I have two tables called Menus and Menus_Item.

I have allways join both tables by using PK from menus and storinging it in a FK field on the Menus_item.
But I was looking at somebody else database desing and he was using a link table to join both tables.

The link table name is Menus_Menus_item_link.
This table has a field for storing the PK of the Menus table and a field for storing PK of Menus_Item table.

Question : Is this a better database desing ?. What are the benefits of having a link table?
I have never used link tables and I am a little bit confused.

Thanks