Noodles for everyone at Ren Ren

It was a late lunch for us at Ren Ren Noodles, which became even later as it was extremely busy that weekend, and service was slow and took a very long time for the food to arrive. On the verge of hangry pangs, redemption came in the form of ramen-style noodles, but make it Chinese. Each strand was coated with gravy and oil, and further heartily heaped with crispy lardy bits. In my books, that’s a plus point already.

The sticky-glazed grilled pork belly was gorgeous, a cross between char siew (bbq pork) and tong poh yoke (braised pork belly), if you will. Sweetish, tender and taste-worthy, it certainly made a good first impression. There is a generous layer of fat though, so if you are adverse to flavourful fat, this is not for you.

The Gula Melaka minced pork was more of the same, but meat in minced form – pretty tasty composition, though on the oily side. It reminded me of Jjajangmyeon, especially since you’re supposed to mix everything together to get the full experience and hearty mouthful.

The combo no one knew could work – mapo tofu with noodles was a delicious mash-up, complete with spicy chilli paste and tofu and minced pork. The star of it all was the handmade pulled noodles, firm, springy, good bite to it, without a hint of sogginess. Similar to wantan mee, but thicker, but not as thick as pan mee noodles.

The nasi lemak with pork curry was not bad, but paled in comparison to the well-executed noodles. 

Round 2: Wednesday nights from 6pm to 9pm is 50% off noodles, so it’s super popular and a bit of a wait getting a table. We waited around 25 mins, not too bad considering the growing crowd. Once seated, we took about 5 minutes to order and then, it was another long wait of 30mins. I really hope on week days the service is better. 

We had duck meat noodles , as they ran out of duck leg. A bit disappointed that the duck skin was not really crispy, and the meat was just OK, some pieces quite boney, nothing to shout about. The noodles were a bit on the sweetish side, noted my friend, but I thought they still tasted quite good. The pork chop was a good decent size and the noodles, more savoury.

The beef noodle soup was above average, with robust soup and tender chunks of beef, some tendon as well. The Japanese Unagi noodles was commendable as well. Can’t really go wrong if you’ve got the noodle part right.

Prices are slightly higher than the average mall noodles, starting from RM16.80 for mapo noodles to RM28.80 for Unagi noodles, but it’s a good bowl of carbs worth the calories. They also have rice bowls with similar toppings, with lamb brisket topping the list at RM39.80.

Run by the same people behind the former Superfine cafe, you can expect the same care and quality given to the food served here.

Add: Lot 01-02, Seventeen Mall, 998, Jalan 17/38, Petaling Jaya. call: 03-76257715