Watami

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I paid my visit on new year eve of 2013. I called for booking but was informed there will be no booking reserved after 8pm so I booked 7.30pm. When I reached the restaurant, there was quite empty and we were arranged to the seat at level 2.The food were quite good with the priced offered. Recommended the beef don and sushi platter. The small hotpot is not recommended though. Despite that, the service was slow even there's not much customers. The food was served slow. continue reading

For full review and pictures, pls visit:http://madamechewy.com/2013/06/15/watami-at-star-vista/#more-4425Had a gathering with Uni friends who moved to Singapore. R just finished a test so this dinner was also a celebration for him. We went to Star Vista mall, because it was close to R and J’s workplace…and landed up in Watami. I was rather skeptical about dining in Watami, because of the not-so-great reviews on the net. Glad to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food by this casual dining joint.The set meal for 4 ($129++) looked like a feast, so we ordered with glee. Some of the dishes on the menu are fixed while we can choose from a list of options for the other items. The portions were generous and all of us were stuffed.Watami @ Star vista really needs to improve on the service standards though. We sat the back of the restaurant and it was terribly difficult of us to catch the attention of any staff because they were all looking towards the front.Anyways, back to the food. The fixed dishes were:Fresh Caesars SaladIrodori chirashi sushi- Assorted sashimi sushi rice bowlSashimi Mori-Assorted SashimiWafu Touban Steak- Self grilled short ribs.Tempura Moriwase- Deep fried prawns and assorted vegetablesThe items whereby we had options were:We chose Konbu dashi sumo nabe (Konbu sumo wrestler hot pot); the light broth lets the palate taste the freshness of the ingredients.Other hotpot options were Sukiyaki Nabe (Beef Sukiyami) or Doenjang Chige (Spicy Korean pot with pork)We chose Udon over rice, as we felt it would complement the hotpot dish better.The first side dish we had was chicken katsu tamago toji (chicken cutlet with scrambled egg sauce). This is really good fried chicken, and the scrambled egg with stock is super yummy. It was the sizzling favorite of the night.The next side dish was mentai potato pizza. The roe tastes savory, slightly fishy and slightly spicy. The bacon and mayonnaise overpowered the roe though.Desserts were nothing to shout about. The milk pudding had a very soft, silky texture but the flavor lacked a punch. These were not part of set meal, but if you order the set meal, there is a discount of up to 50% for desserts. continue reading

The Chicken Katsu toji at Watami cost only $6.90++ for students on weekday, and its valid till 6pm! It is a super good deal. It is served on a hotplate, which isn't hot at all, but the chicken itself is! The outer layer is deep fried and crispy, with goes perfect with the egg sauce. One minus side is the flour looks thicker than the chicken meat itself. The service is not fantastic as well. Even though there was only another occupied table in the restaurant (ie, the waitress are very free), they are not attentive and it is hard to catch their attention. The speed at which the food is served is fast though. For such a cheap price in a restaurant, it is well worth another visit. continue reading

The Watami Restaurant at Star Vista, located just behind Brotzeit, is the Japanese family restaurant's largest outlet, with a warm, welciming environment and ample seating.We ordered the Watami Salad ($6.90++ for half portion, $10.90++ for regular/full portion), the Fishcake with Octopus ($6.90++), the Wafu Pizza ($10.90++) for sharing between two persons.The Watami salad comprises romaine and frissee leaves served with shredded chicken, shredded seaweed, shredded crispy sprung roll skin and their house dressing which tastes like a blend of 1000 island and caesar dressings, with two shelled shrimps and halved cherry tomatoes for garnishing. A colourful salad that tasted as good as it looked.The octopus fishcake $6.90++ looked big in the photo on the menu but turned out to be a tiny slab cut into six thin slices. It was pleasantly chewy and full of minced octopus but we felt it was rather pricey.The Wafu Pizza has an ultra thin cracker crisp crust like the pizzas served at Waraku. It is drizzled sparingly with cheese, teriyaki sauce and topped with diced chicken chunks. We quartered the pizza yielding two slices each - tasty but not very filling.Overall, we had a nice lunch, with prompt and pleasant service from the mainly Filipino staff.l continue reading

