#1. District 1, Le Thanh Ton Japanese Home-style Restaurant WAKANA Review
WAKANA, a Japanese home-style restaurant, is located in a corner of an alley across from Haagen-Dazs in Le Thanh Ton Japanese Town, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. It is an old restaurant where you can taste a variety of Japanese food at a reasonable price, and everything on the menu is delicious, so there are many regular Japanese customers.
Smoking is allowed in most Japanese restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City, but WAKANA also allows smoking second floor and corner of the first floor, and has non-smoking seats only at near the entrance of the restaurant. Visited alone for dinner on a Monday evening and took a seat in the non-smoking section.
Since I visited a Japanese restaurant, so I ordered Sapporo draft beer. They sell a variety of Japanese alcohol, such as sake and sweet potato shochu, by the glass, so it looks like a good place to visit to try various Japanese alcohol as a side dish with Japanese food.
I ordered KOROKKE(Japanese Croquette) as my first food. A typical Japanese croquette made with bread dough and potatoes fried to a crisp, served with a salad.
The inside was filled with soft, salty, and savory ingredients such as potatoes, minced pork, and onions, and the crispy batter was drizzled with sweet and sour pork cutlet sauce. I can't say it had a special or outstanding taste, but it was a standard croquette you can get at a Japanese neighborhood restaurant.
For my second dish, I ordered Fried Sliced Pork & Minced Green Onion. Grilled pork is the main dish, and the plentiful menu includes soft tofu & kimchi, cabbage & cucumber pickles, chawanmushi, steamed sweet pumpkin, rice, and miso soup.
The pork used was pork belly and shoulder meat, and it was seasoned really well with salt and pepper, not too much or too little. There was a lot of finely chopped onions on top of the meat and a slice of lime was also served.
If you sprinkle lime juice evenly before eating the meat, it will reduce the greasy feel a lot. It was delicious to put a lot of chopped green onions on top of the meat and eat it as a side dish with rice, or just eat it as a side dish with alcohol.
Chawanmushi contains ingredients such as Narutomaki, ginkgo nuts, and shiitake mushrooms, and it tasted better than I expected. The other side dishes included in the set meal, such as soft tofu & kimchi, cabbage & cucumber pickles, were not bad and were good to eat with meat.
#2. Japanese Home-style Restaurant WAKANA Menu
Japanese restaurant WAKANA serves a wide variety of Japanese food, including sushi, sashimi, pork cutlet, oden, skewers, tempura, ramen, and curry, at reasonable prices. Of course, the taste is beyond the basics, and there are both food that is good with drinks and food that is good as a meal, so it is a good place to visit without burden if you want to drink with a snack or fill your stomach. WAKANA's biggest drawback is that they created menus by taking tasteless photos of actually delicious food.
I visited on a Monday evening to dine alone and ordered the following.
Fried Sliced Pork & Minced Green Onion with Salty Sauce: 175,000VND
Japanese Croquette: 50,000VND
Sapporo Draft Beer: 54,000VND x 2 EA = 108,000VND
A total of 333,000VND plus 10% VAT came out to a decent amount of 366,300VND. WAKANA is a restaurant where you can enjoy a variety of Japanese dishes at reasonable prices. I especially recommend ordering a generous and delicious set meal menu consisting of one main dish, several side dishes, rice, and miso soup for around 170,000VND.
#3. Japanese Home-style Restaurant WAKANA Hours and Location
WAKANA, a Japanese home-style restaurant, is located in a corner of an alley across from Haagen-Dazs in Le Thanh Ton Japanese Town, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. For detailed location, click the Check Location button below to check on Google Maps.
Address: 15a/32 Đ. Lê Thánh Tôn, Bến Nghé, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh
Phone: 0888062299
Hours: 11:00 ~ 14:00 / 17:00 ~ 22:00
Comments