After berating this place after last week’s visit, I decided to give it another go. If a renowned ST’s food reviewer has given his thumbs up for this newest Waraku outlet, given his credibility, I told myself it can’t be really that dreadful. And so I went, with bated breath. And back with a vengeance too. Remember the coupons that I had idiotically missed out?

If that is how the famed Hokkaido Corn Soup ($4.40 after the 50% discount) taste like, then I really don’t think I ever want to try it again. It felt like it had come from the sea, way too salty to justify for the sweetness of corn. The soup came Cold, in fact I had to send it back Twice to get it reheated. The 2nd time served by the very apologetic Mr. Manager, who himself had unknowingly offended me the last time. The serving bowl was a big Joke. Like an oversized piece of crockery trying to camouflage its stingy contents. But it actually contained, to my utter surprise, a hefty portion, way too much in fact, to qualify for a soup course. I struggled, but gave up halfway, defeating the purpose of the ½ price offer.

I had the Wafu Unatama Pasta ($14.80). This came without the mini salad because it was on the seasonal menu. Yeah! I never wanted to have anything to do with the Little Salad again anyway, after that distasteful experience with it on that previous visit. Maybe the Chef heaped on the salt this time, but the Bonito base for the pasta dish was really brackish. I tried to subdue the thirst-inducing factor by adding parmesan cheese, chili olive oil, pepper, whatever condiments I could find on the table, but sadly I couldn’t salvage the blunder.

I also made a grave mistake with the pasta choice. Had fettuccine. (Was it even fettuccine? Seemed more like Linguine though. They can’t even get the pasta shape right. Sighz.) The pasta came dry as a bone, long sitting cold in the kitchen, waiting for me to desperately (help!) finish my soup. Few measly pieces of unagi & ‘Scrambled Egg'(in the wait staff actual words. It’s called ‘Simmered’ by the way.) were haphazardly tossed around the plate. The onions weren’t even cooked, exuding a sharp tang that totally murdered my taste buds. Pasta was seriously undercooked, even though I specifically requested for mine to be boiled to death. It was also clear from the first bite that the pasta, unagi and soup base just don’t go together. (A tip for all PDW fans: I reckon this is going to be a permanent fixture on their new menu which is soon to be released on 30 Jan. Don’t order this.)

And I thought the saving grace would be the cream soda ($5.80). I remembered it being quite a delight the previous time. It was like before, paltry amount of the soda, but oddly this time the ice cream seemed to be stuck onto the ice/ glass wall, like as if it had be frozen there for the longest time and not freshly dispensed from the soft-serve machine. Hmm… that had me speculating throughout the whole meal, whilst I was badly trying to gnaw on the pasta with much anguish.

Service: Not too bad this time. They seemed sorry for the glitches, and were very courteous enough to accommodate my requests (familiar face already), albeit many times. LOL. The junior wait staff were more likeable though.

Verdict: Bad. Bad. I swore I should have eaten the displays instead. They simply were made to look intriguingly scrumptious, but the food just failed to deliver again and again. (generally revolting) I did give them a 2nd chance didn’t I?

That’s why I said in the beginning: People are naturally good. =)