Takeru - Chatswood

Takeru

For mother's day, we visited Takeru - a Japanese restaurant in Chatswood. Recommended by a friend, expectations were high. We had a booking at 7.30pm and at 7.30pm, we got an apologetic waitress rather than a table - rather disappointing. Nonetheless, we eventually got seated. Service was minimal and similar to Wagaya, ordering is via computer screens.

Being hungry and cold, lots of food arrived on the table in a flash! One of the first to arrive was was ika sumi spaghetti ($10.50). Extremely squid-inky, it was tastey, and left lips and teeth black. Smile!

ika sumi spaghetti - $10.50

The Wafu Spaghetti ($10.90) came with a few tiny, almost pathetic looking, overcooked scallops. BUT, scallops aside, it was nice and creamy and cheesy. As I'm a fan of cheesy creamy pasta, this one was up my alley.

wafu spaghetti - $10.90

One for the dad, a lover of unagi, this was the unagi kabayaki ($14.50). I heard them say it was tasty? Mmm... I'll still skip on this one.

unagi kabayaki - $14.50

The wagu beef steak ($18.90) photo was taken super quickly (and hence the blurriness). Hmm... it was no where near as good as wagyu beef steaks from other restaurants. It tasted rather like ordinary steak - a little tough, a little chewy. None of that 'melt in your mouth' action was happening.

wagyu beef steak - $18.90

This blurr of bonito flakes is actually takoyaki or octopus balls ($5.80). Because there's only 5 of these and there were 7 of us, I was one of the ones who managed to miss out. But no complaints were heard from the others about this dish.

takoyaki - $5.80

In search of the okonomiyaki (which no longer exists on the menu), we settled for the Japanese style pizza ($9.90) instead. I think there was seafood on this - I don't quite remember. Afterall, it wasn't a very memorable dish.

Japanese style pizza - $9.90

Soft shell crab was another recommended dish from the friend. Unable to find this on the menu, we settled for the soft shell crab salad ($8.50). Surprisingly, this was quite nice. But having had awesomeness soft shell crab the day before at Sushi-Ya, it had big shoes to fill. It wasn't quite as good, but nonetheless, it wasn't bad.

soft shell crab salad - $8.50

As two pieces of soft shell crab is not enough to feed 7, we also ordered 2 lots of agedashi soft shell crab with tofu ($7.50). This was quite good. Again, covered in bonito flakes, and again not as great as Sushi-Ya, it still wasn't too bad.

agedashi soft shell crab with tofu - $7.50

Now the following picture makes this dish looks big. It also looked HUGE on the computer screen menu. It's just an illusion!!!

kaisen don - $11.50

The kaisen spaghetti gratin ($14.50) looked and smelt great. It was also sizzling hot and topped with more seafood than most other dishes this night. This spag gratin was sooooooo rich and soooooo cheesy. Even a cheese lover like myself had not made an at-home spag as cheesy as this. Almost a cheese overload. Just almost...

kaisen spaghetti gratin - $14.50

Jap curry was also in order. The chicken katsu curry ($10.90). One of my friends thoroughly enjoyed this (and packed it home because we couldn't finish it).

chicken katsu curry - $10.90

We also ordered the negishio chicken steak ($9.80). Slightly chilli dusted and soy marinated, the chicken was umm... average ish. Kind of chewy and tough, but occasionally a nice piece. I guess that's expected for chicken on hot plate.

negishio chicken steak - $9.80

The hotate ebi prawn cha-han ($11.50) surprised me. Garlicy in flavour with the rice sizzling in a stone grilled bowl and with the odd piece of prawn here and there, this was actually awesome and super flavoursome but in a subtle way.

hotate ebi prawn cha-han - $11.50

Now dessert time. I think I was too excited about my icecream that I completely forgot about the need for photos. Cheesecake and green tea icecream ($6.50) and 2 scoops of either black sesame or green tea or mixed ($4.50) was super super yummy. Mmm ... not too creamy, not too icey. It's super yum! (or maybe I just like almost all icecreams). My dad ordered the ice green-tea latte ($4.50) and was disappointed with it's lack of coffee flavour (until I told them that it actually is just green tea and milk) LOL.

iced green tea latte - $4.50

Overall, ambiance-wise it was a little cramp. The heater was on very high so we were all a bit dozey and sleepy throughout dinner. Service... well... not too great (especially not happy about not getting the table at the reserved time). Nonetheless, I love computer screen menus :) (but I guess Wagaya has more variety). Ooo... and no sushi is on this menu so don't come here if you're looking for sushi.

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - 6.5/10
Overall - 26.5/40

Takeru
Victoria Plaza Shop 10
369 Victoria Ave
Chatswood
NSW, 2067
tel: (02) 9412 1203