Menya @ Bedok Mall is having a week-long store opening promotion. It is one of the first restaurants in sight when we walked into Bedok Mall on a busy Wednesday evening & the waitress was outside cheerfully coaxing usto try their special freshly made ramen. Basic ramen portion is 120gm and the restaurant allows diners to upsize up to 5x. Sharing or takeaway of ramen is not allowed to curb abuse of the free upsize policy. Diners can choose from three types of soup base - original or white soup, black garlic soup.or red spicy soup. Two main styles of ramen with three types of soup and different types of toppings result in many permutations of a simple recipe/formula. At this new store Menya has implemented a DIY ordering process wherby diners can view the menu on iPad Mini which is placed at every table and tap on its screen to pick the itens they want. This is cool and efficient for the customer, and the restaurant saves in manpower too.

Menya does brisk business even during weekday dinner hours. When the food is ready kitchen staff will cheerfully and loudly yell out from the kitchen and the waitresses will go in with trays to bring the bowls of ramen to the tcustomers. This adds buzz and noise to the compact restaurant where tiny square tables for two a re arranged closely together with elbow room only. For bigger groups the staff will just push the tabbles together.

Despite the fast turnover, Menya @ Bedok Mall manages to maintain the quality of its food. Soups were concentrated and served hot, ramen kept its springy texture and their famous marbled chashu was tasty and melt-in-the-mouth soft. Only one long strip of chashu in each bowl of ramen, though one can order more meat. I liked this outlet's practice of serving freshly fried light and crispy vegetarian 'mock goose' or zhai er for diners to dip into the soup. The tonkotsu ramen souo was better than the tsukemen or dipping ramen. The latter had not enough soup which cooled off too quickly when wecwere half way thru our ramen due to the blast from the aircon.

Our side dish of panfried gyoza was nice too. Tasty filling wrapped in paper thin dough that was moist inside but evenly panfried to an appetizing brown colour at its base. The crispy enoki tempura was light as aur without being too greasy. It was a filling meal and we had no room left for their small selection of desserts.

It is easy to locate the newest Menya outlet : it is just next to the link bridge from JEM to Westgate. A more pleasant and spacious environment than the nearest other Menya outlet at Star Vista two MRT stations away. Fully aircon, tables reasonably spaced apart, tablets at every table for easy DIY ordering and friendly prompt service from the crew of Filipino and Malaysian staff.

I had the tsukumen ramen $14.90++ while my diningcompanion had the chashu tonkotsu ramen $13.90++. Menya allows diners to upsize their ramen up to 5x free of charge but requests for extra soup is billable. The basic 120gm portion of ramen sufficed for us. The soup was heavy and robust and a tad too greasy for our liking. The original/white soup was hearty and flavourful. Best as a soup base for the ramen but too runny as a gravy or dip for the tsukumen ramen. The black garlic soup was concentrated and reeked heavily of garlic - not for the faint hearted. We did not try the red or spicy soup. Each serving of ramen is served with a ling strip of marbled chashu, half of the tiniest lava egg we had seen in Sg and sliced bamboo shoots. Tsukumen ramen was ok but not impressive. Tonkotsu ramen fared better - it had additional topping of shredded black fungus and a strip of deep fried beancurd skin to dip into and soak up the soup. Pity the beancurd skin was not freshly fried and was soggy of being crispy.

This local cafe chain has many outlets in different shopping centres. It offers kopitiam style beverages along with popular local hawker favorites like fishball noodles and bak cho mee (minced pork noodles). This is theirbak cho mee $4 which is full of sliced pork, minced pork, pork liver (can be omitted) and some thinly sliced braised mushrooms. Taste wise, the noodles were springy but the chilli and vinegar mixture used for tossing. The noodles is just ok, not great.

Be prepared to queue at least half an hour for a table at this Japanese buffet restaurant even on a weekday. The wallet friendly prices have made it a favourite among teenagers and young adults who made up thr bulk of their customers when we dropped by for lunch on Friday pm. The price for weekday lunch buffet was $19.90++ or $23.30 nett per head.

Here you pay up first, then you're given a table not of your choice and you can start going for the food. The square shaped show kitchen occupies the centre of the restaurant. It is surrounded by the buffet selection which makes it easy for the chefs to replenish the food and diners can help themselves to what they want as they watch the chefs at work. There is reasonable variety for the price paid - sashimi, sushi, takoyaki, yakitori, tempura, rice, different types of fried noodles, sushi, miso soup and japanese style cracker pizzas. With quantity, you'll have to sacrifice quality and authenticity. The food is like what you'll find in fast food places like Yoshinoya and the Japanese stalls at food courts and in Singaporeanised japanese restaurant chains like Sakae Sushi or Ichiban.At one end of the restaurant youll find the drinks bar and dessert bar. Be prepared to queue for 20 minutes like we did at Friday lunch to reach their dessert bar which has cut fruits, meiji ice cream, jellies and tiny cubes of cakes.

OK but not 'wow' kind of buffet and imho not worth the waiting and queuing time.

Ambush 's two course set meals with your choice of beverage, priced from $9.90++ to $11.90++ , offers diners great value on weekdays, and are available up to 5pm.

I had the Thai style salmon pasta set at $11.90++. Soup of the day was a concentrated homemademushroom soup which was redolent with the fragrancee of pureed button mushrooms. Very filling as a starter. The server offered a choice of penne, fusili, spaghetti or linguine for the main course. I picked the last. The pan seared salmon was nicely done and the tom yum flavoured tomato sauce amply coated each strand of linguine which makes for a very hearty entree. Iced tea was my choice of beverage to wash everything down.

The aircon here is almost non existent due to the open concept of the restaurant. The buzzer from the neighboring Gong
Cha outlet which is always busy also contributed to the noise level of this restaurant. Service was apathetic and unremarkable. PS outlet still the best in terms of ambience and service.