Haato

I had been wanting to eat at this particular Japanese restaurant for some time. Having heard that the ice cream that they served there was nice, I wanted to try it for myself to see how it compared to other Japanese ice-cream, Tom's Palette and even Awfully Chocolate. Imagine my surprise when one day my university friends decided to hang out at Hatto during our three-hour break between classes. I'm currently studying at NUS (National University of Singapore, for the clueless) and Haato is located at Ridgewood Condominium at Ridgewood Close. As my friend H drove, YD, B, AN and I chucked ourselves into her car and headed for the restaurant to chill out and study at the same time.


Haato at Ridgewood Condominium
I heard that there are other branches around like at Wheelock and even at Yio Chu Kang but I am not too sure of their exact addresses as I can't seem to find their website online. Anyway I am so happy to have H, because upon reaching there, I realised that it was really very difficult to find the place. Also, it's located inside a condominum, which makes it rather weird going all the way there just to have ice cream. But it was a lazy Friday afternoon, so there weren't many people inside. The vibe of the place was a rather relaxed one.


The ice cream counter
I was so excited! They had so many unique flavours and I wanted to try them all but I was too "shy".


The flavours
The staff were really friendly though and encouraged us to try the different flavours to find the one flavour that we would be satisfied with.


The sofas and couches available
I know this is a rather dark shot but I didn't dare take more pictures because it is really embarrassing to take so many pictures in public!!


Lychee Martini and Milk Tea
I love the flavours for its uniqueness but I must say that these two didn't make a good combination. LOL. I like the Lychee Martini for its light texture. Furthermore the sweetness was just nice and it was very refreshing on the whole. The milk tea ice cream on the other was creamier, thicker in texture and much sweeter. I like the milk tea alot but the two flavours are so different that it just doesn't do your tongue justice to eat the Lychee after the milk tea when your tongue's been 'conditioned' by the sweeter flavour. You become numb and can't taste the actual texture of the lychee ice cream then.


Rum and Raisins
I know this picture looks gross but it's really because we were too slow in snapping a shot. :)
AN treated us for the ice cream, but if you guys want to know the price, Haato gelato is priced at $3 (UDS$2) (Single Scoop) or $4 (USD$2.56) (Double Scoop). For a take away pack it's $13.50 (USD$8.65) for 650ml or $20 (USD$12.82) for 1000ml. They have flavours like black sesame too. Thumbs up for the unique flavours!


Waffles and Chocolate Ice cream and a game of Chinese Chess
You know what was my favourite at Haato? Yup! You guess right!
It was the Waffles!! The freshly baked aroma of the waffles, coupled by its firm yet soft texture and its crispy nature really captured my tastebuds! I love how the butter and syrup was drizzled all over the waffles. H told me that she could eat two of these waffles at one go. I must agree with her that the Waffles are so addictive! The hot crispy waffles with the cold rich yummy ice cream, really made for an enjoyable feast. YD and B decided not to study during the three hours and engaged in a game of chinese chess combat!! I think the waffles here are much better than Gelaro's waffles and other places. It's by far the best waffles I have ever eaten!


The softshell crab
B has been on a diet recently so he gets hungry at weird timings. Despite all of us being stuffed to the max, B was hungry and we decided to order the softshell crab. Unfortunately there weren't too many pieces. I can't remember how much we paid, but H told me that the portion has shrinked over the years. The softshell crab tasted the same as usual, nothing different or special about it here, apart from the fact that the sauce accompanying the dish is extra spicy.


Another shot of the softshell crab

Ambiance: The ambiance makes you want to chill there on a lazy Friday afternoon. You tend to make yourself so comfortable that when you have to leave, you do so with great sadness in your hearts. After us another family dropped by. We actually didn't want to leave early, but as all of them were eyeing our table, we decided to leave early instead of chit chatting. Not really somewhere where I would bring my date for a date. 3.5/5

Service: The service wasn't too bad. The only thing was that they seemed a little understaffed that day, perhaps due to the fact that the 5 of us came in suddenly! Despite their slow services and the long time involved taking our orders, the staff were very friendly and the people seemed happy. 3.5/5

Food: On the whole the food was good. The ice cream was light in texture and unique in its flavours and I really loved the waffles and to me, it's really value-for-money. I can't recall the price of the waffles or the softshell crab but I reckon it to be within the range of S$4-S$7 for each item. The softshell crab was mediocre. Nothing to remember it by and nothing to cause me to want to forget it. It's really a pity that the size of the food has been shrinking of late. Personally I feel that businesses should always be ethical and never shrink food sizes to cut down on prices. They should be open and frank with customers.

My friend R says he found the ice cream to be of average standard and did not find anything spectacular about it. He found it to be rather bland compared to the other ice creams he enjoyed. I would beg to differ though. It's often unfair if you compare ice creams to each other because every type is very different from the other. Gelatos should never be compared to ice creams and ice creams should never be compared to sorbets etc... Nothing should ever be compared to something that's in a different class/group. Hence this Gelato's texture is really light and smooth, unlike the usual heavy, creamy ice cream texture. That's why you can't compare ice creams like Yammi Yoghurt to Ben & Jerry's. I always wondered why Yammi Yoghurt never seemed to catch on with the other Singaporeans when I love it so much, and I realise that it could be because Singaporeans do not know how to appreciate the different type of ice creams for their different strengths. Perhaps Singaporeans judge using the same measuring stick for entirely different entities and this is obviously wrong. One should never compare across the board because it is never a one size fits all thing! Ok enough with the lecture. I would give the food and ice cream a 3.75/5 overall (4/5 for the ice cream and 3.5/5 for the other food) .

Haato
Contact no: 64649607
Address: Ridgewood Condominium #G1
5 Ridgewood Close Singapore (276696)

Opening hours: 11am-11pm (daily)

P.S. I realised that the initials for this blog is HIMT (Heaven in my tummy), rather masculine huh? I should rename my blog to something with HERT. hahahhaa.... get the joke? Hmmm "Heaven ever run there"? I am so lame...

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