Watami is a popular Japanese casual dining restaurant because of its varied menu offering something for every palate at reasonable prices. Weekday set lunch with miso soup, mini salad and soda is priced from $8.80++.

Opted for Watami's Beef Pepper Rice set meal at $8.90++. The beef arrived raw and had to be mixed with the rice and moved to the base of the cast iron bowl to complete the cooking process. The beef was too streaky and with some tendon so it made for a tough chew. It had not been marinated prior so the beef was almost tasteless without any taste or trace of black pepper. I had to ask for tabasco sauce to season the dish by myself at the table. Usually there is a thin.layer or partial layer of crispy rice crust when rice dishes are served in sizzling iron pot/bowl. This rice crust that I enjoy is not discernible at all at Watami. Either the base of the bowl had been greased so the rice crust could not be formed, or the cook.had added too.much water to the rice, or both. The rice was very mushy and bland, so the meal was really disappointing.

Service was slow and reluctant. Though the restaurant was not at all crowded when we visited after peak lunch hour at 3pm, the staff were either busy fiddling with their cellphones or yakking among themselves. Had to ask 3x before tabasco sauce was brought to us, another 2x of hailing the waitstaff before our bill was brought to us.

Pepper Lunch's rendition of Beef Pepper Rice is by far tastier and served with more & better quality sliced beef.

The bibimbap is priced at $13.80++ and you get to choose the meat topping for the stone pot rice with shredded vegetables and egg. Choose from beef, belly pork, spicy chicken or octopus. It is served along with 6 small saucers of side dishes viz 3 types of kîmchi, tofu, potato saład andikan bills. I had expected strips of beef bulgogi in my bibimbap but omg Seoul Yummy gave me tasteless minced beef. If doing a blind taste test nobody would know he is eating beef bibimbap. They were generous with the rice but alas stingy with the toppings. The side dishes were substandard for a restaurnt. The ikan bills were rock hard and clumped together, not crispy and tasted stale. Next time I should have my bibimbap at the food court instead of Seoul Yummy at less than half the price!

Dropping by at Ngee Ann City on a Monday evening, we were surprised to see the CBTL Cafe that has been around for ages sporting a new overhead signboard marked 'Beanstro'. Beanstro first made its appearance at the upmarket MBS Shoppes at one of the stellar shop locations surrounding the New York artist, Ned Khan-designed 'must see' water feature the Rain Occulus. Basically the same beverage and light meal offerings at any other CBTL Cafe, with the introduction of several all day breakfast items and hot one dish meals PLUS the addition of 10% service charge and 7% GST to the bill. We could accept this practice at the posh MBS and the coveted 'circle seats' just beside the Rain Occulus, but doing so at a more than 1 decade-old shopping mall smacks of profiteering. We walked in only because there were vacant tables readily available.

The chicken salad that we used to order elsewhere now costs $17.70 after service charge and GST.Medium sized portion and quite tasty. The other item was a hot dish under the All Day Breakfast section of the menu - Lamb Stew costing $18.80 after adding service charge and GST. Though the Cafe was not full we were kept waiting about half an hour for this item. This was excessively salty and hard as we tried (to avoid wasting food) we could only finish half of it using the paltry two slices of baguette served with the dish to moderate its highly salty flavour. The staff seemed to be more accustomed to working in a typical self-service CBTL Cafe than a full service Cafe. We had to ask for water before it was served and nobody bothered to refill our empty little glasses. Tired of waiting we went to the service counter (yes, those in all the CBTL Cafes) and helped ourselves at the 2 airpots containing hot and
chilled water.

Half hearted service, ok salad but terrible lamb stew. There are many more other better dining options at Ngee Ann City.

Hungry for fried rice but reluctant to brave the mad crowds at the self serviced food court, we waited in line to be admitted to Kazokutei Japanese Restaurant for rice and udon staples - fast food but served at the table. My order of omu rice with prawn was ready less than 15mins after our orders were taken. It was not piping hot. Omu rice is supposed to be fried rice wrapped up in a thick omelette. That is the version I get at the food court for $4 or $5, and that was also the type of omu rice I remember eating at Kazokutei at P.S. last year. But not here.I was served a mound of fried rice with tomato sauce with a piece of omelette positioned on top to cover the rice beneath. So I did not experience the joy of breaking the usual calzone style omelette to have the fragrance of freshly fried tomato rice wafting up my nose. Even the hawker at any food court's Japanese food stall would take the effort to make a big gomelette and wrap the fried rice inside it. But not at this Kazokutei outlet. The two ebi fry were dry and overcooked, the panko coating was falling off the shrimp, indicating that it hadbeen fried beforehand, then deepfried again just prior to serving. Not expensive at $8.90++ but poorly executed for a Japanese restaurant chain.

Ajisen's Seafood Tom Yum Ramen is very poor value at $11++ with only 1pc of surimi crabstick, 3 tiny mushy hotate & 3 thin slices of squid. Not even a slice of cheap frozen dory fish. Not even half a hardboiled egg & a handful of bean sprouts that usually accompany their other ramen dishes. All cheap ingredients, and in ultra stingy quantity in the Seafood Tom Yum Ramen, so thank goodness the tom yum soup was appetizingly piquant, making it possible to slurp up many mouthful of ramen without any ingredients. But that came at a hefty price ~ we were really thirsty afterwards from the copious amounts of MSG that had been used by Ajisen's cooks to add flavour the soup devoid of any fresh ingredients. Order their Seafood Tom Yum Ramen at your own risk!!