Ootoya

I had always been wanting to try this restaurant since they claimed to serve the home cooked Japanese food. Apparently it origins from Japan, and they already have so many branches in other countries, too, including South East Asia countries. Since they’re having discount promotion for credit card holders, so we decided to eat there.

The place is very easy to find, just right in front of the elevator if you use it. And the big banner is just impossible to be missed even if you walk from far away. As typical Japanese restaurants, the interior is dominated by wood, with warm lightings and soft chairs. Tables are convenient, not too small but enough to create harmonious feeling when we eat with family or friends. 

Beautiful interior of Ootoya

It was an afternoon so practically we were the only guests that time. The waitresses were very polite, and as soon as we were seated, they handed us simple menu books, which are also neatly scanned page by page in their official Facebook page. We were quite surprised to see the variety of the food, because seriously they serve authentic Japanese home dishes. 

The not-so-formal menu book 🙂

Of course, salad was definitely ordered. The tofu salad consists of tofu with wakame seaweed mixed with hydroponic and organic vegetables. The tofu was really soft, almost impossible to eat with chopstick. Honestly, this salad tasted weird, definitely not a fan of this.

Up to its name, it came in a small bowl (but still reasonable), probably a bit bigger than kids size bowls. What can we expect from a bowl of oyakodon? This is a very simple menu, and nothing could go wrong with it.

Sumi Tei refers to the charcoal-grilled beef with sumiyaki sauce, surprisingly the beef was so tender. I really like this, because the meat was really juicy and I didn’t even need to dip it to the sauce provided. The side dishes were also exceptional, very, very tasty.

This is supposedly a rice bowl served with assorted toppings, like tuna, eggs, natto and chili pepper slices. Bakudan in Japanese means “bomb”, I think the reason why they named it that is because of the natto and chili pepper inside. Why is that? For Japanese themselves, not all of them can eat natto, which is actually fermented soybeans. Another reason is mostly Japanese people can’t really eat spicy food, hence the name. However, it was funny because the waitress said they didn’t have the natto at that moment, so I thought it was a disappointment we couldn’t get to try the “bomb” there.

It was a great food experience. The dishes were nice, presentations were also good. I definitely will come back again whenever I have chance. 🙂