Waraku Japanese Casual Dining

Waraku has become a frequent restaurant for my family and I! We love Japanese food and used to eat at Sakae Sushi all the time, but after trying Waraku, everything has changed! Sakae seem to pale in comparison, but some of their food is still good. Though I prefer Waraku much more. And they've changed to the new menu from 28th April!

I went to the branch @ East Coast Park, and this is how it looks like when you walk in. It feels pretty cosy, but try to not sit at any of the tables within the view in this picture as it can get rather warm.. Maybe cos the A/C in that area doesn't work as well.

We went there at around 4pm as they had the Lunch Special (1 choice of noodles + 1 choice of Don/Sushi for $9.80)  and it's every day from 11.30am to 5pm! It's a pretty good deal for me as it's enough to feed two 'medium' eaters.

We ordered the Chasoba + Gyu Don(without spring onion) set! 

The Gyu Don(Beef Rice) was fragrant! One of the few beef rice that I actually liked! The rice was 'just-right' sticky and it complimented the beef extremely well! It brought out the taste of the beef and the sauce on the rice was flavourful, making the Gyu Don enticing and delectable. Although it looked rather oily on the rice, it can't be tasted at all! This dish left me wanting more!(and it's my sister's favourite gyu don!)

The Chasoba was awesome! The best soba I've eaten in a long time! You can tell by biting into the springy and refreshing cold soba for the first time! It's definitely a Must Try if you go to Waraku!It's really difficult to find good Chasoba, cos most of them either taste like they've been left in the freezer for days or it's just plain bad. The Chasoba is a dish i'll always order when I go there! (:

Soft Shell Tempura($7.80)

The Soft Shell Tempura was not very outstanding. It was a little tasteless, maybe cos of the oil(I really don't like oily food, it gives me a headache). My aunt said the Soft Shell Crab at Sakae was better as the taste was brought out further.

Tako Wasabi(Octopus marinated with wasabi)($4.80)

This isn't a dish that most people would like, it had a very strong wasabi taste which would be quite difficult for most people to accept. The tough, rubber-like texture and the seafood taste would most likely cause most ppl to dislike this dish, but it's a interesting dish to try.

Negima(Grilled Chicken & Japanese Spring Onion)($4.80)

The sauce was a little salty when you first taste it, but the chicken meat was tender. This was a rather normal dish, but was alright on the whole. Not an exceptional dish though.

Chawanmushi(org. $4.80, Special $2)

It tasted rather ordinary, like most chawanmushi. However, this one contained mushroom, eel, naruto and chicken. Which gave it more flavour then Sakae's. It's tasty on the whole.

Uramaki(org. $9.80, Special $6.80)

This sushi is sorta like their 'special' ones, as they had a few pictures of it hanging on the wall.(and they looked really good!) However, the pics on the wall was much better, as the presented dish did not look as appetising. But no worries! Although the first bite wasn't very special, it got more and more delicious subsequently!! Uramaki definitely left made me craving for more!

Drayaki Ice Cream(Fried Ice Cream - $5.80)

Personally, I love this fried ice cream! The fried Doriyaki skin with vanilla ice cream is just divine! The combination of both is perfect as it eliminated the flaws of each item by itself! Without the Doriyaki skin, the ice cream would be plain boring, and without the ice cream, the doriyaki skin would have been terrible. However, when they came together, the hot & cold complimented each other great! The only problems were, you have to eat it quickly as the ice cream melts rather fast. And the toothpick is miserably small, so be prepared that the ice cream might fall off. Other than that, it's OH-SO-DELISH! =D

I'll definitely go back for more affordable Jap food @ Waraku! (:

p.s. Sakae's prices are definitely lower, but you can definitely differentiate the quality after dining at both restaurants!

1020 East Coast Park Way
Singapore 449878 
Tel: 6242-1123 
Fax: 6242-9389
11:30am - 11pm (Last order 10:30pm)

http://www.waraku.com.sg/index.aspx

New Zealand Natural

There are many many kinds of Ice Cream that it's almost impossible to actually go count all the different stores in singapore right? Well, I've actually tried New Zealand's ice cream a lot of times and it has never been disappointing!

After lunch ytd, my family went to get an Ice Cream from New Zealand Natural at ECP! I've never noticed that it was situated directly behind Waraku @ ECP! so it came as a surprise and my sister insisted on getting the ice cream!

this was e second time we went to that particular store. The first time there was great, though the ice cream seems a tad melted, but the staff there were friendly and smiled frequently! However, this time it was not the same. Though the ice cream were more frozen, the girl serving us wasn't friendly at all. But like my mom said, 'their work is tough and we shall not let bad service disrupt our joyful mood for ice cream!'haha

We ordered a Junior Sundae($6.40) which I thought was of very good value. There were 3 scoops of ice cream, 1 choice of dry topping, 1 choice of fruit and 1 sauce to pick and it's served in a waffle bowl with its sides covered in chocolate!

Our choice of ice cream were:
- Forest Berry (Frozen Yoghurt)
- Rum & Raisin
- Hokey Pokey
with fruit loops, Banana, caramel sauce and whipped cream!

All the ice cream tasted great! Forest Berry has a stronger taste than i would have expected(in a good way though). cos I was expecting a more diluted feel, but it was actually really yummy! Rum & Raisin contained a bit of alcohol which could be detected really well, the previous times my mom had Rum & Raisin, i couldn't really taste the alcohol. but it's not really suitable if you don't like that hint of alcohol in your ice cream. Hokey Pokey was delicious as usual! It has been my favourite flavour for the past 4yrs! it tasted like honey + a little of vanilla-ey flavour(which i totally adore) and the crunchy bits of honeycomb that my sister totally lovesss!

But if you don't like sweet things at all, Hokey Pokey wouldn't be such a great idea(it's actually not THAT sweet but my mom doesn't like it). If that's the case, Forest Berry would be good for you. If not, you need to try this flavour! It's just divine!

now comes the service attitude problem part. my sis & I wanted 'frosties' for our dry topping but she gave us Fruit Loops instead? well, i don't blame her for the slight mistake but was there a need to look at me like i owe her a million bucks when i repeat the toppings to her just out of pure kindness!and mind you, there were no one else ordering other than us!gosh..

so, when the order were all finished and we paid, naturally, we sat down to savour our tempting ice cream! well, i was very happy enjoying the ice cream UNTIL i put the banana into my mouth!

well, it would've been a banana if it was even CHEWABLE! i was eating a FROZEN banana!but i didn't want to cause a commotion so i just threw all the bananas away!haha

Anyways, New Zealand's Ice Cream are actually really good at most of the other stores! and the website actually states that all their "sorbets are 99% fat free and taste fantastic, they are the perfect ‘guilt-free’ treat." and their frozen yoghurts are "97% fat free and contains healthy yoghurt cultures. These cultures are probiotic and known to aid digestion."

So, if you're watching your waistline and might feel guilty after eating those Milky ice cream! why not try New Zealand's Frozen Yoghurts? they do actually taste somewhat like normal ice cream, just healthier!(:

The price is actually quite reasonable and you get to taste quality ice cream! Not highly recommended, but it would be a waste if you hadn't tried it before!haha

East Coast Park (Tennis Centre)
Eastpoint
Harbourfront Centre
National University of Singapore
Paragon
Parkway Parade
Sentosa - Imbiah
Sentosa - Siloso

http://www.nzn.com.sg/