WAQU

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  9     

This restaurant has been in my top list since my first try. I have tried about 4 times now and it never disappoint me. The work they put on making food is described as meticulous, very carefully done with creative ideas of course. I am very certain that my money was well spent here.

May 04, 2013 

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  8     

This is one of our top favourite Japanese restaurants. The Kaiseki banquet menu is fantastic. The food is unusual and delicious. We started going here when they were just a new 'hole in the wall' restaurant on Falcon Street which was a bit more intimate than the big dining room they have now.

This kind of food makes me really happy. Because it is such good quality and served in such an artistic and painstaking way it alters the way I eat it. I seem to be much more attentive and deliberate in the way I eat each course - it's food that makes you take more notice.

One a more mundane note it's extremely good value which adds to the feeling of satisfaction at the end. I'm a big fan.

Apr 19, 2013 

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  9     

Had the 6-course degustation menu with matched wines/sake. A lot of effort goes into their dishes, both in terms of the flavours and the presentation. It seems that the only explanation for their low price (for what they provide) was that they hope to build a reputation over time. I am happy to have found it before they do this, since I will probably not be able to afford it if they charged what they could.

I read a review from someone who complained that their screaming 1-year old wasn't appreciated there, nor their wandering 3 year old. I'm happy to say that the environment there was relaxed, allowing for concentration to be directed towards the food and experience. It seems that review might have had a positive effect after-all...The sommelier was great!

Apr 02, 2013 

9.3 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  9      Service  10      Value  10     

Took my girlfriend here for our third trip to Waqu, and if anything it has become even better. The sommelier rivalled those I've had at Tetsuya's and Quay (yes, that good!), with the food very good.

The first course was very brave - a bold combination of flavours which I enjoyed and my partner disliked. Following that, there was not a single disappointment. The combination of good food, impeccable service, and value reminded me that I should come back more often with the seasonal changes in menu.

Feb 15, 2013 

5.3 Average

Food  6      Ambience  5      Service  4      Value  6     

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.

Staff there generally did not seem having a good mood as the ones in other Japanese restaurants who always offer services with friendly and helpful attitude with a smile all the time. Instead they looked a bit stressed instead.

Degustation plates and matching wine was creative and pretty but cant really tell if it is really fused with Japanese essence. Most dishes just look like Australian dish to me. They tasted just all right. Not particularly memorable but just ok. 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 we ordered same course most of the times and we realised the food portion for each plate were always uneven.

As we only had our meal in the private room, we had to judge the ambience for its private room. Actually it is more like a section of the restaurant with gyprocks separating the area near 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 acoustic It is half open, no door for the room which was disappointing. I personally think it is a dismatch 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 anything else other than their set menu. 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 we can literally hear anything out there including the noise from the kitchen. The manager kept on saying they are a 'fine dining restaurant' not a public pub while we could not even complain how noisy their public section was!

Just sharing our bad experience to everyone for your information. I would say this had been the weirdest restaurant we have ever had. We were all very disapponted with this restaurant and will never go back again.

Feb 09, 2013 

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  7     

Went there with my boyfriend and the service was impeccable. We had the degustation menu and he found the serving sizes to be too small! The food was fresh and beautifully presented.

Dec 09, 2012 

8.8 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  10      Service  9      Value  8     

I love the decor, the restaurant looks amazing. The degustation menu was tasty and well presented. The staff were friendly. Overall, I feel like I got value for money, thumbs up.

Dec 02, 2012 

5.3 Average

Food  3      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  2     

Tried the 7th Anniversary 7 course degustation menu at $60 per head (normally $72). I was really looking forward to it due to all the great reviews posted. After trying the 7 course meal I'd summarise the food as bland and overpriced. The venue and the service were good but for that kind of price I’d rather be impressed by the food. Suffice to say my wife and I will not be going back.

The food portions were very small and disappointingly tasteless. The restaurant seemed to place a lot of emphasis on the presentation of the food (think Masterchef with circular drawings with coloured sauce on large mostly empty white plates) rather than delivering a tasteful meal. Summary of each of the 7 courses:

Course 1: Oyster Starter - Served in a shot glass. Tiny oyster half the size of my thumb, filled with yellowish jelly to halfway. I’ve never seen a fresh oyster that small. The jelly was extremely sour. 2/10

Course 2: Artichoke Soup, mushroom puree - Served at the same time as the rock-Oyster, in a half filled cocktail glass with about 40ml of soup. I tasted an average mushroom soup. No hint of artichoke. 2/10

Course 3: Prawn Primavera - Only two small prawns and 2 scallops the size of a 5c piece. Plated very nicely though with all the different colours in it. 3/10

Course 4: Cured Salmon - Long slice of salmon with 3 different sauces on offer. The squid ink sauce was tasteless. The shungiku sauce was average. The third sauce (which the name escapes me) was like eating a teaspoon of sea salt. Ended up eating the Salmon mostly by itself. By this stage I’m getting embarrassed for suggesting this restaurant as my wife is not impressed. 4/10

Course 5: Pan fried barramundi - Barramundi was cooked rather nicely, and was juicy enough to fall apart with 1 chew. The skin was fried to a thin crisp, with a nice sweet sauce applied to it. Other than that the plate was empty apart from a few pine nuts, tiny sprinkle of soba seed crumble and splash of sauce drawn like the ying and yang symbol. If it was an art exhibition I might have been impressed. By now I’m praying that the pork loin will blow me away. 7/10

Course 6: Three times cooked pork loin - For the main course I was disappointed the moment I saw it. The portion was a small triangular cut, with the narrow end extremely tough (had difficulty cutting!) and the larger end was all pork fat. Only the middle portion of the cut was really edible. The skin crackling was way too thick, and I was denied the satisfaction of the instant ‘crunch’ you get when you first bite into crackling. Pork jus was plain and no different to instant gravy. 5/10

Course 7: Ginger Lemon Tart - Probably my favourite of the night as at this point I was wishing I’d pick a different restaurant. The biscuit falls apart when cut with a spoon and the taste of meringue goes nicely with the ginger and lemon. Smaller bits of mango and orange add to the flavours. 8/10

Nov 19, 2012 

8.8 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  9      Value  9     

Really pleasant evening. The service was attentive and friendly, and the early bird special was great value. Perfect portion sizes and the flavours were amazing.

Oct 24, 2012 

8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  7      Value  9     

Went to Waqu last week and overall was pretty impressed. A little slow on the cocktails, and it seemed like they might have baked the sour dough side from scratch, but the service was very friendly and it made up for the couple of slips.

The Degustation menu is really good value at $55 for the early birds, and I can recommend the matching wines. The som was very clear with his explanations, and wines were great. It was a big risk to match the barramundi with a cab merlot, but they somehow managed to pull it off. The wagyu was amazing!

I'm looking forward to coming back to see the next seasonal change, but I think my next visit will be well before then.

Sep 24, 2012