THERE'S apparently no end to the variations on Japanese cuisine available here, and Bentendo, which is named after a Japanese goddess of happiness, gives Singaporeans yet another culinary option to ponder over. This cheerful, cosy cafe at Great World City, in the space formerly occupied by Archangel, is the result of a joint venture between a Japanese company and a local F&B firm specialising in Asian casual dining concepts, including a Vietnamese cafe next door and a ramen noodle house downstairs.
The main - indeed, the only - idea behind Bentendo is for it to serve Japanese-style Italian pasta, using a combination of Asian and Western ingredients. There is also only one type of pasta - spaghetti - available. Japan is possibly the only country that takes its pasta more seriously than Italy, and while Japanese chefs are famously proficient when it comes to their interpretation of Western cuisine, there is nothing too refined about the menu at Bentendo.
There are, however, some interesting items on the menu. Pasta dishes include fresh salmon and salmon roe in butter and soy sauce ($16.80), cod roe, squid and shiso in Japanese sauce ($13.80) and seaweed, bacon and kimchi carbonara ($15.80) - not the type of stuff you find in a typical Italian restaurant. Some items are perhaps more recognisable - such as Bentendo Fisherman Style ($16.80), which is nothing more than spaghetti marinara in disguise, but there are also a few uniquely Japanese concoctions.
Take the bacon and eggplant with spaghetti in soup ($12.80), for instance. There is of course soup-based pasta in Italian cuisine but nothing involving spaghetti, which may have a tendency to get soggy. In this case, though, the pasta was al dente and the taste was not nappealing, even if it's not the sort of item pasta aficionados would order regularly.
Bentendo 1 Kim Seng Promenade
#03-32/33 Great World City
(S) 237994
Tel: 6235-5606
