So a small confession – I’ve been off my stringent diet and exercise regime since November, and I’m pretty sure I’ve put on two kilos back on as a result. Given, the reason I wasn’t dieting or exercising three to four times a week was because: 1) I got married; 2) I was on my honeymoon; 3) Christmas holidays…and they’re good enough reasons in my book! However, not hitting the gym did mean that I missed out on opportunities to have dinner in Chatswood after a heavy gym session.
Luckily, Christmas shopping still gave me an excuse to be at Chatswood after working hours! K and I dropped into the newly opened Makoto Bento (sister restaurant of Makoto – read my review) one evening after work before we started doing some Christmas shopping for his family. Located upstairs in the new Chatswood Interchange, it suffers a bit from a sub-optimal location as it’s on the other side of the station from the Westfield shopping centre and doesn’t have the same amount of foot traffic.
Lured in by the reasonable prices, we took a seat, perused a menu, and quickly placed our order at the counter. K’s torotoro pork bento came out in the first five minutes, huge chunks of soft and tender slow-cooked marinated pork belly resting on a bed of rice. We were very impressed with the quality and quantity of the side dishes provided as well – fresh salmon sashimi, house-made pickles, tempura prawn, gyoza and karaage chicken made for a delicious and relatively well-rounded meal.
My experience was more disappointing. My order of the sukiyaki beef bento was lost and after a half hour wait, I had to go back to the counter and remind the waitress of my order. Fifteen minutes after that, after I had watched K eat his whole bento box, I finally received my meal with fervent apologies from the wait staff for the delay. Luckily, the stewed sukiyaki beef was delicious – mixed in with onion, shallots and mushrooms, it really hit the spot…and so it should, after the long wait in which I got progressively hangrier.
I’m hoping that the delay of my meal, and loss of my order altogether, were simply teething problems as Makoto Bento worked through the hiccups that inevitably accompany the grand opening of a new restaurant. The dinner bento boxes are such good value that I would definitely see myself going back for a post-gym dinner in the future…so long as I don’t have to wait forty-five minutes for a meal!
Wow – such great value! Those bentos look huge! I think the sides look even nicer than the main meal, hehe.
Shame about the long wait, hopefully it was just a once off problem for them! :)