Beppu Menkan Japanese Noodle Restaurant (Tiong Bahru Plaza)

Quickly finished my bowl of ramen at Beppu Menkan Japanese Noodles, Tiong Bahru Plaza. The ramen was average, nothing special and I thought the price was pretty steep for ramen with this quality. I should have eaten at Eighteen Chefs which was just beside instead.

For a tongue numbing and flaming hot spicy treatment.The broth was tasty, not as flavourful.The noodles were cooked to a little bit of bite, not bad at all.Reasonably priced and wide selection of proteins to go with the spicy ramen.Maximum chilli rating offered is up to 9 chillies. We tried it once and surrendered halfway through.see http://sofood.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/beppu-hot-ramen/ for the pics!

Perhaps the owners of Beppu wanted the black seat covers pasted over with black duct time as a grunge factor but it did not work,  perhaps if they covered all the tears, but some tears were left as open wounds (see photos).  Nevertheless, the ramen was pretty tasty.  The soup stock would taste better without me having to stare at torn black cushion covers with black duct tape !!

Food:  We ordered a Taukimi Ramen,  pork cutlet and Kyushu ramen.  Somehow Japanese have a special way of naming ramen with similar ingredients as totally different dishes.  Both tasted the same, with Kyushu having half a soy infused egg,  and bits of bamboo shoot, corn (ugh) and spring onions.  Both were equally tasty, having just tried Ippudo ramen,  I found Beppu ramen better tasting.  The pork cutlet meat was dry but the coating was well fried.  Asked for plan mayo as a dip as I did not like the HP type sauce they serve with the pork cutlet.

Ambience:  Set in a small corner,  the store appeared unkempt and dirty,  perhaps the raw cement floor set the tone.  Owners could cough out some money to improve the store and it would be miles better.

Value:  Noodles priced at $7.30 per bowl ++ so it's quite reasoneble, come to think of it, lowerst priced Ramen I've eaten in Singapore.

Service:  PRC gals, Malaysian guys no speakee English, friendly but limited contact.

As a fan of Beppu for like years, I can say that this place sure have some decent Japanese food for people who are not into fancy Japanese cuisine.

They might not have the best dining ambiance or great service but still, they serve good food (at least to me). Try their Chawanmushi which I think is one of the best you might find in this island.

 

My friend said, "I had dinner here with HB, pretty good."

I went, "HB? How long ago was that?"

Friend, "2 years ago... at least."

That should've set off some alarm bells but no. I went ahead anyways.

We ordered:

1. Gyoza - $4.30

2. Hoki Cheese - $7.20

3. Seafood Kakiage - $8.80

4. Puffer fish - $10.00

5. Coke - $1.50

6. Snapple Raspberry - $2.50

7. Chicken Paper Pot - $9.80

In the same order:

1. Gyoza - Pretty good.

2. Hoki Cheese - Smells like rotten fish. Tastes like rotten fish. I felt like scraping my tongue after that. Oh what was I saying? I did!

3. Seafood Kakiage - Alright. But could be better.

4. Puffer fish - Huh? For all I know, I am most probably eating dried sotong.

5. Coke - My friend drank this, no comment.

6. Snapple Raspberry - The best on the menu thus far. Oh wait they didn't make it.

7. Chicken Paper Pot - Inedible... No really, my nieces' science project must have taste better.

Very ordinary. Just like any typical ramen restaurant but its food are much more expensive. The waiting time for my order to be served was also very long though there were not much customers at that time. The food was rather normal but the portion was too small, probably trying to be artistic.

My husband seems to like this place alot. I cannot understand why.

I just felt uncomfortable cos of the weirdness. The restaurant has a 'demon' theme with scary Japanese masks around and the dishes were all named hell this and blood that. I wonder if it whets anyone's appetite. For me I just lost all interest from the time I flip though the menu. It just went downhill from there.

I though OK stick with chicken hot pot, should be safe. It's not hell anything. But I was wrong. The chicken came in a paper pot that took a damn long time to cook. After 15 minutes it still tasted semi cooked. My husband's ramen was slightly better, or maybe because mine was so bad that anything else would have tasted better.

