SINGAPORE - Japan Foods Holding has opened its first non-Japanese concept restaurant, the New ManLee Bak Kut Teh restaurant at Clementi Mall.

The concept is franchised from a restaurant established more than 40 years ago in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The choice of bak kut teh - pork bone soup - was a natural one as the group's existing central kitchen already prepared pork bone broth for its restaurants across Singapore, said executive chairman and chief executive Takahashi Kenichi.

The new restaurant serves its soups with Japanese rice, udon noodles and hoji cha, instead of the white rice, mee sua and Chinese tea that usually comes with bak kut teh. "Looking strategically into the future, we do not want to limit ourselves only to Japanese cuisine but to look for other cuisines that can also tap into the resources that we already have. The new restaurant at Clementi Mall is our testbed and if successful, it will allow us to move confidently in this direction," he added.

Japan Foods Holding operates 44 restaurants in Singapore under various brands, such as Ajisen Ramen, Osaka Ohsho and Menya Musashi.