TRIED AND TASTED: WATAMI

Casual dining is a description most restaurants use to convey a relaxed dining experience with food worthy of fine dining but reasonably priced. Watami, with its structured furnishing and linear interiors, hits the right note. The people behind this global food chain call it ishokuya or scene + meal + restaurant.

I lost the facade photos so we'll have to make do with this artsy pile of dipping plates.

The menu is a different thing, though. It's obvious that they specialize in Yakiniku or grilled meat, there's one too many dishes on the list and you feel a bit overwhelmed, your first reaction is to order what you're familiar with. Which is why the first thing we ordered was our go-to Japanese appetizer, Gyoza served on a hot plate. This turned out to be a bit oily. I guess we should have stuck to the the boiled edamame.

We also had the Watami salad for starters. Though it's different from the Singapore version, the salad had the same concept of putting together a winning combination of fresh greens, steamed broccoli, corn, nori, corn, tomatoes, fried dumpling wrapper strips and bits of chicken teriyaki drizzled with roasted sesame dressing.

The hubby had cold soba- wheat noodles dipped in Mentsuya, a mixture of soy sauce, sake (Japanese rice wine), mirin (cooking wine), kombu (seaweed) and katsuomobushi (dried bonito flakes).

I also ordered the Katuboyaki or grilled fish head.  It was a bit overdone with a lot of the skin burnt black. The bitterness from the charred bits get in the way of enjoying the fish. Which was a pity because they had great ponzu sauce (citrus-based soy sauce).

I used the ponzu sauce on the Yakiniku Pork Belly instead. Each slice had a right amount of fat which kept the meat from drying up which made it a perfect partner for the slightly sticky Japanese rice. I ended up eating like a Pinoy in a Japanese restaurant. As my cousins would say #RicePaMore!

 

Watami
Address: 6th Level Shangri-La Plaza Mall - East Wing Shangri-la Plaza Mall
Shaw Blvd. cor. EDSA, Mandaluyong
Telephone: (+63 2) 570-1719

HUNGRY IN OSAKA- MEMORIES OF JAPAN (PART 3)

Another great memory of Osaka was the seemingly provident chance encounter with Helena, the gracious owner of Kyong Ju Restaurant, right beside the Family Owl Cafe in Tenjinbashi.

We had spent the whole afternoon walking the Tenjibashisuji Shotengai (Shopping Street) and we need to rest our feet. We were at the end of our wits and nearing the end of the 2.6 kilometer length of the shopping area when we spotted our destination but it was still closed. 

We decided to get a drink at Helena's restaurant because it had pretty cranes sculptures by the entrance. It was empty, except for Helena and a food server. She asked us if we wanted to have early dinner. We replied that we were only there for a drink as we were going to the Owl Cafe.  She served us a couple of sodas and offered to have us pay for the drinks after we got back from the Owl Cafe if we promised to have dinner at her restaurant after. It was so sweet of her, so we agreed.

The crane sculptures are made by her brother

It would have been so easy to run away from the offer. After all, a couple of Cokes wouldn't cost her much (In my very Pinoy mind, it was also possible that this was some sort of a trap to charge us with an overpriced dinner). When we went back to the restaurant, Helena was graciously thankful for the small business we were giving her that night. The restaurant was still empty.  She wasn't expecting much weekend dinner patrons as her clientele are mainly locals during lunch hour. (By this time,  guilt crept in... I did think about of leeching her for 2 sodas!)

She recommended several items, mostly dishes with vegetables, which the hubby, a professed carnivore, secretly balked at. She shared that she was Korean who got married to a Japanese. Her recipes are a mix of Japanese and Korean style of cooking which she developed as a home cook in her kitchen.

Her version of  Okonomiyaki, a 'pancake' popular in the Kansai and Hiroshima areas, had okra, leeks and bell pepper. This is more akin to the Kansai style of cooking where the ingredients are mixed in (versus the layered style of the Hiroshima region). The batter is a mixture of flour, tororo (grated nagaimo yam), eggs, shredded cabbage and dashi (stock made from kelp and fish shavings). I had never seen the hubby eat so much vegetables!

Okonomiyaki= Okonomi (what you like) + yaki (grilled)

For our main course, we had Beef Yakiniku (grilled meat) with chahan (Japanese fried rice) and a fresh Mizuna (Japanese mustard) salad with Kimchi dressing. Helena cooked the beef for us, sharing stories of her family and life in Japan. Her hospitality made this feel like a home-cooked dinner.

Beef Yakiniku

Chahan

Mizuna Salad with Kimchi dressing

KYONG JU RESTAURANT
Address: 1-13-4  Tenjinbashi, Kita-ku, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan
Telephone: +81 6-6242-8751