Hello Arigato (Everton Park)

superb sando.
good for 2 pax if also sharing sides.

Was excited to try the Everton Park outlet as there is some special item such as cauliflower fritters. However, I feel that although the cauliflower fritter is flavourful, it is not crispy and hot enough.

The toast is also dry, hard and not hot. Compared to the Upper Thomson outlet. This kind of lose.

The Kinako Soy ($5) donut filled with soy bean white chocolate cream had a subtle nutty taste. Amping up an ol' classic, Arigato's Chocolate Chip Cookie ($6.50) was soft, chewy and fudgy with a ooey gooey caramel nestled on top of it that made it both sweet and salty.

Loaded with chicken katsu, melted cheddar, apple slaw and whisky bbq sauce, the outlet-exclusive Whisky BBQ Katsu Sando was a perfect savoury sandwich that satisfies. It had a slightly sweet yet smoky and meaty flavour to it with a nice texture and refreshing tang from the slaw. The thickness of the chicken katsu was just nice and was crispy and juicy.

Hello Arigato's 3rd outlet features a doughnut bar with sweet and savoury options. Other than their doughnuts that have been reviewed, there cookies are amazing as well. The Espresso Magic (S$6.50) cookie was perfectly soft, chewy and fudgy with slighty crunchy edges. The molten-filled chocolate top was indulgently rich and bittersweet though missing any hints of coffee.

It seems that the folks of Hello Arigato had enjoyed quite a quick rise of popularity with cafe-hoppers locally; since the inception of their very first location at Upper Thomson, Hello Arigato has been expanding into various hipster neighbourhoods — the first of which would its outlet at Joo Chiat Road. This is would then be followed by the recent opening at Everton Park, taking over the former premises of the now-defunct At The Myo that is located right beside the ever-popular Nylon Coffee Roasters. This would also be the very first outlet of Hello Arigato that is situated at the ground level of a HDB block; their other locations are all housed in the ground level of shophouse units — makes the Everton Park outlet possibly the smallest location of the three outlets that they have. This doesn’t stop the folks at Hello Arigato to recreate that same Japandi-esque vibe that adorns its other outlets at the Everton Park location; while the outdoor seating space can be described as claustrophobic for some, the indoor dining area is spaced out rather reasonably. Despite the small space, Hello Arigato is still able to serve up some outlet-exclusive items that are only available at their Everton Park outlet — there has always been an emphasis by the folks of Hello Arigato to serve up some different items at each outlet whilst maintaining some crowd favourites that can be found at all their locations. Outlet exclusives at Hello Arigato Everton Park for their day menu includes the Whisky BBQ Katsu Sando and Kong Bah Sando from the Sando menu, while the sides that are exclusively available at their Everton Park location includes Cauliflower Fritters and Salted Egg Tater Tots. Hello Arigato Everton Park also sees an entirely exclusive lineup of Milk Doughnuts as well, which comprises of both savoury and sweet flavours; there are also cube cakes and Artisanal Shokupan as well. Beverage options include Matcha, Houjicha, espresso-based specialty coffee, Sodas and Beers — just to name a few.

Having known that the Milk Doughnuts is an offering that is only made available at their Everton Park outlet, it is needless to say that we had to give the Milk Doughnuts a try during our visit to Hello Arigato at Everton Park. It was not easy to decide on which of the Milk Doughnuts that we would like to give a go on — there was just simply a wide variety of flavour to choose from. We eventually opted for one sweet Milk Doughnut, and one savoury Milk Doughnut; this is especially considering that bombolone-style donuts are quite a difficult find despite multiple establishments jumping onto the bombolone hype, serving various renditions or sweet bombolone-style donuts. The J Curry was our choice of savoury donut here, comprising of elements such as tender chicken cubes, carrots and homemade Japanese curry as mentioned in the description of the item stated in the menu. On hindsight, the J Curry served in its form of a Milk Doughnut was a very genius creation — coming with fried bits on the exterior, there was already some likeness between the J Curry Milk Doughnut and the typical Kare Pan (i.e. Japanese Curry Bread); it is noted that the Bombolone itself whilst crisp on the outside, is fluffy inside without particularly greasy. Generously filled with a homemade Japanese curry within, the Japanese curry was nothing short of being thick, rich and flavourful — an utter delight to have it on its own even without the bread, whilst coming with bits of carrots and chicken chunks for a slight crunch and a meaty bite. We especially liked how the Bombolone itself was pretty much a vehicle for all the curry gravy that is left on the wrapper — just tear off a little bit of that Bombolone and just mop all of that curry gravy up; an item that we truly enjoyed having.

Hello Arigato had pretty much went from strength to strength with the opening of each new outlet — it is well-noted that Hello Arigato isn’t exactly a concept that is part of the initial wave of cafe culture in Singapore (though they are by the same folks whom had run the now-defunct The Refinery at King George’s Avenue previously), Hello Arigato had garnered quite a loyal following since the opening of their very first location at Upper Thomson. It seems that Hello Arigato has jumped on the hype train of minimalistic, Japandi-styled cafes quite at the right time, focusing its menu on Japanese Sando; sometimes with a local touch, that is pretty much the trendy food item during the time where Hello Arigato was first established. The folks at Hello Arigato has also managed to maintain the quality of their food with the opening of each outlet — the items usually come at a consistent quality across every single outlet, while there is some emphasis to always carry something different with the opening of each new outlet. Case-in-point would be the other items that we had went for during our visit to their Everton Park outlet; the Teriyaki Chicken Sando that we have had was nothing short of comforting with toasty yet fluffy Shokupan with a slab of teriyaki chicken coming with enough sauce and some lettuce for a good balance. Meanwhile, the Salted Egg Tater Tots were almost reminiscent of the Salted Egg Onion Rings previously from The Refinery; though we felt that they could have been more generous with that salted egg sauce, we liked how they had included fried cereal bits in this one for an extra hint of fragrance we had with the crisp taters tots. Prices of the food at Hello Arigato Everton Park is consistent with the outlets at Joo Chiat and Upper Thomson, and are pretty reasonable for a cafe — the Sandos being priced between $14 to $26; the most expensive being the Gyu Sando, while the Milk Doughnuts are priced from $4.50 for the Classic Milk to $6.50 for all the savoury flavours. As with all Hello Arigato locations, the Everton Park outlet is a spot worthy of making a visit specially for it, though do be prepared to be placed on the waiting list to queue for a seat if one makes a visit during brunch service on weekends.