Famous for its flaming display of ramen showmanship, Menbaka opened shop in Singapore in 2020 during the year of COVID-19. YumzYumz visited Menbaka for a taste of its flaming ramen, and here is our food review of its Special Fire Ramen.
For a start, Menbaka Special Fire Ramen is a vegetarian item, consisting a ton of chopped Kujo-Negi or green onions, minced garlic and a handful of hijiki seaweed. Before we talk about the broth, we have to speak about the ritual that got us to our meal.
We got our seats at the dining area while waiting for our time to get near the flame show. After the previous round was done, we were told to take our seats at the counter where the actions happened. Our bowls with all its ingredients such as noodles, broth, green onions, corn, chachu were all lined up, roughly a metre or so in front of us. One of our mobile phones were requested to be hung at the back of the kitchen, facing us. This was to record a video of our reactions while we get our eyebrows scorched. Very nice touch of customer experience. ^^
Next, an upbeat buoyant and almost Naruto-liked music was played to get the adrenaline running. We could see the chefs getting ready the hot burning signature negi onion oil over a blazing fire. Once it reaches its optimal temperature, it was ready to get burnt!
Scorching heat erupts into the air, filling every spores on our skin. Even though we were about a metre away, the heat was excoriatingly hot. It was almost we could feel our skin right on the fire itself. While we were burnt, it was difficult not to think that we paid to get burnt, but the experience was awesome!
After which, the kitchen assistant took our mandatory photos, poising with the ramen at the counter. We were instructed not to touch the bowls as they were still hot from all the splashing negi oil. They would serve the noodles to us instead.
Finally, we went back to our seats, and it was time to enjoy our ramen noodles.
The broth for this item was vegetable based, but with the scorching negi oil, every single drop in the bowl tasted smokey and amazing. As simple as it seemed, the taste was really unique and tasty. And the green onions and seaweed gave an elevated texture of crunchiness. It was also served with an ajitama egg that was nice to have, but after the fiery experience we had and the heavenly smokey ramen broth, the egg was almost a mundane add-on.
At $16.90 a bowl of vegetarian ramen, Menbaka Special Fire Ramen was definitely worth it in terms of experience and taste.
Opening Hours
| Monday | 12pm – 3pm, 5pm – 9pm |
| Tuesday | 12pm – 3pm, 5pm – 9pm |
| Wednesday | 12pm – 3pm, 5pm – 9pm |
| Thursday | 12pm – 3pm, 5pm – 9pm |
| Friday | 11:30am – 3:30pm, 4:30pm – 10pm |
| Saturday | 11:30am – 3:30pm, 4:30pm – 10pm |
| Sunday | 11:30am – 3:30pm, 4:30pm – 9pm |
Location
8 Grange Rd, #05-03, Singapore 239695
