Chako

Chako - Authentic Traditional Japanese Restaurant. Basically is an one woman show. This very traditional family restaurant is owned by a Japanese old lady and her husband. She's the chef and the only chef. The husband helps around serving the customers.

Located at Hong Leong Garden @ West Coast, it is accessible by public transport. Bus 198, 197, 97 and 154 stop at the bus stop along the AYE, and is right in front of Hong Leong Garden. A 5-8 mins walk will see you at Chako. But do call before going down. It may be full house like what happened to us.

You can also call for pre-order but you still have to wait. We called at 6pm to order our food and was seated by 7pm. Still we waited 45 mins before our first dish was served. And there was no one else except for the group of us. But good food, you just have to wait. And it is definitely worth the wait. Longest record was a 2hr wait.

I opted for seafood hotpot. It was really a superb hotpt of goodies. Fresh prawns, oysters, clams, japanese fish cakes, vegetables, mushrooms, squids, carrots... etc...

The soup base is really superb! I could just eat everything on its own with the soup itself. Served with a bowl of rice and 2 side dishes of pickles and gingers.



The tempura set is massive! Included a bowl of rice with cold tofu. 2 side dishes and a bowl of clam miso soup.



This is the katsu-don. I didn't try it because I was too busy drinking and finishing my seafood hotpot. Don't believe me? That's me ... sipping the soup to the last bit.














But there's always room for desserts. Hand made ice cream.

There are many flavours to choose from. We decided on green tea and black sesame. Very artistically arranged with fresh fruits. First bite of the green tea ice cream, very cooling... is not cream based but pure mocha with ice.

The black sesame flavour tasted more of mochi.













Some miscellaneous stuff I noticed during the long wait, the menu is totally in Japanese. Really, there is not a single chinese or english word in sight. But don't worry, the chef and her helper can speak good English. And there's a photo of our President patronising the restaurant with the First Lady, taken together with the owner and her whole family.

Pricing is not steep but of a reasonable amount. Quality and quantity, you need not worry. The only down side is the long waiting time. Suggest you bring along your own entertainment.