Went with a close group of work colleagues to celebrate B’s bithday at Waqu. Dinner was great especially with the ‘value for money’ price tag ($55 for 5 course set-menu degustation) ^_^.

It was our first time experiencing modern Japanese food presented this way and in the end we found the food very enjoyable. Overall it’s a fantastic restaurant if your looking for something semi-casual without a big price tag with exquisite quality food. What’s even more appealing is that the restaurant is byo which helps save cash if your celebrating here for an occasion.

AMBIANCE
Spacious environment with a relaxing minimalistic intimate feel. Lighting is dim which sets a semi-casual theme to it. Most importantly the restaurant wasn’t that it wasn’t too noisy which meant we could hear each other talking across the table.

SERVICE
Spot on, friendly staff, efficient, heavy japanese accents which is always nice to hear as it assures you are getting legit modern japanese cuisine. Overall we were very happy with staff as they didn’t try and push us out after we finished our meals. :wow:

FOOD
Towards the end of the night i started taking photos with flash as I couldn’t keep my hands still with the lower light impact. In the beginning meals were photographed naturally as the afternoon light was setting down on us.

Course 1: amuse

spicy soft shell crab taco
Boy did we fall in love with this. Soft shell crab is cooked to perfection and melts in your mouth. I wish sushi trains made soft-shell crab like this MmMM.

Fresh tofu, sweet miso and soy flavoured ground beef, ‘renkon’ chips
I loved this one soo much. The sweet miso and the beef is something i have never experienced like this before. Tofu was delicious and the roots were beautiful

Crystal bay prawn, peach, chorizo, cauliflower puree and tomato essence
Prawn were super fresh that the added peach + chorizo made a great combination of flavours

Course 2 Sashimi – ocean trout tartare, wasabi cream sauce
I’ve never had sashimi presented like this before. Let me tell you this was soo DELICIOUS! The wasabi cream wasn’t over-powering in fact it was very minor it felt like a nice lite sauce. The ocean trout was fairly different. I couldn’t make out if I was eating mashed potato or fish.

Entreé

Squid with Calamari, Abalone and risotto – lightly fried ground calamari cake, abalone and squid ink risotto

R ordered the Squid & Calamari.. it sucks that my photo didn’t turn out :( as my hands were shaky. I wish I took a photo of it with my flash instead *DAMNNNNN* Anyways had a small sample of it though and I loved it! I’d trade my barramundi for it any day ^_^

Rack of Lamb – ‘panko’ and herb crusted rack of lamb, dry miso, ‘tamari’ garlic sauce
I had a little taste of this and the flavouring is divine. Unfortunately I’m not a lamb person as I don’t really like eating lamb so I can’t comment on this dish. All I can say is N & B and enjoyed it!!!! B loved it soo much she cleaned the bone. (i think the taste of lamb is very strong – it’s an asian thing)

Barramundi – salt baked barramundi llet, asparagus and tomato tempura, grated ‘daikon’ soy sauce
Barramundi fillet was cooked to perfection. The bottom consisted of crispy fish skin (YUMMM) However, I wish the crispy fish skin was facing upwards so it didn’t get soggy from the daikon sauce =( The light tempura batter reminded me of eating tofu ‘agedashi’

Mains

Snapper – slow cooked snapper fillet, sweet corn foam, zucchini and leek ribbons
sweet corn foam reminded me of the ravaoli dish i had at bécasse. The zucchini and the leak was sliced very finely which absorbed all of the flavours. The snapper was soft and tender leaving the crispy skin till the very lucky last as the top garnish.

Beef tenderloin steak – red wine sauce, ‘satoimo’ potato, baby carrot, ‘eringi’ mushroom
If you like your steak with a nice red centre then this is the dish for you. The steak looked divineeeeeeeeeeeeeee the meat looked like a good lean cut ^_^

Desert

Green tea crème caramel
Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to take a single flash photo of the green tea crème caramel (I took photos without the flash which didn’t turn out as clear as I would have liked).

Anyways, the Green tea creme caramel was my ultimate favourite desert of the night. At first we thought it tasted like licorice (yum) but when you start eating it more the green-tea flavours arises

Glass tiramisu
Tiramisu is one of my favorite deserts and who thought the Japanese could pull this off brilliantly. It was soo fresh, light and a mouthful of explosions i could eat another 4 of these =P

Vanilla Ice cream
Vanilla ice cream with strawberry topping. Great way to end the night on a fresh note.

WAQU
308 Pacific Highway,
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Ph: 02 9906 7736