Jiak Buay Bah at Waraku Pasta

For those who know Hokkien, the title of this blog entry is very telling,. For those who don't, read on.

Liv and I went to our gyms yesterday evening, respectively. Yes we don't work out in the same gym, for good reasons. We decided to meet up for dinner after our workouts, so I called Waraku Pasta and tried to place a reservation. Liv wanted to try out that place a few weeks ago, but we gave up on queuing and went to eat at Mahattan Fish Market instead, as the queue was insanely long on a Friday evening.

I called at 3 pm, and wanted to make a reservation for two at 8.30 pm.

"Sorry madam, our reservation is closed for the day."

You got to be kidding me, it's Wednesday and the last time I checked, I don't live in Paris.

"I am making a reservation for two only, and it's going to be 8.30 pm, beyond the usual dinner time."

"Ok give me a minute. I'll check for you."

*1 minute of silence*

"Madam, how about I put you on the waiting list? Your queue number is A2."

"Ahur... ok..." I made up my mind to scurry to another dining establishment if they ever try to make us wait for half an hour.

***dinner time***

They managed to give us a table not long after Liv arrived. The restaurant is small, and tables are cramped. I felt that we were seated too close to the table next to us - both tables were almost joined together.

And so we ordered a Japanese minestrone soup, an appetizer consisting of salmon sashimi slices and salad and our pasta dishes. Liv got the one with clams and mine was scallops and asparagus. Both were cooked in white wine since both of us are not fans of cream sauce pasta.

The food was decent, to be fair. The minestrone soup was reasonably tasty and they used fresh vegetables - not from Campbell soup. The raw salmon was fresh (but not to the extent of omg this is shiok) and our pasta was delicious. Liv's pasta tastes of clams and mine tastes of scallops - they didn't just use one type of sauce for all pasta.

However, there was a major problem. The portion was too small. Liv and I looked at each other after the waitress cleared our table, and we agreed that we weren't full at all. Nothing looked interesting on the dessert menu, and it would be silly to order more pasta, so we adjourned to another dessert place in the building to have some Japanese dessert.

That's the first time in my life that I had PASTA, and ended up still feeling a little hungry after that. Geez. They need to do something about the portion. I am quite sure that there are a lot of people out there who eat more than Liv and I do. It's depressing to spend $50 on a meal and feel that we are not well-fed at the end of it.