Waraku Japanese Restaurant (The Central)

I have been to this restaurant many times.

For one simple reason: creamy udon.

The udon are served in ultra large bowl but not so much soup and udon within.

The creamy soup is thick and yummy. However, if you try to eat the entire bowl, you will get sick quickly. I usually share it with my wife and it's just right for both of us.

The other dishes can be found in other Japanese restaurant and so far there's nothing special in their menu.

So if you decided to come here, just do what we do:

order a bowl of creamy udon and share it with 2 persons.

The Hokkai Salad was good. Sashimi was very fresh and good, and I like the usage of the wasabe and soy sauce making it very refreshing.

Didnt try the sushi except the Maguro Yukkei one and I liked it. Tasted quite weird cos of the Egg yolk but i didnt feel sick after that so it passed.

Dashimaki was nice, done quite well actually. and my Chicken Houba Yaki certainly was intresting. Cooked it myself but enjoyed it throughly. The paste it was cooked on was delicious as well. Good food.

Staff was polite, friendly and service was prompt. Good job

As niece was back on uni vacation, took opportunity to use HungryDeals eCode.  Reservation was a breeze and off we trooped for lunch.

 

Had a lovely window seat, with great view of the Singapore River.  Menu is pretty extensive and we had a feast!!  Started with the cold tofu dish.  Topped with chopped ginger; spring onions and bonito flakes, the texture of the tofu was soft and silky smooth yet firm.  This was followed by agedashi tofu.  Both tofu dishes were good, I tend to prefer the cold tofu dish. 

 

The asparagus wrapped with bacon was a winner.  Asparagus was crunchy and balanced the saltiness of the bacon well.  Shishamo was fresh, perfectly grilled and had lots of roe.  Grilled butter scallop was one of my favourites.  The scallop was juicy; succulent and flavourful.  My sister exclaimed that the shrimp was so sweet and indeed, one can taste the sweetness of the deep fried shrimp.  The dish that was memorable was the grilled beef houba.  The beef nestled on a bed of miso paste spread on a houba leaf.  The miso paste complemented the beef very well.  Grilled squid was also excellent – tender, with slightly chewy texture.   

 

We had the Waraku Tsukemen ramen and cream mushroom udon.  The presentation of the ramen was pretty interesting.  Ramen was served separate from the soup stock.  The soup was bubbling hot when it arrived.  We subsequently discovered the ‘secret’ – there was a hot stone in the soup stock, which kept the soup base bubbling hot.  Ramen was firm yet springy.  Pork slice was tender and well-flavoured.  Egg was somewhat raw, on hindsight, we should have poured the soup stock over the egg.

 

Cream udon was served in a large, and I mean LARGE bowl.  Diameter of the bowl was around 1 foot and height of bowl was ~9 inches.  Udon had good texture and sponginess.  We were so glad that we shared the ramen and udon.  The serving of the ramen was good sized, sufficient for 1 person.  I think it would be rather challenging to finish the cream udon on your own.

 

The chicken yakitori was served on a pretty pink dish.  The yakitori was OK, to be fair, by the time it was served, we were all pretty satiated.

 

Nonetheless, we still found room for green tea and black sesame ice cream.  The sesame ice cream was a clear favourite.  The taste of sesame was discernible, in fact there were bits of sesame embedded in the ice cream.  Texture of both ice cream was smooth and milky.

 

At the end of the meal, my brother-in-law quipped, “Where will be the next HungryDeals meal?”

Came here for dinner on a Saturaday after i purchase hungrygowhere eCode which offered 30% off the bill.  Tried the sashimi, tempura, ramen,   noodle + rice dish with raw seafood on top, hot pot with beef and kid's meals. There were 5 of us.

The beef hot pot which came in a paper pot with a flame underneath, was very good. The beef was really tender and the soup flavourful.  Also good were the 3 types of sashimi and ramen.  The tempura was  disappointing, the batter was not light and crispy but rather hard.

My kids enjoyed the kid's meal, which had ramen, fried prawn & chicken nugget, french fries, ice cream and soft drink. Good value at $9.80. Came with a free gift (stationary set).

Was crowded but the service was attentive.  I did not experience any poor service the other reviewers mentioned. We had a table by the window, and there was a nice view of the river and clark quay restaurants below.

The bill was $107 originally, and after the "eCode" it was about 80+.  I commend hungrygowhere for this Hungrydeal ecode discount . I paid $3 for the ecode and got an email.  Then I mentioned the code during reservation and got 30% off the entire bill. Compared to the other "Groupon" sites, it was a much easier process. There was no need to print and bring vouchers, figure out how many vouchers could be used, or be limited in what we ordered.  The ecode discount is much bigger if you have a larger bill.

