovers should stick to the classic/original Hawaiian Pizza which has more cheese than the two new flavours Aloha Chicken and Waikiki. Curry Chicken Pizza, either thin crust or regular pan, is a crowd pleaser that cannot go wrong.Throughout our meal, the cheerful and pleasant crew topped up our glasses of iced water without being asked.

We did not fancy the heavy, sucrose-rich and over the top muffins and cakes to go with our Starbucks coffee, so we were glad we didn't buy any because we later stumbled upon a tiny Ritz shop among a cluster of others selling pastries and other goodies for takeaway. The mini strudels at Ritz are big enough to be sliced up and shared by a couple or even among 3 pax. These were attractively priced at only $4.50 per mini strudel which was a good 9" long. We had a hard time choosing between original apple strudel, blueberry strudel, mango strudel and peach strudel. We couldn't resist buying twotypes if mini strudel and still had change left for $10. The strudel pastry was light as air crispy, the custard was creamy and smooth without being cloyingly sweet while the fruit filling provided a refreshing contrast of textures. The apple strudel was nice but I would have preferred bigger chunks of stewed apple as opposed to tiny diced pieces. The peach strudel was fautless. For the wallet-friendly prices, the use of canned as opposed to fresh/seasonal peaches was perfectly acceptable..

It is easy to miss this tiny cafe as it is licated in an obscure, isolated corner of Bedok Mall. We thought a short narrow escalator would lead to the car park but it led us to a long makeshift wall which faces a row of several tiny F&B outlets, among them Mr Bean Cafe. Good to know that their original soya bean curd - smooth melt-in-the-mouth texture and freshly prepared from imported non-GMO soybeans, can still be had for only $1.30 a tub. Thumbs up.

Prata Wala Cafe in Bedok Mall reminds me of an Ikea show kitchen with cheerful orange walls, wood panels and white formica topped tables. It was decked out for Christmas and we could discern popular festive jingles at the Cafe's entrance, beckoning us to step inside and rest our weary feet (after queuing one whole hour for our drinks at Starbucks).

If you order a set meal, you need to pay only $1 for your coffee or teh tarik and you can choose to have it hot or iced. Well, we were holding our wait-long-long frappucinos and all we wanted was to sit down and chat so we skipped the set meals today and ordered a la carte - paper prata and paper thosai - for our afternoon tea/coffee break.

We were given a palm sized timer so we could be seated comfortably while our food was prepared. Cool. About 7mins later, the timer flashed and we went to pick up our orders from the counter. Wow, the prata and thosai were HUGE - we prolly won't need dinner tonight. The paper prata $2.80 was a delectable brown colour and delightfully crispy. Good enough on its own but the rich chicken curry gravy that was served on the side was too good to waste.

The paper thosai $4.00 was light as air and very crispy too. It was served with three condiments - a vegetable curry that had kentils, carrots and eggplant, a tomato chutney and a chilled white sauce containing grated ciconut. My favourite was the tomato chutney which had palate-pleasing traces of black peppercorn and cilantro.

We'll return another day on an empty stomach to try the naan and briyani.