Waku Waku

346 Little Bourke St
Melbourne, VIC 3000
https://www.wakuwaku.au/

Waku Waku is super popular. Its cute little bear mascot, as well as the promise of Australia’s first ever Hokkaido soup curry, draws queues out the door every night of the week. But is the food here actually any good? Or is it just the illusion created by the tiny space and its fortuitous centre-of-the-city-centre positioning? Honestly? I have mixed feelings about it. There’s a good variety of dishes here, and they do indeed make a lovely Hokkaido curry. But generally speaking, the food is on the ordinary side, though you can’t really complain given the convenient location and fairly reasonable pricing. All things being equal, I’d rather eat at Mr Ramen San or Shanghai Street Dumpling – both of which are next door and have much shorter waits. But if you’re after a bit of variety, you could do worse than Waku Waku.

Rating: 11.5/20 – easy fun.
The best part: the mascot. it is SO CUTE. if you started selling merch you’d make a mint, just sayin’.
The worst part: the door is kept wide open and that is no fun in winter, as the restaurant is too small to escape the chill.

Their specialty – the Hokkaido Soup Curry – is easily the best thing I tried from their menu. It’s fully customisable with a range of proteins and curry flavours, though the classic Signature Soup Curry with Charcoal-Grilled Chicken Leg ($19.5) is an ideal place to start. The addition of medicinal herbs bequeaths the broth with a virtuous, restorative quality, as does the generous amount of winter vegetables. The grilled chicken itself is swooningly tender, the charred smoky-sweet skin adding a note of decadence to an otherwise virtuous meal.

The Unagi Omurice ($23.5) looked amazing, but the taste unfortunately did not live up to expectations. Though the eel was pleasantly plump, it was undercooked and still had a fishy edge to it that could be tasted even over the glaze. The special sauce was also a bit of an odd one, reminiscent of a gravy flavoured with tonkatsu sauce. Still, the sweet and slightly tangy combination was tasty enough, especially mixed with the rice and creamy egg omelette.

The Black Pepper curry with Slow-Cooked Wagyu Beef and Omurice ($27.5) was a treat, the beef satisfyingly tender and fatty. The gravy leant towards light and fruity, and definitely did not boast nearly as much black pepper as I’d hoped. Still, a big step up from the omurice.

I couldn’t resist the temptation of the Sushi Hot Dog ($18), and as I had expected, it’s attractive in a gross, over the top way. It’s basically a giant sushi roll filled with a bit of everything (and plenty of spicy mayo), then tempura battered and fried. It’s heavy enough to be a main for one, or more wisely, shared between four as a snack.

For a more sensible starter, you can’t go past the Japanese Potato Salad ($6.5) – a moreish combination of potato, frozen veggie mix, and plenty of kewpie mayo.