Pasta Wafu

(3.5 stars) Japanese pasta really came to my attention at Eiju Fusion Japanese Dining in Pyrmont. There, the talented chef Hideki Okazaki puts out a tart lemon foam and shiso-topped mentaiko spaghetti that saw me racing back to the restaurant to eat it again. Mentaiko is a salted spicy cod roe product that comes from Fukuoka City in Japan. It has recently become popular in Japan on pasta dishes where it is combined with butter and topped with nori strips. This is how you’ll eat it at Pasta Wafu in The Exchange. The very name of this salaryman-style eatery, Pasta Wafu, means pasta Japanese-style. In other words, they’re making a low-rent version of Italian pasta classics reinterpreted through a Japanese palate. Jointly owned by Kerby Craig (ex-Koi and Ume) and Hamish Ingham and Rebecca Lines (Bar H and Banksii) the casual, food court-style outlet would probably work better for lunch than dinner. Their Mentaiko Spaghetti ($14) comes with a nori topper, though we added Parmesan ($2) as well to achieve a tasty (cardboard) bowl of pasta that punched umami with no additional seasoning required. Across both the mentaiko spaghetti and the more mildly flavoured Kinoko Spaghetti ($14), the delicate, noodle-like strands of pasta were a silky highlight. The latter dish uses shio koji sauce, made from salt, water and rice koji (the same live mould culture that gives us miso, soy sauce and sake) to enhance richness and help you digest starches against sparse mushrooms and shoyu butter. We added on the suggested Onsen Egg ($4) as well as Parmesan ($2), which took it to a twenty-buck dish. To my eye, this felt poor value for the amount of protein it contained and the cardboard container serving style. It was elevated slightly by being able to consume it against a sake cup of Kunizakari Saika Daiginjo Sake ($16). However when you consider that you can eat Eiju’s version of this dish on quality crockery just a kilometre up the road for an additional four bucks, I don’t see myself returning to Pasta Wafu except maybe for a fast workday lunch.

Japanese / Italian fusion that serves freshly made pasta with Japanese flavours. Pasta itself is ok, the sauce is the star as it has a nice and tantalising flavour and makes the food intriguing. Wasn’t overly busy but the food took longer than expected to be ready. Only real gripe is having to pay $2 extra for Parmesan cheese which is usually available on the table for self serve at pasta restaurants!

The mentaiko butter is definitely my recommendation for this place. It's creamy and you can really taste the mentaiko! The miso fettucine though was disappointing, it tasted like ordinary spaghetti bolognese and I couldn't really taste the Japanese fusion in the dish. I put a lot of tabasco on it so I can taste something different haha. The portion size is also a bit small as well. But I would come again for that mentaiko butter! The karaage was also really good!

Gave this place a try as the last time I had Japanese pasta I really enjoyed it. This time however I was very disappointed more so because on looks it actually looked very tasty. The biggest criticism was that the pasta was not right. It was not al dente it was undercooked and clumped together. It tasted very starchy and even though I tend to be able to finish food, it was not possible. Even if the pasta I had was cooked well the taste was bland and and didn't have wow factor. Sadly I walked passed fratelli fresh and wish I had gone there instead

Great new dining precinct in Darling Square, area is quirky with modern structures and design. Came on a Saturday night around 7:30pm and food came out quite slow, there was a good wait time but there is a bar/bottle shop directly next door so take your time in looking at your options to have with your meal. Pasta is cooked well done and really soft, ordered the miso fettuccine with cheese and naparitan spaghetti with bacon. It was fine, dishes are something different. The miso fettuccine with bolognese sauce tasted like an Italian dish, so this is best for a “safe” option. The other options have a lot more Japanese influence. Ordered an onsen egg as extra however the pasta was ready long before the egg, which was disappointing so this was cancelled. However staff compensated us quickly with one tiramisu mochi and renkon chips. No cash, card payments only.

Really bad. The mentaiko pasta has a unpleasantly lingering chewyness that is less akin to a fresh al dente texture, but a cooked, frozen, and reheated pasta. The mentaiko sauce is unremarkable in every sense, and I prefer the ~$5 Japanese pasta sauce bags found in Asian grocery stores. The croquette is atrocious. There's no reason for the potato filling to be so hard. It's not just not smooth, it's hard. The onsen egg is alright. And the worst part is with a drink, it cost $30. A waste of money, appetite and time.