Update 9/24/2013: WAFU: Teppanyaki Omakase Buffet! (@WAFUgreenhills kicks off the Teppanyaki Craze in Manila?!)
There’s a Modern Japanese resto that is generating quite a buzz in the Greenhills shopping area. The interiors are amazingly fun, and the food is so good — even on their soft opening period. It’s perfect for celebrating anniversaries or dining for special occasions.
Check out WAFU!
WAFU Menu: Soups, Salad | Cold Plates, Warm Plates | Entrees | OMAKASE (Chef’s Tasting) | Rice Bowl/ Don Buri, Lunch Bento Box | Combinations Bento Box, Rice | Special Rolls for the Day | Rolls Signature | Nigiri, Sashimi | Beverages | Wines
If you are on a date, reserve the lotus pods in the Mezzanine area. Otherwise, reserve the couch tables beneath the high ceiling. The second floor leads to the Teppanyaki section of the resto.
Complimentary tea is served.
Tiger Roll (8 pcs. – P499). Tempura shrimp inside topped with spicy tuna, negi with tsume sauce.
To start your Wafu dining experience, order from their Rolls Signature Menu or the Special Rolls for the Day. Our Tiger Roll was well-crafted, and we just loved the overall taste with the wasabi and soy sauce.
OMAKASE MATSU (Chef’s Tasting) (P3,000 + 5% local tax)
The pricing is on the high side; if you order ala carte for two people, you’ll end up with a bill of P3,000. We decided to order and share the Omakase Matsu, an 8-course Chef Tasting Menu featuring their best dishes. Request to have it served one course at a time.
Course #1: Miso Soup. Tofu, Wakame, Negi (Serving costs P65).
First up was a serving of hot miso soup. It was really good. 🙂
Course #2: Tako a’la Plancha. Chimichurri, farmer’s veggies, oshinko.
The salad was a nice combination of greens with chimichurri sauce and nicely cooked octopus.
Course #3: Hamachi Sashimi (Half-Portion 2 Slices). Ginger-garlic soy, cherry tomatoes, microgreens (Full serving costs P637).
We loved the taste of the smooth Hamachi Sashimi, complemented by the ginger-garlic soy sauce.
Course #4: Beef Tataki (4 pcs.). Negi, tagarashi, citrus soy.
The raw beef was equally good — thinly sliced, seared on the outside, and it melted in our mouths.
Course #5: Chilean Sea Bass (Half Portion) Pan-seared sea bass, yuzu-truffle sauce, asparagus, potato crisp (Full serving costs P1,280).
Beautifully done Pan-seared Sea Bass — soft, juicy, cooked well. We also loved the yuzu-truffle sauce. 🙂
Course #6: Braised Angus Shortribs (Half Portion). Slowly braised to perfection, served with Wafu’s sweet soy-sake sauce, foie gras, squash puree (Full serving costs P1,065).
Ang sarap rin nito! The beef, served on a bed of squash puree and topped with foie gras, was deliciously soft and had absorbed the sweet soy-sake sauce.
Course #7 Assorted Sushi. Tuna, Salmon, Hamachi, Uni, Unagi (1 pc each) Tamari, Fresh Wasabi.
The savory part of our meal ended with a nice serving of Seafood Sushi. We enjoyed every piece of it. 🙂
Course #8: Kitkat Wafu Style. Our version of the classic LOUIS XV (Serving costs P195).
A fitting end to a Wafu meal! 🙂 It was like Kitkat (although we found the bottom portion a bit too hard).
I’m glad that we are now seeing high-end destination restaurants in Manila that are outside the hotels.
We loved the high-ceiling, luxe ambiance with the lotus pods, and the Modern Japanese food — sarap! 🙂 Check out Wafu and let me know what you think…
WAFU
W-1F New Gloria Maris Bldg.,
Greenhills Shopping Center
San Juan City
Telephone: +632 570-3242
Mobile: +63 917 833-0033
Operating Hours:
Monday to Sunday Lunch:11am to 2pm Dinner:6pm to 10pm
Facebook: WAFU Greenhills
Email: wafughills@gmail.com
Some notes:
Accepts Credit Card.
Adequate parking in the basement.
Service needs to improve though.
Not sure why they used cheap chopsticks.
Live an Awesome Life,
Founder, www.OurAwesomePlanet.com
Follow @antondiaz and Like our Official Facebook Page: Our Awesome Planet 🙂
If you have tips on awesome food and travel destinations, please email me at anton@diaz.ph.
Full Disclosure: I wrote this blog post myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I have no business relationship with any company mentioned in this post or any organization promoting it. As a policy, I don’t accept advertising from food and travel places we feature in the blog. We paid for our meals.
