Hello, friends! If you live near Upper Thomson, you'll know how blessed you are to be living close to a place which so much food! There are always new cafes popping up, and since I live in the area I love to go check out the new eateries. One new cafe that's been growing in popularity is called Hello Arigato which serves Japanese comfort food and is best known for its Japanese sandos.

My boyfriend and I planned to have dinner at Hello Arigato a little last minute on a Friday night and did not make any reservations. Knowing that it was going to be very crowded, we rushed down around 6.30pm right after work ended for the both of us. When we were there, the staff told us that there were no seats available inside and asked if we were fine with outdoor seats, and we said yes. The outside is actually very cooling at night and more peaceful compared to the inside!

We ordered the Katsu Sando (S$16) that consisted of freshly breaded pork katsu, grilled pineapple, tonkatsu sauce, and Japanese milk bread. The sando was very delicious and it's really no wonder people go crazy for it! The pork katsu was extremely juicy and I loved the overall sweet and sour flavours. The katsu was also quite light although it managed to fill up our stomachs a little bit.

After we were done with the Katsu Sando, the Kinoko Pasta (S$16) was served. The Kinoko Pasta was a plate of spaghetti served with smokey wild mushrooms, special soy reduction, and spring onion. This was a Vegetarian option and I was initially not keen on ordering this, but the staff told us that she personally thought it was very flavourful despite being a meat-free dish. And she was right! I wouldn't have guessed this was a Vegetarian dish - besides there having no meat, of course - but if I were to guess just based on the taste, I would have guessed wrong. The sauce was strong and the mushrooms were smoky. I also loved the sauce which was very savoury and sweet. My only complaint is that the pasta was a little hard.

My boyfriend got the Miso Buta Don (S$18) with Hokkaido pork belly, granny smith apple, spiced miso glaze, Japanese leek, shiso, and Koshi Hikari. He loved this dish! According to him, the dish was flavourful with hints of spiciness coming from the shichimi togarashi spice. The meat was super tender and had a texture where it was slightly burned but tasted so good because of that. The serving of the meat was very generous, although the rice was quite little.

The whole dinner at Hello Arigato cost about S$50 which was very, very affordable. The service was also very quick and the food came out at a steady pace. I think we were also very lucky to be able to get a table on a Friday evening, because after we were seated a few more customers came (who didn't have reservations) and they were either turned away or had to be put on a very long waiting list.

Even if I didn't live near Upper Thomson, I would definitely travel down just to eat at Hello Arigato because the food here is affordable and delicious. I really recommend anyone who loves sandos to try their delicious Japanese sandwiches too.

That's all for today's post, arigato for reading and see you next post!