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Menbaka Fire Ramen opened at Cineleisure Orchard on Nov. 24, 2020 — to a two-hour wait.

On its first weekend, however, the wait stretched up to seven hours, in part thanks to the one-for-one promotion.

According to a spokesperson for the brand, the queue started forming after 9am, almost three hours before its opening time of 12pm.

In order to reduce the wait, Menbaka advised those beyond he five-hour mark to return at a later slot, and check for updates on social media.

Here's how the situation looked:

In response to customers' feedback, Menbaka apologised and said that they are working on the queue management system.

Reinventing the brand

Menbaka was established in Kyoto in 1984, but it was only several years later that owner Masamichi Miyazawa came up with the eye-catching method of setting their ramen on fire.

But as the decades went by, Menbaka found stiff competition in various other brands that were popping up, and almost closed down.

It was at that point that Masamichi's son, Shin Miyazawa, stepped in to revive Menbaka with his social media know-how.

Today, Menbaka continues to see queues in Japan, with its expansion to Singapore being its first overseas outlet.

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Top image via Brand Cellar 

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