Totally unfamilar with that area, my attempt to locate her shop wasn’t exactly easy as Chako is nestled in a deep corner of Hong Leong Garden Shopping Centre and rather well-hidden among the several other bigger Japanese restaurants within the building. Plus, the overly-simple fully-enclosed (san glass windows) frontage didn’t help much either.
When I finally found the place, I was pleasantly surprised. The shop heavily exude the old Japanese eatery charm that I didn’t imagine to find in Singapore . The decor also totally reminded me of one of those old tiny cozy shops in Japan.
Hisako-san runs the shop like her own home kitchen and she cooks alone in her shop that seats about 30. So to have a taste of Hisako-san’s cooking, merely making a reservation is not too sufficient. She will greatly appreciate if you pre-order your food over the phone as well. The reason: Hisako-san only prepares what is ordered. As it was my first visit, she had her husband- Karim emailed me the menu. And he also ended up calling me several times to follow up on my order.
As for the food, the taste and presentation are very home-cooked and unpretentious way with the favor somewhat leaning a little towards local flavor (she was overly generous with pepper in the food). But her menu is surprisingly quite a decent spread of the usual Japanese fare. We had a mix of everything from the more unusual Fish Hamburg (our first time trying Hamburg made from fish) to the regular Oyako-don, Beef Yakiniku, Tempura, Oden, Omu-rice, Koroke and Okonomiyaki. And we also ended our dinner with Hisako-san home-made ice-cream and green tea pudding. Among all we have tasted, the Okonomiyaki was rated my favorite last night. (Again, I was too engrossed in conversation to remember taking photos).
A word of advice, dining at Chako requires a lot of patience. We spent almost 4 hours savoring about 8 of her dishes. She only cooks one dish at a time, so if you are dining in a group, ordering set meal may not be too practical. You will either be staring at your dining companion food or awkwardly eating while your hungry friends wait patiently for their food. That was what I witnessed from our neighboring diners.
Restarant Chako is located at:
134, West Coast Way, Hong Leong Garden Shopping Centre
Tel: 6776-3919
