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2013-12-05
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Watami is located on the fifth level at Causeway Point where a number of restaurants are clustered together for a slightly more "refined" dining experience compared to the rest of the mall. Found around a corner at one end, with high ceilings in the area and with its tastefully decorated exterior, the "Japanese Casual Restaurant" looked chic enough on first sight to impress. A long-time friend and I went there on a Friday night to meet up for dinner and the place was jam packed. Their queue syst
Watami is located on the fifth level at Causeway Point where a number of restaurants are clustered together for a slightly more "refined" dining experience compared to the rest of the mall. Found around a corner at one end, with high ceilings in the area and with its tastefully decorated exterior, the "Japanese Casual Restaurant" looked chic enough on first sight to impress. A long-time friend and I went there on a Friday night to meet up for dinner and the place was jam packed. Their queue system was set up in a way such that you take a number from a machine and wait for your turn to come, so you can always change your mind if you decided against waiting further. We decided to wait but ended up waiting for slightly over an hour for our turn, which was unacceptable, but we passed the time by chit-chatting and catching up while waiting.
Inside, the place was slightly dimly lit which made it kind of cozy. It seemed to be an ideal place for a small family gathering or even to just catch up with friends, but the dinner-time crowd meant that it was very noisy and thus not very conducive to conversations. That, and the long wait. I'd definitely recommend going slightly earlier before a massive queue start forming.
We were so hungry that we could eat a horse by the time we were finally seated, but there were no horse, so my friend and I ordered a few dishes instead, which, again, took quite a while to be served.
Ishiyaki Corn Butter Shoyu ($5.90)This came first in a sizzling hot bowl where you can still see the gravy bubbling. We dug in right away risking burns to our tongues because we were that hungry. The corn was quite firm and sweet and despite having butter in it, it wasn't overly oily or greasy, which we liked. Since this was a hot bowl, the corn got a tad charred and salty at the bottom. I rather liked it to be slightly charred but my friend wasn't too keen on the charred part. The portion was also plentiful for a side dish but okay for the price.
Miso Cabbage Cucumber ($3.80)Next to be served was this chilled side of cabbages, sliced cucumbers and miso paste. Presentation was kind of blah as it looked like everything was hastily cut and thrown together. The cucumber were fresh and crunchy and the miso paste was thick and a tad salty, but this dish was otherwise normal. We both agreed that it wasn't really worth the price.
Zaru Soba ($7.80)This dish was my friend's favourite among all the dishes we tried. The healthy dish was served cold with just a simple sprinkling of seaweed and it also came with a small bowl of sauce to dip the noodles in. The soba was quite firm and chewy, and it was kind of refreshing to eat since it was eaten chilled. It was especially tasty when dipped into the sauce, which had just the right amount of saltiness for us and did not overwhelm.
Potato Mochi ($4.80)There was four pieces of potato mochi which came with a light drizzle of sweet sauce and two slices of butter on the side. This was supposed to be a mixture of potato and mochi and we were initially apprehensive about how it would turned out, but it turned out to be pretty good. It was soft and chewy and tasted like a cross between potato croquette and mochi. There was a really strong homely potato taste and aroma. I can't decide if I liked eating this plain or with the sweet sauce; both tasted equally good. But I didn't really care much for the butter as it made the mochi too greasy for my liking. Out of all savory dishes, this was my favorite.
Omatsuri Takoyaki ($8.80)There were eight pieces of this which was good for sharing, which was what we did. However, this was a disappointment. There was a fair amount of ingredients and octopus bits/tentacle in each ball, which had just a slight hint of crispiness on the outside. It was also moist inside, but was way too runny; it fell apart upon picking up, which made it messy to eat. It was also very, very salty; it felt like eating a pinch of salt on its own. The sweet takoyaki sauce and mayo serving was also too little for eight pieces and couldn't counter the saltiness, even by a little. My friend gave up eating after one ball although I managed to coax her to try another LOL. Not really recommended unless you are a fan of super salty takoyaki.
Hot Choco Brownie ($6.80)After all that salt overdose from the takoyaki, I was very glad that the next and last dish was the brownies with ice cream. Presentation was average, but fortunately, it wasn't bad in taste. There were four small slices of brownies and it came with a small bowl of chocolate sauce and two half-scoops of ice cream. The vanilla ice cream was very light, creamy and smooth but the brownies were a tad hard as if just defrosted. I thought it tasted more like mini chocolate cakes instead. The chocolate sauce was the best of all as it was very thick and rich. It was simply a delight to pour it over the brownies and eat with the ice cream! Although the brownies were not the best I have tried, the dessert was still the highlight of this dinner for me.
On the whole, we found the food to be average although we had our favorites for this meal. My friend gave the Zaru Soba and Ishiyaki Corn Butter Shoyu the thumb up, while I liked the Potato Mochi and Hot Choco Brownie best. The entire meal came up to around $45.00 for six dishes for two persons, which we found to be pricey. We both agreed that the Omatsuri Takoyaki was not worth its price tag, as was the Miso Cabbage Cucumber. On the other hand, the Zaru Soba and Hot Choco Brownie were well worth the price.Service was passable and the food were somewhat slow to serve but this was understandable considering the dinner time rush. It can also get a tad hard to catch the attention of the staff especially during peak hours. However, when we did manage to get their attention, they attended to our queries promptly. Our takoyaki was sent to our table shortly after we asked about it when it did not arrive for quite some time, and our request to refill our glasses of water was also attended to within 3 minutes. However, we had to wait for quite some time to settle the bill as the cashier seemed to be backlogged in clearing the bills.
All in all, a decent place for a Japanese meal. If you ask me, I wouldn't mind returning again to try the other food, especially the other desserts on the menu, but I'll prolly stay clear during dinnertime.
張貼