For our girls' night out, we decided on Star Vista as we all work pretty close by. Plus, it's really convenient to access since it's just right next to Buona Vista mrt. My friend who's here for the first time, suggested Watami as she passed by it on her way from the station to meet us. (Good location for your restaurant, Watami!)When we first entered, we were surprised to see no staff waiting to seat us. But fret not! That's because they have an automated queuing system where u press a button indicating the estimated number of guests, and your queue number pops out. Hey, they even show on their screen the current number so u can know how many are ahead of u. Kudos! I like this system I did not even realize that the place is so huge, they even have second storey seating. The fact dawned on me only when I saw people coming down from a staircase in a corner to the right of the entrance. We had only one group of people in front of us so we waited for 10 minutes before our number was called out and we were brought to our table by a staff.- The screen showing the queue numbers at the entrance of the restaurantSince we are four smart, petite young ladies , we promptly decided on ordering the special set for 2 ($59++) to share among the 4 of us. My friend had prior experience with ordering the set and declared that it will definitely be more than enough for sharing. - A little snapshot of the special set menuWith the special set, you get many choices (choosing one each for A-E). You can go to their website to see the special set choices if you are the kind who likes to plan in advance what to eat haha. In total, you get to have 8 items and 2 drinks!The hot yuzu tea is highly recommended. It's really fragrant with the addition of yuzu - you can even taste bits of yuzu inside the tea.The side dish was first to arrive. The hotate butter yaki had seven pieces of nicely grilled fresh scallops which tasted really delicious with the butter and squeezed lemon juice atop. The chopped garlic and shimeiji mushrooms further enhanced the taste. Oishii! - Hotate butter yakiFor our main dish, we had the salmon and flying fish roe with rice in stone pot. The pot is really hot so please quickly stir all the ingredients before the rice gets burnt at the bottom (unless that's your intention). Due to the heat, the salmon & egg gets cooked almost immediately and you can start dishing out the rice. This dish is rather tasty and is a rather huge portion.- Salmon and flying fish roe with rice in stone potFor the hot pot, we tried their new addition, the Korean-style army hot pot. Once again, portion was generous with plenty of vegetables and finely sliced pork. As the additional item, we choose udon which we dunked into the hot pot as well. The soup was slightly spicy and had a bit of kimchi taste to it - not bad. - Korean-style army hot potThe French Fries seemed a bit out-of-place as an item in a Japanese restaurant. Nevertheless, they were pretty good. The fries were crispy and came in a little metal pot along with 2 dips. The ketchup was normal, the other fruit-based sauce is slightly sweet & zesty, a very nice accompaniment to the fries as well.- French fries with 2 dipping sauces- Close-up of the french friesThe half Caesars Salad given was a really large portion. Wah, I wonder who can finish the actual full Caesars Salad bowl?I loved the nicely poached egg provided which went really well with the Caesars Salad dressing. The lettuce were very fresh and plenty of croutons and bacon (tasted a bit like bak kua though, not like regular bacon) were given. I'm pretty sure even if you are not a fan of vegetables, this will be one that you will be tempted to try. - Caesars Salad (half) with hot spring eggTo sashimi lovers out there, I apologize for cooking my salmon sashimi pieces in the hot pot. We wanted the set but it came with sashimi, which only 1 out of the 4 diners here eat. That's one of the reasons why we went for just the special set and not the slightly more expensive deluxe set, as it had a larger platter of sashimi. The sole friend who ate her salmon sashimi properly loved the thick, fresh slices.- Salmon sashimiWe were very full at the end of the meal. But as usual...there's always room for dessert ya? We thus ordered a warm chocolate brownie and a green tea matcha parfait. The desserts were only ok though, not as nice as I hoped. We expected the brownie to be warm, but there was only warmed-up chocolate sauce, the brownie itself was at room temperature. It was also not very rich, just tasted like regular chocolate cake. Presentation wise, they could have used a different colored plate to serve up the brownie. Else, black on black just doesn't make the dish stand out.As for the green tea matcha parfait, it looked good. However, I found the parfait itself to be not cold enough. In fact, I was asking my friends whether there was any ice cream within. I seemed to have just tasted cream. Just an ok dessert as well, nothing fantastic.- Chocolate brownie- Green tea matcha parfaitSo....if you make some good choices for your set meal and share it with your dining companions, this is a really affordable place! I thought it was really worth it for only $20 per pax for such an extensive variety of food and even including dessert. By the way, we requested for 2 cups of warm water, which was free. A truly satisfying meal! continue reading