P.S. Rumor has it that the chefs came home from the US after working for Momofoku, or a hotel in New York or in Las Vegas. Can anyone confirm please? Let me know your Wafu experience.
Anton you really have to work on improving your vocabulary. After years of writing food “reviews”, you’d think you can come up with better words to describe the food and dining experience other than “good”, “best”, “nice” and “love”. You owe it to the establishments you feature to give them justice as, unfortunately, the popularity of your blog does make or break a restaurant.
In line with your stumbles concerning recent reviews (i.e. Las Flores and the Jakarta designers), I would just like to point out other instances where I feel that you meant well but you words seem to do more damage than good. For example, when you call The Village Tavern a high-end TGIFriday’s or compare Villa del Conte(?) chocolates to Ferrero Rocher, I can’t help but cringe and feel bad for these high end establishments for being compared to mass produced/franchised brands.
I hope you can take my comments as constructive criticism and improve the quality of your blog so that you can be taken seriously and build credibility in the industry.
Thanks for the feedback and I take them constructively.
I keep things simple and direct to the point. I don’t really intend to “review” but share our experience so that other people can try it.
Anton
This is also a nice Japanese Restaurant. I will definitely try their dishes when I visit in Philippines later. I love sushi of any kind.
I think Anton is not trying to be a wise-ass reviewer or critic but shares his experience under the context of being a dad/family man and a foodie(stereotypes be damned).
Props to you sir for sharing these nice finds.
Exactly 🙂 Thank you for that comment!
Using simple words and comparing these exquisite dishes to food we are familiar with makes it easier for us (the masses) to understand what to expect from these restaurants/establishments.
The question is, who is the writer/blogger’s target audience? The masses? The elites? Both?
I think anyone who has a personal blog (btw, this is a personal blog, right?) can write in any style s/he wants. *Just my 2 cents*
Would love to try this soon! The interior got me excited =D
I just wanted to chime in this interesting discussion. Anton is a friend of mine. I’m just really curious as to who crowned him a “food critic”. A food critic is a legitimate job like Ruth Reichl was for the New York Times. Anton is a blogger who happens to write about his food experiences with his family. His comments are normally very “every Juan” comments and I think this is precisely his appeal. He’s not high fallutin’ or overly elitista in his writing. Parang madali siyang maabot dahil hindi pretentious yung mga observations niya. As a result, a lot of people can relate to him. Having said that, I have made constructive suggestions to him to up the ante on his writing since he does have quite a big audience of followers (those who love him and those who seem to loathe him – why, I do not know). Regardless, I still read his blog because I find out about newly opened places I could check out from it. Frankly, if you reading this blog for free, I think you can give Anton the right to air his thoughts on his blog whether you agree with them or not. If you don’t like him or his writing, get off Our Awesome Planet and read another blog. There are so many of them now…..If I like to read writing that is prose-like, I go to Lori of Dessertscomesfirst; if want straightforward and no apologies style, I read Cecille of Chuvaness; and if I want someone who is really food-obsessed and amusing as hell, I read Jin of Jinlovestoeat. I’m amazed at how hypercritical people are nowadays. No one is perfect. Another two cents!
Thank you Anton for an overall great review.
We will do our best to refine details in making every WAFU customer’s dining experience unforgettable. Chef Chris Oronce’s passion for quality and perfection is passed on to the rest of the WAFU team.
We serve you from the heart, and we treat every customer like family. We hope to see you again. 🙂
WAFU
https://www.facebook.com/wafughills?ref=hl
Tel. No.: 570.3242
i couldn’t help joining the discussion.i first came across OAP in 2009 and had been an avid reader since then.in fact,it has become my inspiration for putting up my own food blog.however,i do not read OAP because of vocabulary nor diction.if i did,wouldn’t bloglife be plain english101 class?you can get that from school in 5months,better yet,thesaurus could possibly quench your vocabulary cravings.if you are looking for new words,this is not the place.try fiction books.
hats off to anton for providing rich information on the newest restaurants worthy of our visit,and on the best places we could enjoy ourselves in.anton owns nothing to anyone,not to any establishment,not to any product.he pays for what he consumes.
now a suggestion: before even thinking of saying anything further,i suggest you first try spearheading 10 successful ultimate taste tests; attempt putting up several weekend and midnight food markets (mercato,soderno,molito,etc….); and be busy creating your own blog just so you can prove us that lack of better vocabulary defines someone’s worth.who knows,by then,we might already believe you.
for now,though,id like to think you are just an insecure backbiter who’s dead green of envy for someone’s humble success.get a life…or again,a thesaurus!
c.udinov : Just because you blogging or commenting does not excuse you from using proper grammer, syntax,capitalization and punctuation. I would definitely not consider Anton a food critic what with his use of the word “yummy” to describe food.
