Waraku Heeren - Oishii!

Waraku @ Heeren is tucked away on the 5th storey of the building. The menu is extensive and the prices are reasonable. The food quality is not bad but the dishes tend to be rather salty. When I was there with my eating buddies on a rainy Thursday night, the restaurant was only half-filled. The weather was dismal and with Heeren going through a majoy renovation, it was no surprise that the crowds were staying away.

Anyway, the restaurant had a nice, modern contemporary decor and the waitresses were attentive, friendly and enthusiastic. JT ordered his usual Chicken Kaminabe (I wonder if the Japanese realise how obscene sounding this soupy dish is...) and FT decided on the kid's Ramen Set. As for PT and myself, we decided to go a range of ala carte items.

JT's Tori Kaminabe ($8.80) was the first to arrive. There was a good-sized portion of chicken in the flavourful though slightly salty dashi stock.

According to FT, her Ramen was fantastic. It was also quite a generous portion and she couldn't finish the rest of the fried items. The presentation of the food is so attractive it just tempts you to gobble up everything (which we did).

I decided on a mini Tonkotsu (Pork Bone) Ramen ($7.80). The weather was cold and I just wanted some comfort food. Now, the secret to a good ramen is the broth. Japanese chefs train for years to master the art of achieving that perfect bowl of soup and preparing a good pot of soup can take as long as 1 to 2 days.

When my mini ramen arrived, it appeared to be a normal sized portion to me. Until I saw the regular sized portion. "That's not a bowl, that's a pail." commented PT. So you kinda get the idea how huge that bowl was.

The ramen broth was milky and fragrant, the result of hours of simmering.  When I took a sip, the soup tasted a rich as it looked, except it was a tad too salty. The Chukamen (wheat) noodles were springy and the pork slices were tender.

PT's Beef Yakiniku Don (Beef Rice) ($11) was delicious. The thin slices of beef were cooked just right in sweet barbecue sauce.

Instead of the usual hot plate beef cubes, we ordered the Beef slices on Hoba Leaf ($9.80). Large slices of beef were placed on a thick spread of miso and left to grill on top of a Hoba Leaf. The result was a highly addictive piece of miso-marinated meat whose flavour was further enhanced by the smokiness of the leaf.

I wanted more meat. Having remembered on episode on Japan Hour where the host was exclaiming "Oishii! Oishii!" at various permutations on tonkatsu, I decided to order one serving for us to sample. The deep fried pork cutlet ($9.80) was juicy in the inside and light and crispy on the outside. It tasted so good dipped in the tonkatsu sosu and the spicy yellow karashi (japanese mustard).

The best dish of the night was the Hotate Kushi (grilled scallops in teriyaki sauce) ($4.80). Hotate is the scallop from the well known fan-shaped shellfish. These were grilled on a skewer to quivering tenderness and each bite yielded a little burst of sweet/salty flavours.

The last dish we ordered was Potato Mentai ($7.80). It's one of Waraku's signature dishes. Made with cheese, potato and fish roe, it's super cheesy. Either you like it or you don't and some, like FT, are put off by the slightly fishy undertones.

The total bill came to about $90. A very satisfying and reasonably priced dinner.

Waraku
The Heeren
#05-04