I haven't seen Miss A for awhile and organised a catch up over dinner (as usual). Waqu is the restaurant which we have been talking about and will visit there one day. This "one day" has arrived and Miss A arranged the booking for us.
Waqu Spring Menu
The restaurant offers six course tasting menu. We will only need to choose which entree and main. Since we have four people and only three choices, we choose all three choices to share among ourselves.
Japanese Salt and Pepper squid and chicken, dashi Mayonnaise; Tiger Prawn Escabeche on Miso Paint with Crusted Rosemary
Once the waitress has taken our orders, the drinks have been served, the amuse arrives. I prefer the salt and pepper squid and chicken over the tiger prawn escabeche. This is the first time I like squid and chicken over tiger prawn!!
Spring Vegetable Soup
Then comes the soup. When we had our first spoonful, we are exclaimed cold? Did they forget to heat it up before serving it to us? Despite it is cold, this soup is quite refreshing and I can feel it is spring. :)
Three Kinds of Market Fish Sashimi, umami soy sauce
My favourite sashimi. I thought there should be nothing wrong with this one? But yes all good. :)
Onsen Tamago + Foie Gras Parfait
Now it is our entree. I have ordered the Onsen Tamago + Foie Gras Parfait. The onsen egg is really smooth and runny. The vegetables are crunchy and fresh.
Scallop & Crab Mousse
Roasted Duck + Smoked Oyster Salad
The other choices of the entree are Scallop + Crab Mousse and Roasted Duck + Smoked Oyster Salad.
Wagyu Beef
I have ordered the Wagyu Beef as main. Although I am not a big fan of the wagyu, the other choice of the day is either barramundi or pork with ginger, which I do not like to eat at all. Their wagyu beef is really tender and cook to perfection. I enjoyed it very much. 
Panfried barramundi, yuzu emulusion, nori seaweed paint, chamame mash potato
Miss D90 said the best part of this place is the nori seaweed paint.
65 c cooked pork loin + roasted rib, ginger jus, apple puree, braised bamboo, sauteed shiitake & zucchini
Never thought of pork can be served in so pink colour. Thought it has not been cooked well. I guess it is similar to the colour of ham?
Finally finishes off with dessert. Tonight our dessert is strawberry based and most of the pieces are in pink.
Strawberry Mousse, Macaroon, Pink Pepper Puree, Strawberry Jelly, Cheese Ice Cream
Although the meal might not be fantastic, but with great company that what's matter most!
Waqu
308 Pacific Highway
Crows Nest NSW 2065
(02) 9906 7736
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We thought trying something new however was not impressed with their customer service overall....a dozen of us went to Waqu on a friday evening for dinner. We arrived there a little early and waited until their opening time but their big restaurant door was still locked. We waited for another 5 minutes and had to ring the restaurant to remind them to open for business for the night. Anyway We booked their private room with 6 course autumn menu and some of us also had the matching wines option.
ReplyDeleteStaff there generally did not seem having a good mood as the ones in other Japanese 'fine dinning' restaurants who always offer services with friendly and helpful attitude with a SMILE all the time. Instead they looked a bit stressed.
Degustation plates and matching wine was creative and pretty but cant really tell if it is really fused with Japanese essence. Most dishes does not have Japanese fusions to me. They tasted just all right. Not particularly memorable, just eatable.
We ended up going to another crows nest restaurant after this due to the relative compacted version of their 'fine' dishes. By the way since most of our group ordered same course dish most of the times and we realised the food portion for each plate were always uneven so does the quality of the dishes themselves. The orders were also mixed up a couple of times.
As we only had our meal in the private room, we had to judge the ambience on its private room only. Actually it is more like a section of the restaurant with gyprocks separating the dinning area into two. The private room was also next to the kitchen and bathrooms, one of the walls in between of the public and private dinning area did not have the top part enclosed! so no acoustics. It is half open, no door for the room which was disappointing. I personally think it is a mismatch with their 'fine dinning' concept as normally most high end Japanese restaurant would at least have a door.
The menu was too inflexible as its set menu and does not have a la carte options at all. Cocktail and dessert list had too few kinds to offer.
Lastly but not the least, the manager was also rather rude to us and told us off after we had a few drinks and started talking with each other with a bit raised voice and had a couple of laughs. We have a very big group and this situation was unfortunately unavoidable. In reality, Who would just eat their food and without having a few cracked jokes at the table? especially after the alcohol? The public dinning section was even noisier and we could literally hear anything out there including the noise from the kitchen. The manager kept on saying they are a 'fine dinning restaurant' not a public pub while we could not even complain how noisy their public section was!
I understand that they might be proud/snobby of their restaurant but humiliating their customers? Is this how a manager if a 'fine dinning' restaurant treat his customers?? I also saw a online review saying Waqu restaurant manager taught the good-mannered customers a lesson how to discipline their young kids and did not want them being in the restaurant. That was actually pathetic.
Just sharing our bad experience to everyone for your information. I would say this had been the weirdest restaurant we have ever been. We were all very disappointed with this restaurant and will NEVER go back again.