Youmenya Goemon @ 313

A colleague recommended this place for "good and cheap Japanese pasta", so I visited the outlet at 313 with three other colleagues. Despite his warning to go early to get seats, we reached at 1215pm and were greeted with a 75%-empty restaurant. It's all because of its location - this outlet is located at a corner of 313 where traffic is very low.

A look at their lunch menu confirmed that prices were still quite reasonable, with pastas costing mainly around the $12 to $13 range. I selected their Lunch Set A, which consists of a regular pasta, soup and salad at $14.

Salad and soup

 I thought that the soup would be miso soup, but it turned out to be a clear and light soup. I would very much prefer miso soup though. The salad was quite good - their Japanese salad sauce was quite tasty and appetite-stimulating, and the vegetables were fresh. 

Crab, shrimp and scallop pasta in cream sauce

This is only a regular portion, but it's already big enough for most people. Shredded crab meat and dried scallops were used, so the flavour is more uniform throughout the pasta, but I think they could still add a little bit more. The prawns were the highlight though - they were very fresh and crunchy. Overall, I found this lunch set quite a good value for money indeed. Their pastas cost more than Pasta de Waraku's, but definitely taste better as they also use better quality ingredients.

Note that their main outlet is actually at Marina Bay Link Mall, and the prices are different from 313's. For example, a Lunch Set B (regular pasta + salad + soup + drink) costs $15 at 313 but costs $18.50 at Marina Bay Link Mall. And I remember my pasta costing $12+ at 313, but their website states that it costs $13.50.

Update as of 8th Nov 2011:
I visited their Marina Bay Link Mall outlet today and confirmed that the prices were indeed different from 313's. The main reason was because of the salad - over here, you can help yourself to one serving of salad at the salad bar. And the salad is really much fresher and comes with several salad dressings, which were all very good. On its own, a small bowl of salad already costs $5.80 here, so this justifies the price difference between the two outlets.