[Review] An afternoon at &JOY Dining Hall

November 09, 2019 The Hedgehog Knows 0 Comments A⁺ a^-

How would life be if the husband and I hadn't met back in NTU?

So, it has been some years since we graduated, and gone were the days when students just had to settle for hostel canteen food. (Hands up if you have experienced being stuck on a school campus from Mondays to Fridays before!)

New Multi-Concept Dining Hall

Over the weekend when we went back to Jurong Point, we were impressed by the myriad of retail and dining options now available for residents living in the west and NTU students, one of which is &JOY Dining Hall. A new multi-concept dining hall offering various Japanese dishes, it was a fun and casual place to spend an afternoon at.

Technology

We liked how &JOY Dining Hall made use of technology to reduce waiting time - from online self-ordering to having food delivered via the conveyor shinkansen train at Sushi-Go. Helpful staff ambassadors readily approached diners who seemed to have issues with technology.

Concepts

&JOY Dining Hall houses several concepts: 2 restaurants (Sushi-GO and Pittarino) and 5 that are food court-styled ones at the main dining hall (Roman.Tei, Ramen Kiou, Wadori, My Gohan as well as &JoyEats and Drinks). We tried 3 of them: Sushi-Go, Roman.Tei and Ramen Kiou.

1) Sushi-GO

We tried Sushi-GO for its affordable and fresh sushi. Their recommended dishes include Lobster Salad-GO, Salmon Mentai-Go, Spicy Salmon-GO, Unagi-GO, etc. In particular, we loved the Chocolate Hokkaido Milk Ice Cream Wafer with bits of hard chocolate and smooth milky ice cream.

Btw, upon entrance at the restaurant, you will also notice a crowd-drawer - an ice cream claw catcher. Every S$20 spent gives you one go at the machine.

2) Roman.Tei

The other 2 concepts we tried, Roman.Tei and Ramen Kiou, were located at the dining hall and both originate from Osaka.

Roman.Tei specialises in only beef-based dishes. He choose one of the signatures - the Double Beef Steak Zen rice box which came along with appetiser, salad, pickles, soup and dashi soup. Perfect for those who love a hearty meal.

3) Ramen Kiou

We couldn't decide what to have and ended up trying their two signatures dishes - a heart-warming Kiou Ramen and the fusion Tomato Cheese Ramen.

The traditional Kiou Ramen with milky pork bone broth definitely went up my alley with its rich milky pork bone broth, tender roasted chashu (pork belly slices), runny egg and springy noodles. I am already feeling hungry just thinking of the broth now!

There are several other concepts that we have yet to try out, e.g. Wadori for its charcoal-grilled skewers and Pittarino which serves pizza made from freshly kneaded dough. Let me know how they are if you have tried them!