FN : Your comments are extremely constructive and hopefully acted on.
Was the omakase meal for one enough to satisfy the both of you? Were you still a bit hungry after the meal?
Bizman: Look who is talking.
I get your drift but I am sure that was not what your words meant. Apologies for the capitalization, but I was using my phone in commenting earlier. Please spare me of lectures on syntax, capitalization, and punctuation.
SYNTAX
I am not even sure what this meant: I would definitely not consider Anton a food critic what with his use of the word “yummy” to describe food.
SPELLING
It is GRAMMAR, not GRAMMER.
PUNCTUATION
There is always a comma (,) after the second to the last word in a series of words joined by the conjunction AND. So it had to be GRAMMAR, SYNTAX, CAPITALIZATION, AND PUNCTUATION.
CAPITALIZATION
The capitalized words, as you may know, are for emphasis so I would not need to explain.
For refutations, please email me directly at unknownymous2001@yahoo.com. Please email me only if you can gramtically battle with an English major. I welcome challenges. Let us spare Anton’s site of English101 classes. Thank you.
-C. Udinov
Hi Gerry,
The Tiger Roll and the Omakase Meal was satisfying and enough for us 🙂
Anton
Super Thanks Tina for the comment :D!!
Dapat disclaimer, I am not a food critic because I use words like Yummy, nice, cute, delicious etc etc 🙂
Cant please everyone 🙂
C. Udinov: I thought it rude of FN to post that comment. I also found Bizman’s comment about your “grammer” ironic. However, you doomed your own cause when you closed your rebuttal with “gramtically”. Your challenge is boastful and uncouth. You are conceited in your self-proclaimed mastery of the English language. You sir or madame, are also a bully. I despise bullies. If you feel yourself assured of certain victory before you even issue your challenge, then your “challenge” is simply bullying. Beware your vanity! Bizman may yet challenge you to a contest where he or she feels assured of certain victory. Now that would be hilarious!
Thanks Andre for the comment. Ha ha 🙂
Chef Chris Oronce worked at Shibuya, MGM Grand, Las Vegas simultaneously at Mesa Grill, Caesar’s Palace, LV as well. Briefly at Koi, LV. He also worked at Nobu, New York.
Sous Chef Leslie Altura worked with Chef Chris at Shibuya, MGM Grand, also at Yellowtail, Bellagio, Las Vegas. 🙂
Thanks for the info 🙂
Live an Awesome Life,
Anton Diaz
Founder and Digital Publisher
http://www.OurAwesomePlanet.com
looks yummy but so expensive!
LOL. C. Udinov, you really owned yourself with that “gramtically” bit. Too much hubris dude. Just out of curiosity, which college or university are you attending? Ang yabang mo eh.
Sir Anton, I like that you keep your blog simple, direct to the point and unpretentious. It’s not that we can’t take on complicated; I don’t think that credibility in the industry is earned by the use of hoity-toity words alone. Bloggers have different styles and since readers have the ability to choose the blogs they spend their time on and considering we don’t compensate these bloggers for the information we get from them, I’d expect a bit more courtesy and appreciation. If you cringe, don’t read. That’s precisely why I continue to read this blog and not others.
Yummy = Masarap; ok na yun for a foodie. I don’t agree with all of Anton’s opinion in blog. But it’s a good guide. We try, then we form our own opinion. When foodies get together they share and argue, then either we reconsider or not, it doesn’t matter, it’s all in good enough. Let’s not fight, but just enjoy the blog or food, which ever floats your boat. Baka maging “CSA incident” pa Tayo ; ) – disclaimer I know rach and not Anton.
Correction: it’s all in good fun ; )
Well said Hans. I understand what FN’s saying but I don’t agree that Anton’s opinions necessarily “make or break” a restaurant. I think people who chance upon his blog are smart enough to understand that Anton isn’t a professional food critic, nor has he ever claimed to be. He’s a layman who likes to eat and blog about it. That’s it. Take his opinions for what they are and go from there.
I can’t help but agree that all the vitriol against Anton must be spurred by envy, because as far as I know, OAP isn’t on any curriculum. No one is forcing you to read this blog, so if you don’t like it, then leave. It’s that simple.
To be fair to FN, s/he seemed to mean well and the comment was made politely. And to be fair to Anton also, he replied with grace.
I find that we need to be careful about thinking of using correct grammar and punctuation (et al) as mutually exclusive from being “simple, understandable, accessible, relatable, writing like everyday Juan”.
