Bari-Uma Ramen @ Jaya Shopping Centre

When I was in college, I used to frequent Jaya Supermarket in Seksyen 14, PJ or do they call it Jaya Shopping Centre already then? I’m not too sure but we always referred to it as Jaya Supermarket then. That was like a couple of decades ago. The old ‘Jaya Supermarket’ had been torn down (or rather collapsed) and rebuilt into a new shopping mall now.

We were around the area last week and decided to check out the new place. I’ll write about it in a separate post some other day because today, I want to share about the dinner we had while we were there. It was raining that evening so we decided to eat something soupy and hot. After walking around, we came across this Bari-Uma Ramen located on level 3 of Jaya Shopping Centre. You won’t miss it as it has this big signage and a bright exterior (that I forgotten to take picture of -.-)

With over 40 restaurants across Japan, the famous Bari-Uma ramen has now invaded Petaling Jaya. Lucky us!

But I do remember to take pictures of the interior and their open kitchen. All their noodles are freshly made in-house.

Service was very quick as the moment we were seated, one of their staff came with these boxes of color pencils and safari themed colouring paper for Ethan to keep him occupied while we make our order and wait for our food.

Ethan loves animal pictures and this is just perfect. I needed to use the washroom because it was raining and extra cold in here (Jaya Shopping Centre). I was gone like less than 10 minutes but by the time I came back, the appetizers are already on the table! That was really quick! Ethan had not even started on the coloring (as he was busy looking through the color pencils!)

We immediately dig in into our appetizer.

Gyoza. (RM11/5 pcs)

These chicken dumplings are steamed on one side and pan fried on the other side. Generous and juicy filling with just the perfect skin (not too thick or neither too thin), drizzle some gyoza sauce over it and they are a perfect start for dinner.

There are other assortment of chicken-stuffed dumplings here at Bari-Uma such as mayo and spicy sauce or even boiled version but I chose to have the original as that’s how I always like my gyoza :D

Yakitori Moriawase . Skewered assorted grilled bite sized chicken meat. I can’t remember how much this set was but this is good.  My favourite yakitori is always the one with chicken thigh meat skewered with pieces of leek in between. I don’t fancy other parts of chicken so thigh is best for me.

I ordered this Ishiyaki-Chaofan Chashu (RM14.90) for Ayden. Yes, these days I have to order something for him as he is getting bored of eating porridge when we dine out. Of course he won’t be able to finish the entire portion but that’s where the big brother comes in handy. Ethan will gladly help to eat what Ayden can’t finish!

I took a bite of this fried rice and I must say I love it. It comes with a lot of spring onions though so if you are not a fan of spring onions, you’ll just have to put it aside.

Look at Ayden enjoying the Chashu Chaofan. So you can see who is not a fan of spring onions there :P The Daddy removed them from his plate.

As for Ethan, we got him the Kid’s Meal at RM15. The menu stated ‘small bowl of ramen with orange juice’ but what was served was not very small.

See! If I knew it would be that ‘small’ I would have ordered a kid’s meal for myself! That will be the perfect portion for me…

The kid’s ramen comes with crisp seaweed sheets and corn to Ethan’s delight. That boy is a corn lover. He loves the rich pork broth too. According to their website, the broth of potherb, pork bone and other ingredients are boiled together for more than 10 hours.

I had this spicy Kara-Uma (RM26). Pork flavoured spicy soup with thick-cut flamed chashu. I missed something. Whenever I eat ramen, I make sure to have the soft set yolk egg. I can actually add-on the egg here but since Darling doesn’t fancy eggs with soft yolk and the one that he ordered comes with it so I decided to just eat his egg! I mean eat the egg in his bowl :P

Darling’s Noritama-Uma (RM29). Pork flavoured thick and flavourful shoyu soup with thick-cut flamed chashu, Ajitama and seaweed. Ajitama means flavoured egg and that is the egg that I mentioned earlier. A perfect ajitama can elevate the goodness of the ramen to the next level. Look how perfect the soft set yolks are! I polished them off immediately!

Dessert to end our dinner. Ice cream treat for the kids. Black sesame ice cream (RM7.90)

Green Tea ice cream (RM7.90)

One of the staff that served us was very concerned and asked if we were very hungry as he saw Darling and I gobbling down our ramen at lightning speed. LoL. There are two reasons why we were slurping away quickly:

No 1 – Ramen are best eaten hot and immediately when they are served.

No 2 – When dining with a one year old, we have to eat as fast as possible because Ayden won’t be able to sit still for long. One of us will eventually have to bring Ayden out for a walk while the big brother Ethan finishes his meal.

We enjoyed our dinner here at Bari-Uma Ramen. It’s nice and cosy and suitable for families to dine together.

Another thing worth mentioning is that you get 15% off your total bill if you pay using your Touch ‘n Go card but Darling do not have a Touch ‘n Go card :( This promotion is valid until 10 October 2014 I think. You can try calling them at +603-7932 2958 for further information.