Viet Cafe by Waraku

Many of us are familiar with Waraku and Pasta de Waraku, but I've never heard of its sister restaurant till recently. They recently opened a branch at Square 2 but it's so well hidden that I didn't know it existed until one of my friends pointed it out (don't really go to that corner).

Mixed fresh rolls ($6.80)

I'm a big fan of the fresh Vietnamese rice rolls, and so we had them as a starter to share. It's a mixture of chicken and prawn, with 2 kinds of dipping sauces. I didn't like the minced chicken cos it was a bit mushy and clumpy, but the prawns were nice and fresh.

Btw, they're really easy to make at home - I eat them about twice a week for dinner. Just need to get the dried rice paper from Cold storage, lettuce and Japanese cucumbers, tung hoon (used to substitute the noodle portion of this), either fresh or frozen prawns, +/- lean pork and roll everything together. For the dipping sauce, you can use this recipe. I don't like lime so I use white vinegar instead.

Chicken Vermicelli Salad ($10.80)

 I had the chicken vermicelli salad (in essence, it's the dry form of pho, which I usually eat since I don't particularly like chickne pho). The dipping sauce (nuoc cham) has a very strong lime taste, and was a bit too sour for my liking. What I did like about it was the loads of crispy vegetables, herbs, cucumbers, beansprouts and crushed peanuts.
I really think that chicken pho doesn't taste as good as the beef one, so I tend not to to order the soup version of the noodles.

This is the spicy beef pho, which of course, I didn't try ($11.80) but according to my friends, this was pretty good. The website says that they boil the soup for 8 hours daily, just like Ramen soup!

Crispy Wings ($6.80)

It's really not bad with the 50% discount (just need to post on face book when your'e there, and you'll get a voucher). Plus its still relatively quiet (a rarity especially in the Novena area, during lunch hour) and peaceful. Of course, I think that I've had better Vietnamese food elsewhere but this has filled the void for Vietnamese food in the Novena area. (I'm told there's one in the Velocity Kopitiam, but I've never been there).

Viet Cafe
10 Sinaran Drive, Square 2
#01-07