 

Went on a Saturday evening, at about 530pm. Surprisingly, there were people in the restaurant having their meals. Seats were a plenty at this branch, but the place felt rather cramped. Many tables for 2 pax but in a secluded section. Ample time is given for you to browse the menu, and the waitresses will only attend to you if you managed to get their attention.

We ordered yakiniku don, maguro and hamachi sushis, shishamo, and beef houba. Yakiniku don at regular size seemed quite a big bowl of rice laden with thinly sized beef. The ala-carte sushis are quite tiny, but otherwise, I quite liked the hamachi and maguro sushi. The fish was firm to bite and the rice does not crumble easily.

Beef houba was interestingly presented. Meat was tender but most of the time, it's just the miso paste that we're tasting. Shishamo was nicely soft and laden with roe. So for those that are expecting a more crispy version of this, then you're in for a disappointment.

Once your order had arrived (and provided you're drinking green tea!), the waitresses will come and top up the hot water for the green tea regularly.

We ended the meal with vanilla shiratama.  There's a current promotion where DBS/POSB credit card gets a 10% discount.

For more pictures, visit here.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend and I went to Waraku at Central before watching a theatre performance at the DBS Arts House and I found that the service standards dropped by a huge margin since my last visit. 

It was a weekday evening, around 6 plus and there was minimal crowd. 

First, we ordered two bowls of the same type of ramen. We requested one to be less spicy and the other, to hold the vegetables. Twenty minutes later, the waitress who took our order brought ONE bowl of ramen and ONE set of utensils. We waited for another 10 minutes before asking her why wasn't our order served together, seeing as it was the same item and she said that the kitchen was not ready with our order. I was extremely puzzled to how a similar bowl of ramen could take such a long time. Another 10 minutes later, we asked her again and then she admitted that she assumed that we ordered only one bowl of ramen. 

Honestly, I would have expected the waitress to confirm our orders after we order and to have had the decency to admit her mistakes the first time round. 

We saw the manager or the shift manager? standing behind her as she admitted her mistake and he did little to rectify the situation. Our second bowl of ramen (which we expected to have come with vegetables, since the first one came without) came without vegetables and egg, and we had to harass the shift manager for them. 

As we were starving from waiting for close to 45 minutes for our food, we ate and then requested for the bill. 

For the time we had to wait and the terrible service and attitude of the staff, I was shocked that they had the decency to charge the full amount of whatever we ordered plus service charge when in the first place, the quality of the service staff was terrible. 

This experience has put me off ever visiting Waraku again, definitely not worth the hassle. 

There are only two reasons should should even come here at all - the view of Clarke Quay from the booth seating by the window, and a passable curry udon (get the large size, the small size is too small and not worth the money).  Everything else is either mediocre or downright terrible.

I suppose that's what happens with these Japanese casual dining places that try to do everything.  My honest opinion? If you want sushi, go to a sushi place.  If you want ramen, go to a ramen place.  If you want tonkatsu, go to a tonkatsu place.  If you can't make up your mind, well then that's what friends are for I suppose.

We were blown away with the food, it was just alright I guess. Had spaghetti and a set meal that comes with baked scallop with cheese. Nothing really special about it in my honest opinion.

Service was acceptable, if I were to rate this restaurant, I would say everything is pretty much average in terms of price, food, service and ambience.

For pictures: http://miammmiam.blogspot.com/

I do not understand why people leave poor comments abt this place.. I find it alright to dine-in as long as you avoid peak hours.

I typically like this Pasta de Waraku because of the large variety of choices.. They serve many types of pastas such as the creamy pastas, pastas with original Japanese sauce/sauce with chunky tomatoes, soup pastas, stir-fried pastas and pasta salads etc. They even serve delicious mini seafood pancakes and soups.

My favourite order will be the Seafood Soup Pasta (it is served in thick seafood broth with fresh ingredients such as the crab meat, prawns, scallop and vegetables). It costs only S$14.80. A mini salad will be served with any order of pasta. It is worthwhile for the price.

I will order the Iced Stick cake after the meal as it's imported from Japan. I love the "Baked Cheese Cake" as it looks simple and tastes marvellous.

Overall, I will recommend that you avoid peak hours if you want to enjoy the greatness of these foods. The waiting time will be shorter and their service will be faster.

To keep the story short... From the look of their offerings, it is very obvious that Waraku positions themselves as commercialised Japanese restaurant, what's with interesting combination of udon or ramen with soup like, was it Laksa?

We had:

- Salad which looked like sashimi platter with salad leaves on the menu, but was served to us looking like a few pieces of  salmon on iceberg lettuce drizzled with japanese salad dressing

- Sea Urchin sashimi, which tasted nothing extraordinary for the price they were charging

- Beef Udon, which was decent enough, except that I didn't quite enjoy the soup

- Ramen (which my hubby had) that was not worth much mention

The chairs were also not very well-maintained. I was sitting on one that was a little torn.

Overall, I think it's really so-so...