Pasta de Waraku, The Central

There's always something about the Waraku franchise that absolutely drives me up the wall. I think it's probably the fact that every time I sit down in their restaurants, whether for Japanese or Pasta, I just can't decide what to eat.

There's just too much great-looking food just crying out to be tried!

Even so, despite this somewhat happy dilemma, the three of us took perhaps a grand total of 10 minutes to decide. Not too bad considering we were starving. Or I was at least. In any case, we tried the Waraku Carbonara, the Hamburg Steak with spaghetti and the Chicken & Scallop Doria - baked rice in other words.

I took only a couple of bites of Cheryl's Carbonara and I must confess that I'm not a great fan of cream sauces. This one was quite good though, by my perhaps less selective standards. It wasn't too thick, too creamy or too rich. As with most Japanese-influenced foods I've had so far, it was a lighter interpretation of the staple pasta dish. A good thing in my opinion even though I'll probably be shot by the purists.

Next to arrive was my Hamburg Steak - another dish I don't usually order. I must say I was surprised though. I really quite liked it! The bolognaise that came with it was somewhat on the sweet side - something I don't usually prefer when it comes to tomato-based meat sauces (I'm a savoury person that way) - but this was nicely complimented by the more savoury and flavourful Hamburg Steaks. This dish was really quite deliciously balanced.

And then there was Rae's Chicken & Scallop Doria. I've had Pasta de Waraku's Eggplant Baked Rice before and I was really quite amazed then at how white their cream sauce was under the cheese. Nevertheless, despite its fresh-cream appearance, it actually is not bad. Again, its a subtler interpretation that's lighter on the tongue. Coupled with the cheese, garlic, chicken and scallops, it made for quite a satisfying dish. Cheryl and I raided Rae's plate quite a few times.

And in culmination to an already very satisfying lunch, we ordered an Ichigo Parfait to share. I'd been determined to order dessert this time, and boy was I glad we did. Feast your eyes now upon this beauty:

I can assure you that it tasted absolutely divine and the picture really does not do it any justice. Their vanilla ice-cream is again Pasta de Waraku's own soft-serve goodness that was, while sweet, not overly so. I was quite surprised by it as well honestly, and I think it was a brilliant idea that its soft-serve. Its a welcome change to muscling into hard or sticky balls of conventional ice-cream. On a personal level though, it really did remind me of the RM$0.50 soft-serve ice cream cones of my youth from my local Heong Kong Supermarket. Add in the tart strawberries (again, glad they were not of the artificially sweet variety) and strawberry sauce and you've got a winner - well a winner for me anyhow.

Funny how the best dish that's really left me wanting more the whole day was the dessert.

Oh, prices. The pastas were between $12.80 (the Carbonara) and $16.80 (the Hamburg Steak). The Parfaits are all $9.80 and we also had Salmon Bites to share. These weren't pictured at first because I don't really have a good shot of it, but just as well I think. Even though the burst of a slightly cheesy cream in the middle of the bites accompanied by the pretty good, tangy, tartare sauce wasn't really all that bad. Just somewhat forgettable in light of all the rest.

And so, the niggly details for the interested:

Pasta de Waraku
6 Eu Tong Sen Street #02-82/83
The Central Singapore 059817
TEL : 6534-8085
Open daily 11:30am - 11:00pm
( Last order 10:30pm )

It's really crowded at lunch time - so crowded that I actually met my boss there - so be prepared to wait a bit. No idea about the dinner crowd but somehow I really don't think it'll be deserted either. Enjoy.