Anton’s following puts him in a position of influence, and people of influence should understand that they open themselves in ways that people of lesser influence don’t need to worry about. Anton is in a position to further develop and refine the food dialogue on the food industry in the Philippines, and I think FN’s input on ensuring appropriate references is valid; doing so HELPS all of us — Anton’s readers — in learning and understanding food a bit more.
Yes, blogs are free and readers have the option to read whatever blog they choose, but the internet is open and everyone — including those who comment on and read blogs — have the option to express themselves. Blog owners have the discretion who to allow and who to screen out.
“Allowing” that comment tells me that Anton is well aware of his position, and is weearing his stature with panache.
THE MOST ENTERTAINING COMMENTS SECTION I’ve read in OAP in a long while, kumps : )
That Kit-Kit Wafu style is the one that interested me here. If it is very much like Restaurant 101’s Louis XV, I’m booking a weekend dinner here 😀 !
BTW, quite an amusing comments thread shaping up here 😛
– Ray
Anton!! was able to try Wafu last night 🙂 sharing my review with you:
http://www.frannywanny.com/2012/10/wafu-japanese-fine-dining-at-greenhills.html
p.s. may special mention ka dun! 🙂
Wow, Thanks for the mention Franny 🙂 Thanks for linking your post too!
Anton
We tried wafu last night and the service was terrible! Definitely not fit for the luxe ambience and food! The main course arrived at the same time as the salad and way before the sushi rolls. We reserved a table for
12 and when we got there, there were only 10 seats set up. We had to ask for things repeatedly before they are brought such as tea, forks, tissue. The food was too salty like the angus skirt steak! (they did bring another order out with half of the original serving that was less salty). The rum cake ordered was so dry and when my dinner companion called our server to complain, the chef who was by the sushi area shouted “ganya talaga iyan!”! very rude!!! And the entrance is so impractical if you want to be dropped off by the driveway – basically a long walk to the door with no cover – super inconvenient for older people (we were with our grandma) and when it’s raining. They better shape up soon!
Wow, FN! Rude much? Where are your manners? You are reading a personal weblog and then complain that it is not to your standards? Choose another url to read then. Jeez!
its amazing sometimes how you could just scroll down after reading the article, expecting to find out if other people agree with Anton’s review, but ending up truly amazed on how readers could be quite emotional. the internet is truly surprising, and entertaining.
ps, bizman, are you mtc?
@wafu i have seen Miss winnie Monsod enjoying every bites of the foods the serves her. 🙂
Yeap Mr Anton Diaz you are right I told my friends its like moving the Shibuya MGM Gran Vegas here in Pinas and a nice spot in greenhillnd Bigs boses of Getz Pharma let go and have a try your confe at Ws.
Doctors aAFU! :)s
Chef Lerma Lingad-Gerolaguin(MGM shibuya)is looking forward to see you guys APril!
*big bosses of Getz Pharma lets go and try to have your conference at Wafu! :)Thanks to Kate Endaya…
if Im not mistaken thats Miss Monsod 🙂 nway WAFU Chefs and crews “Keep the fire going!” Godspee!
love the blog but the haters and nuthuggers alike are annoying as hell. I like the way Anton blogs, I only cringe whenever he brings up how a restaurant should be in BGC. (c’mon not only is it pretentious city but alot of competition too) lol
worst japanese restaurant ever. service is so bad!!! definitely would NOT go back to eat at this place. the service is terrible considering the hefty amount that they charge. food is also small if you proportion it to their price. way too overpriced. if you guys want a fine dining japanese resto toki is the place to go. wafu is really sucks in every aspect from their terrible service to a not so good japanese food.
we celebrated a friend’s birthday at wafu last night. I have tried the angus skirt and I thought nothing was great about it. We also had soft shell crab, california roll, pickled radish roll (forgot what the actual name was), and other kinds of rolls. The tofu steak and chicken teriyaki are the items that my friends liked. But for me, it was just another chicken teriyaki– and not the type that I would crave for.
We didn’t have any dessert. So that may be the only reason why I would go back. But really, the only thing that I loved about the place is the fancy interior. The food is not good. And oh by the way, I’m a picky eater so that would probably explain why I didn’t like any of the food that was served.
same here, im quite picky and i hated the food a wafu. had dinner there last sept 5. their japanese fried rice is nothing compared to kimpura’s. the rice just tasted like butter and was too dry. i had 1 spoon and i just left the rest on the table. good thing i wasnt the one paying :). the beef was ok. the fish so so. the worst dish was the tempura which had batter that was so tough. i think they might have used cassava flour which gives that tough and chewy texture when cold after frying. the tempura at seryna is 10x better. the bill turned out to be about 1,200 per head. it was not worth it at all. only nice thing about the place would be the interiors. i guess that was the last time id visit wafu.