Restaurant Chako
Tel: +65 6776 3919
Opening hours
Mon – Fri 12:15pm – 2:30pm, 6:30pm – 10:30pm, Sat – Sun 6:30pm – 10:30pm
I cannot remember when I started watching Japan Hour. What I remember though, is the food centric program, week after week, brings us to wonderful localised places in we probably never heard of and might probably never find. What I love most about food segments, is that they almost never showcase big fancy famous restaurants. Instead, we get the quaint, generations handed down restaurants that always have a lovely geniel obasan behind the counter. On a lazy sunday night, my buddies found ourselves in one such gem in western Singapore.
Ambience
It was the perfect cozy corner. So cozy and private, the stares we got made us feel like we just gatecrashed a secret party. They didn't last long though as the regulars went back to their food. It must have been fate that there was just one table left. There were hushed speaking tones as the tables were closer to each other than normal. Florescent lit, there was an interesting view from behind counter, behind a semi hidden shade.
Service
We were served by the owner's daughter as she warned us repeatedly about the long waiting time. We weren't in a hurry to go anywhere. It was the first in a long time I felt such personal attentive service. She breezed us through the menu and highly recommended the specials. As I was advised long ago, always go for the specials.
Food
Oden
The special for the day. We were told it was slow cooked for about 5 hours that day. We could tell. The soft but firm root vegetables seemed to have absorbed every bit of essence from the bean stock. It was earthy, salty, beany. Just the way I like my root vegetables done.
Gyoza
Softer skin than others, the chicken (they don't use pork here) was fresh but a tad loose for my liking.
Hamburger Steak
The beef loosely packed, had distinct flavours of the onion and spices within. A tad salty but flavours of the meat still shone through.
Flounder in Soy Sauce
My favourite dish. Flounder was expectely fine fleshed as soaked in new deepness of the soy sauce I never expected. Ever mouthful of the fish went with a mouthful of rice as I experienced a new level of comfort.
Chako set
Essentially a bento with Saba Shioyaki. The saba was lovingly roasted as the salt on the skin dried as the flesh kept moist and fresh.
Green Tea pudding
To round up an evening of earthy and homecooked food was the semi sweet, soft green tea pudding. The dessert had a less of a sweet overtone but the rather slight bitter nature of green tea made it a wonderful end to our meal.
The meal took about 4.5 hours as we chatted through the night. We even stayed long enough to have a nice leisurely chat with the owner. A lovely obasan whose passion for Japanese food that tastes good and is good for you inspired me to continue with my food journeys.
Ambience 11/15
Service 12/15
Food 11/15
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