We were there at about 830pm on Saturday, and towards the end of our meal, they were wiping a whole stack of menus at the table next to us. It was neither hygenic nor appropriate!

The service is decent I guess but still, I'll never ever return. There is really no other place that puts me off like this.

Tuesday (4 Sept 07). Had lunch here with JC. We arrived at about 12:30 PM and there were only a few customers. We were ushered to a table. Seeing that the restaurant was still empty and there was ample capacity, we requested to be seated in a booth. We were given the lame excuse that the section was not yet open. The floor plan of this restaurant is very open, and there is hardly any demarcation of sections, so I was annoyed. It was a bad start. We contemplated leaving, but decided to give it a shot anyway since we were already here. JC ordered a Char Siew Ramen ($8.80++) and I had a Oniyama Jigoku ($8.80++), which is crispy fried chicken on ramen.

We did not order any drinks, but were served with cold water without us asking for it. So, a plus point for service there. Unfortunately the water had a strange taste. It tasted very "green" like as if it was used to soak vegetables. Our ramen took more than 10 minutes to come, which was odd, considering that the restaurant was not even at half capacity.

My Oniyama Jigoku was very ordinary. The chicken was ordinary, and the ramen was ordinary. So 2 ordinary's put together and they become very ordinary.

We came across an item on the menu, #10 Tsukimi Ramen which for some bizarre reason is not available from 12pm to 1.30pm. (Refer to photo.) There is nothing particularly special about this establishment, and given that there are plenty of alternatives in the vicinity, that is why I would "probably not" return.

4 September 2007 : I came here for lunch with RL. The restaurant was relatively empty when we arrived. We were ushered to a small table. RL requested that we sit at the booth seats but he was promptly rejected. The service staff said in a rather curt manner that "The section was closed". This was clearly untrue because a group of 3 were ushered to one of the booth seats shoftly after we ordered our food.

We ordered :

[RL] Oniyama Jigoku (Demon Hill Hell) $8.80

~ crispy fried chicken, black fungus, seaweed, bamboo shoots, spring onion, fried garlic in spicy Kyushu soup

[JC] Char Siew Ramen $8.80

~ Four slices of char siew, egg, black fungus, seaweed, bamboo shoots, spring onion, fried garlic in Kyushu soup

I was quite satisfied with my Char Siew Ramen. The soup was appropriately flavoured - not too bland, not too salty.

I would like to highlight a few rather daft and absurd practices at this feeding establishment.

1. The deliberate manner of stipulating that they will give you exactly 4 slices of char siew with your char siew ramen. The egg stipulated in the menu turned out to be half an egg.

2. The curt claim that the booth table section is closed when it was obvious that we were not allowed to sit at the booth table because there was only 2 of us.

3. This dish in the menu - Tsukimi Ramen (half boiled egg, sliced char siew, spring onion, fried garlic in Kyushu soup) is only available from 12pm to 1:30pm. I wonder why.............

I will not return to this feeding place simply beacuse i find the service standards rather absurd.

How many restaurants in shopping malls offer al fresco dining apart from those units on the ground floor? There isn't much of a view of boast of, facing the main road of Tiong Bahru, but its nice and windy while tucking into ramen.

This restaurant is supposedly famous for its spicy ramen, but offers variety of sushi and rice meals and the usual finger food. The restaurant has this chilli rating system for those who love their ramen spicy hot. I tried the Kamado Jigoku and my friend tried the Shiraike Jogok, both with "2 chilli" rating. Personally, I don't find it particularly spicy, but the chilli powder does go up to your throat, causing me to try to suppress the cough reflex from the spiciness. Its different from eating spicy Indian or Mexican food, if you know what I mean. Honestly, I don't think I could go furthur up the chilli rating unless I want to cough my way through dinner. Otherwise, the ramen is alright. For $8.80 and $7.80 respectively for both ramen, I would say its reasonable. Green tea is free flow.

We also tried the desserts, strawberry ki and blueberry sen, which are basically finely cut fruit with shaved ice. At $3.80 each, I would say its reasonable too. Its not too sweet, so nice to round it up after a spicy ramen meal.

From the value and the al fresco dining, I would return. Food wise, its not outstanding.