If one is a huge fan of Hashida Sushi, one probably would have heard of the dessert cafe opened by master chef Hashida. Who is also known as chef ‘Hatch’. But to call Hashida Garo a dessert cafe is not entirely correct because they serve food on top of sweets too.

As I made my way to Hashida Garo, I was a little surprised to find a full-height glass shop front. Allowing many curious by-lookers to stand and watch what’s happening within. The first thought that came into my mind was “Wah, so open. Like exhibition.” Which I later came to realised was an ingenious idea as many curious by-lookers ended up dining at Hashida Garo after they continued to check out the menu.

I have since visited Hashida Garo twice. One at 12pm for lunch and another at 2.30pm for hi-tea. Breakfast menu is available from 10am to 3pm, lunch’s from 12pm to 3pm and dinner is from 6pm to 10pm. Reservation for lunch is recommended especially if one only plans to come after 12.30pm cause the crowd streams in around 12.30pm.

  
  

Upon seated, the staff brought out trays with a glass of iced water, towel and chopsticks for us. We were told by the staff that the paper wrappers on every pair of chopstick were personally pasted by chef Hatch and staff. And they call it the ‘fortune cookie chopsticks’ as there’s a little note on each wrapper.

And from the menu (pages 1, 2, 3, 4), we ordered:-

1) Extravagant lunch, $90 comprised of:-

(A) Appetiser (above) – Comprised of slices of smoked duck, mashed potato (super good, by the way!) and greens.

(B) Main (above) – “Miyazaki wagyu A5 tenderloin, rice bowl, miso soup. Unfortunately, for people who don’t take beef (like me), they won’t be able to replace the beef. However, my girlfriends who got to try the main were raving about it. They said it was oh-so-good.

(C) Dessert (above) – Today’s sweets with matcha. And for the matcha, we were treated to a presentation where the tea master would prepare the tea in front us. If ordered from the a-la carte menu, it costs $30. Well, it’s not really a private presentation. Cause of the seating layout, everyone will be able to witness the tea ceremony. Our matcha took a little long to come but the tea master told us it’s because she had to wait for the water to boil. Unfortunately, we were not told we could choose our sweet and was given a ‘fu manjyu’ (item 7).

2) Unagi ippon, $19.80 (above) – Grilled eel, shredded egg, shredded dried seawee, sichuan pepper, unagi sauce with sio-konbu, shihazuke and takuan pickled accompanied with rice and miso soup. This was ordered from the breakfast menu which is available from 10am to 3pm. So good. One may say the portion is small, but I disagree. Rather, it’s so good that one wants more. And at $19.80 (only), this is very good value with 3 pieces of sea eel!

  

3) Oz-onigirazu, $22 (above) – Assortment of seaweed wrapped rice sandwiches with daily variety of fillings in new style onigiri. Served with miso soup. And for the fillings, duck, salmon and beef were given. I would say this is more of a ‘comfort food’.

4) Mizu manjyu, $15 (above) – Water dumpling. And within the dumpling was mango and white bean paste. We were told to have the dumpling along with some of the mint juice. This was something new (for me) and I would say I wasn’t too used to this unfamiliar dessert.

5) Chocolate yokan, $5 (above)

  

6) Merlion monaka, $5 (above) – With white bean paste as the base, the green cream was a mixture of kaya and miso, while the white cream had white chocolate. And this was so good. We were treated to a explosion flavour of savoury and sweetness. A must try.

7) Fu manjyu, $4 (above)

8) Hokkaido cheese cake, $3 (above) – This was so good! Light, fluffy and slightly sweet.

9) Mochi, $6.80 (above) – Only available after 3pm. I love my mochi and this did not disappoint. The skin was delightfully chewy. I liked how chocolate was used instead of the typical red bean paste. A must order!

10) Macaroon with options of:-

(A) Special foie gras, $12 (above) – I am one of the stubborn fews who don’t believe savoury should be used in sweets. But this changed my mind. The macaroon shell crumbled nicely in the mouth. And just when I was wondering where’s the foie gras, the taste hit me (sharp and beiefly) once the filling came into contact with my tongue. So good. But at $12 a pop, one may find this pricey. I say share one (foie gras macaroon) with a friend to go easy on the purse. Haha.

(B) Hoji tea, $3.50 (above) – I did not like this. The texture of the macaroon shell was not good; Too hard and did not crumble nicely.

11) Green tea (above) – Those who prefer to enjoy the tea at a more affordable price (without the tea ceremony), one could get the green tea, black tea or vegetable tea instead. And one order entitled us to 2 cups. 1 cup was served immediately after we placed our order, and the second cup was served a little later. Which was great cause it ensured our drink was always warm since we don’t gulp down / finish our drink immediately. And from the 3 different types of tea leaves available for green tea, we went with tamaryokucha ureshino ($5).

Hashida Garo indeed provided a different dining concept. I especially enjoyed seeping my green tea, enjoying the sweets as I chatted away with my girlfriends in the mid afternoon. That’s also when the place was not crowded.

One can also be assured of the quality of the sweets as we were told by the staff that chef Hatch insists on making every desserts personally. And it’s probably because of this that if one comes for lunch, not all of the sweets on the dessert menu will be available. Taking the macaroon’s flavours as an example. On the day we came for lunch, only the foie gras and hoji tea were available. But as we left the place at 2pm, chef Hatch shared that he was in the midst of baking more macaroons.

However, they may want to be careful of the songs played. On my second visit, they were playing pop songs which was slightly out-of-place especially when there was an ongoing tea ceremony.