Who would have thought a large bowl weighing 6.4 kilogrammes usually displayed at decorative item shops could be used to serve ramen to customers.

The dish is the main attraction at the 'My Voice Cafe and Studio Big Bowl Ramen' at the Chew Jetty, here.

The restaurant's operations manager, Adrian Chee Tong Wai, 47, said most of the customers who came here were surprised to see the large bowl, and they usually stopped for a meal.

"The attraction here is the large bowl. They enter the restaurant because of the bowl. However, we also place importance on the good taste of ramen served here.

"Most customers have accepted and enjoy the ramen served here, even though it is of a Japanese concept," he told Bernama.

Ramen is a Japanese dish, consists of Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a meat- or fish-based broth, often flavored with soy sauce or miso, and uses toppings such as sliced pork, dried seaweed, menma, and green onions.

He said the owner of the restaurant got the idea of opening it here after a holiday trip to Japan.

"In the beginning, we hired a chef from Japan to teach the local chef for over a year. After our chef mastered the recipe, the Japanese chef returned to his country. At first, we were worried that customers would not like Japanese food, however, it was the opposite as the food we sold was well received," he said.

Chee said the restaurant also has outlets at Bay Avenue Queensbay and the Desa Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur while the main outlet was opened at Chew Jetty as it was a popular tourist destination.

"The restaurant can accommodate 70 customers at a time, and the number of patrons is increasing, especially during the school or public holidays, so much so that customers have to queue up," he said.

On whether the company plans to expand its market to accommodate Muslim patrons, Chee said it was being considered, but careful planning was required to do so.

"We did (try) once but it was not very successful. We opened a stall near Vistana Hotel. We did not serve pork. But due to some problems, we had to close down the stall," he said.

He said the company had received many requests from Muslims on Facebook to offer halal ramen, and to do so, it would have to hire a Muslim chef and obtain halal certification from the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim). -- Bernama