WADO (Hotel Clover)

Lemon tart, Vanilla Panna Cotta, and WADO’s Savoury dessert

All the desserts are served with the same funky colourful 80s style plating, very unique and makes for a great pic. However the desserts were probably my least favourite part of the 3-course meal. All desserts came with a colourful meringue (very cute, melts in your mouth) and chunky breadcrumbs (tasteless and a little confusing).

The Vanilla Panna Cotta came with a scoop of creamy strawberry ice cream. There seemed to be flecks of vanilla in the panna cotta itself, but it tasted of plain soy milk, and was more of a delicate soy milk jelly rather than a vanilla panna cotta.

The lemon tart itself was overpoweringly sweet, and paired with an extremely sour lime sorbet. When eaten together the result is quite overwhelming, and I couldn’t bring myself to finish half the tart.

The savoury dessert was very odd. It seemed interesting on the menu, but was turned out to be a pile of unidentifiable ingredients, and the candied bacon wasn’t really visible at all. The taste was so weird and indescribable, definitely savoury with a lasting aftertaste. Although my friend finished most of the plate, I don’t think it’s something we’d order again.

Ordered the cod fillet main, but only had barramundi that day. It was cooked wonderfully, very tender and tasty, although the skin wasn’t quite crispy. Also came with a fruity reduction which I wasn’t a big fan of.

Next time I would definitely get the Mentaiko pasta. WADO makes the Mentaiko sauce fresh, and they are very generous with sauce and noodles (the server recommend it should be shared because gelat!). This is the best mentaiko I’ve ever had, big poppy fish eggs with a creamy sauce. It also comes with a whole soft-shell crab, perfect shared with maybe an additional side.

This is one of the best small restaurants I’ve been to, so glad it’s in my neighbourhood. Got the crab cakes appetiser and they exceeded expectations!

Unlike a conventional cafe crab cake, it’s more of a little croquette of crab with a smooth crab filling, rather than a chunky patty. It comes with a perfectly spicy chilli crab sauce. My personal fav crab cakes in SG so far!

Do note that WADO has a max capacity of ~10 pax at a time, so you likely need to reserve weeks in advance. The day I went I believe there were only 2 staff working, so also waited 20 min past reservation time + long wait for food.

And now, we end @wadodining set meal on a high, sweet note. The pedestrian sounding chocolate tart is probably the most outstanding dessert item with just how stupefyingly stellar it is. And that’s already taking into account the fact that one of its listed elements was missing from the dish.⠀
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As mentioned before, Wado only had chocolate ice cream on the night of my visit, which makes this dessert a chocoholics wet dream. It looks like any average tart on the outside, but wait! Cut into it, and a warm, runny chocolate concoction cascades out of the breach and onto the plate. Forget lava cakes, they ain’t got anything on the flow that this choccy tart has.⠀
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The melted chocolatey goodness is subtly sweet, being just enough to satisfy a sweet tooth while being countered by the mild roasty bitterness of a delicious dark chocolate. The tart crust itself is brilliantly buttery & charmingly crumbly, acting as the deeply fulfilling component in the chocolate tart. ⠀
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As mentioned before, the missing element is a berry compote. It wasn’t until I reread the menu that I realised that the compote was missing, but the raspberry & strawberries provided the sharp, sour edge to check the tart’s chocolatey sweetness. Still, if the menu declares that there’s gonna be a berry compote, you should probably include a berry compote in the dish.⠀
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The desserts are most definitely @wadodining forte, and both desserts were certainly carrying the set menu to sweet, sweet victory royale.

@wadodining ran out of strawberry ice cream the night I visited, so I ended up with a chocolate ice cream Eton mess. Not particularly traditional, but my chocoholic self was pretty pleased by this turn of events.⠀
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Other than the chocolate ice cream, it’s a fairly traditional Eton mess. The smashed up, multicoloured meringue bits added a vitally important crisp & crumbly texture to the overall softness of the dessert. The chocolate ice cream is a decent, albeit unremarkable store bought one that goes well with the whipped cream.⠀
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Of course, it wouldn’t be an Eton mess without some berries. A couple of blueberries and a few slices of strawberry add a nice, fruity sweet & sour taste to the dessert, giving it some much needed complexity.

At $32 for a four course dinner with a sizeable salmon fillet as your main, @wadodining set menus are pretty sterling value. Each and every course is quite generously portioned, ensuring that patrons waddle away sufficiently sated.⠀
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The salmon, despite being under seasoned, was exceptionally well cooked. My father ordered it medium, and it arrived just so. Stunningly seared on the outside, while the internals remained moist and fantastically flaky. The skin was thoroughly de-scaled & was fried to an acceptable level of crispness, and the reverse side of the thick fillet sported a scintillating sear. I’ve already reviewed the coleslaw & mashed potatoes on the side, and the quality was constant over the different mains.⠀
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With the salmon, I didn’t mind the lack of saltiness as much as I did with the lamb. That’s mainly due to the thick tomato basil purée that the salmon is perched upon, which gives the salmon a fragrant, herby aroma as well as a nuanced sweet & sour taste. Of course, more salt would’ve been excellent, but oh well.