Wawa's Ramblings

street leading from the train station to nara park

Nara Park is home to hundreds of freely roaming Sika deer. These deers are messengers of the gods in Shinto and is a symbol of the city. We bought a few packets of the deer biscuits and lots of deers followed us around, asking for more food. Although the deers were generally gentle, the bigger ones can get a wee bit rough when they get a whiff of the biscuits. We had deers nudging us and a couple even putting their snouts into our jackets! Such greedy deers.

Beware of angry deers!

Todai-ji Temple is a Unesco World Heritage site. It is the world's largest wooden building and houses Japan's largest Buddha. Since we were pressed for time, we did not go inside and just peered through the gates to get our shots of the temple.

Sketching Todai-ji temple

Another main attraction in Nara is Kofuku-ji Temple, a five storey pagoda. Unfortunately, we did not have a good stand-alone shot of the temple.

As usual we spent time in the shops, oogling at the local tidbits. Persimmons were in season and we bought some nice preserved persimmons in a bamboo case and more mochi. On hindsight, Co regretted not getting the samurai sword as a keepsake.

Overall, Nara is a recommended day trip from Kyoto and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Labels: japan, nara, travel

The beef was quite oily

Not so tasty yakitori

Labels: japanese food

This was followed by crab tempura. Perhaps the crab should not have been cooked this way as I could hardly taste the sweetness of the crab like in the first course.


The final course was crab mini pot and crab chirashi sushi. I enjoyed the chirashi as the rice not only had the perfect consistency but also was very tasty with a generous serving of crab meat, prawn, sashimi and roe.

Finally, dessert was a custard pudding. Wow, that was a lot of food but of course this was shared with Co and C.

By the time we finished our lunch, it was just in time for their daily teatime specials from 2.30-5.30 pm. For only $5/- you get to choose a dessrt and drink. Normally the desserts cost around $6-$10. Co had the Kushiyaki Atsu (grilled ice cream) and C had the dessert Mori. The dessert Mori consists of macha mochi with soy bean powder and red beans, custard cream topped with fruits and vanilla ice cream with mango sauce.

Labels: japanese food, lunch

Even though we were quite stuffed after the meal, we had to end on a sweet note and ordered the macha (green tea) and goma (black sesame) ice cream [$3 per portion].

Overall, a very satisfying meal and we will definitely return to try the other items on the menu. The lunch sets are truly value for money and the same set can cost a few dollars more for dinner. Service was generally polite and efficient and our cups of green tea were never empty.

Labels: japanese food

Pot of chilli before placing in the oven for 11/2 hours

Labels: chilli con carne, home cooking

I really savoured the Japanese breakfast of rice, pickles, grilled salmon and miso soup. The rice was so fragrant and soft, topped with little bits of seaweed. I could just eat the rice and pickles for all three meals!

The real thing - Westin's breakfast set

I wish we had taken more photos of the food we sampled but we were not sure whether it was proper etiquette to take photos of the food, especially in the smaller eating places. We really hope to return to this fascinating city in the near future.

Labels: kyoto

Labels: home cooking, lamb

We had two bottles of French red wine from their Sunday List, a Chateau Maris 2001 ($37) and Domaine Combebelle 2000 ($35). The restaurant offers a selection of wines from the Sunday List, where prices are up to 40% off the normal list price.

The antipasto platter and charcuteria plate went very well with the toasted bread. The donuts with the nutella fondue dip was absolutely scrumptious and we requested for another plate of toast just to spread the remaining nutella dip. I liked the presentation of the fondue in this little Staub saucepan. So cool!

For dessert, we wanted the molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream ($11) and the restaurant happily obliged, even though it was not on the brunch menu.

The waiters were friendly and hospitable and kept refilling our glasses with ice water throughout the 4 hours that we were there. I highly recommend this restaurant for the food and excellent service staff who are always attentive and cheerful. A couple of the waiters recognized us from our previous visits and greeted us with a wave and smile. General Manager and Executive Chef Travis Masiero was away on vacation but when he is around, he can be seen mingling and chatting with the guests. We had the opportunity to talk to Travis on our previous visits and liked his warm and affable personality. We were delighted to know that the restaurant also welcomes pets, and even have supper dishes filled with water for our canine friends, so on our next visit, we will bring our 2 chihuahuas! The food is not cheap as the restaurant uses organic produce and servings are smaller than those in the sister restaurant Brewerkz, but you can be assured of quality food and excellent service. Great place to just chill out and enjoy a meal with family and friends. Definitely our favourite restaurant and wine bar.

Labels: brunch, wine