Ootoya Japanese Restaurant

Hello!

I think the weather's a little cranky today because it has rained twice in the last 6hours or so! I'm feeling pretty okay because I managed to rest a little more this morning. Truth be told, I'm still feeling slightly unsettled about my decision to give up my usual Saturday morning lesson but I guess I need to let some things go if I want to keep afloat this year.

Since we'll be celebrating my brother's birthday in advance at a Japanese restaurant tonight, I thought it'll be apt to do an entry Ootoya because that's where we last had a Japanese meal together as a family!

We went to the Ootoya outlet at Suntec City on a Saturday night, which turned out to be a good choice because it wasn't fully packed and we could get a table almost instantly. The interior decor of Ootoya was simple and it had a light Japanese feel to it. There're low 'modern' tables with legroom for those who don't wish to sit/ kneel in the traditional Japanese position throughout the entire meal.

As we were feeling pretty experimental (and perhaps greedy) that day, we decided to order a spread of appetisers, main courses and desserts so that we can try different dishes that Ootoya serves.

Our first appetiser was the small potato salad ($4), which was pretty normal. It's definitely a safe appetiser to choose because most people I know are okay with potato salads.

The second and more interesting appetiser we shared that day was something called NebaNeba ($6), which is cold tofu salad! Truth be told, this dish tasted pretty strange to me at first because it was cold and gooey but I grew to like the taste so I ate quite a lot of it.

The first main course that one of us ordered was the tori salad ($16.50), which is salad with chicken strips. The chicken strips were pretty well-marinated and they helped to give the veggies some taste. It's definitely less filling than the sets that come with rice but it's sufficient for those with small appetites or those who want something a little lighter.

My brother ordered the mini maguro udon (cold) ($17) and it came in a really big and rectangular tray! I could tell that he was fascinated by the way the dish was presented and he ate every strand of udon with glee! I think we may have to order a larger portion in future because this wasn't sufficient to fill my growing brother's tummy! He thoroughly enjoyed playing with the pestel and insisted on grinding the semsame seeds even though he wasn't going to eat them!

The salmon set ($20) was pretty decent but I wish the salmon fillet didn't come with bones. The salmon was slightly dry and I felt that there could have been slightly more flavour but on the whole, it was above average. Each set comes with a vegetable side dish, a bowl of REFILLABLE rice and a bowl of miso soup. I think Ootoya's THE place to go for people who love eating rice/ eat a lot of rice!

This photograph shows the fried chicken fillet set ($16) (okay I'm sorry I forgot it's swanky name) which consists of a fried chicken fillet with a sunny-side up on it! This is an excellent alternative for those who want to have katsu don without having sauce or egg on your rice. My sister commented that this dish was good so you may want to order this if you're in the mood for chicken.

The Tori Sauce Don ($14), which is similar to chicken katsu don, was above average as well. Our in-house katsu don veteran commented that it's not fantastic but it's definitely better than expected! In my opinion, this is possibly the most value-for-money set that we had that evening (:
Finally, we also had the rosu katsu set ($16), which consists of strips of fried pork loin. My sister read that it's supposed to be good so she ordered it and thankfully, she wasn't disappointed. The only qualm we'd about this particular dish was that it took ages to arrive! I guess the kitchen may have forgotten her order so perhaps you'll not have to wait as long for this dish if you were to order it in future.

We had four different desserts that night as well:

the tamago pudding ($7), which my brother devoured after we ate the fruits and red bean at the side,
the anitsu maccha ($6), which is green tea icecream with redbean,

the banana pafe ($8) - green tea icecream with redbean, banana and some cornflakes,

and the bramanje ($6), which is milk pudding with fruits and redbean if I'm not wrong. All our desserts were nice but I would usually go for green tea icecream with fruits and cornflakes when I'm dining at a Japanese restaurant (:

I think Ootoya's a family-friendly restaurant and we had a great time dining there (: We'll not be revisiting this place tonight but I'm sure we'll make a trip down again some time in the near future!

Alright it's time for me to rest my eyes before going out for my brother's birthday dinner! Have a good weekend!