Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant

 

Watami serves with fine quality of ingredient, thus making this quite a pleasurable dining experience when it comes to the food. The layout of the restaurant pretty much gives you a lot of space for yourself and generates a sufficient amount of privacy when wanting to quietly enjoy your meal.

 

 

There is some variety of sushi, alacarte dishes and their famous pot rice. They are one of the few Japanese restaurants that sells Japanese pot rice. Pretty reasonably priced as well, hence suitable for individual meal but it was strangely portioned. It was too little for two, but slightly heavy for one. That is subjected to individuals thou so I won’t judge that. Each pot is pretty much similar, with different toppings. The cooking time takes a little longer and the pots are served in mini pots with fire still heating the rice. Most of which you have to wait for 20 minnutes without peeking through the lid.

 

 

We tried the Gomoku kamameshi (chicken and salmon pot rice) RM 21.90, the Unagi kamameshi(eel pot rice) at RM 28.90, and the Kani kamameshi (crab meat pot rice) at RM 24.90. Here is my Kani kamameshi already done after a long 20 minutes waiting while looking at the pot placed on my table.

 

 

Followed by the Gomoku kamameshi which is great or at least better than Kani kamameshi by my standard. The waiting time is still the same, while I didn’t mind for we were eating everything else while it cooks. So the tip to this is to order something else so you help yourself with others while waiting for it to cook. 20minutes can be rather long for someone who is hungry.

 

 

Not to forget the Unagi kamameshi which is probably the best I’ve tasted out of the three. Reason being, they all tasted pretty similarly bland, and the flavour basically comes mainly from the type of toppings. And since unagi has the strongest flavour, I would say that this one ranked the top of all three pot rice.

 

 

Speaking of rice, there is the Ishiyaki bibimbap at RM 23.90 which doesn’t require that long waiting time. The ingredients are definitely generous, while I love the usage of short grain rice. The texture of rice is great and the big egg yolk definitely adds on sweetness to the rice. Try going for this is you must have rice, or else watami is better with everything else.

 

 

Everything else meaning sushi or noodles. For the sushi, there are those combo plates where you get a pair of most fishes, and most of the common sushi you can find in any other Japanese restaurant. With RM 24.90, the Tokujo irodori sushi gives an assorted sushi of salmon, unagi and tuna.

 

 

Another choice is the Goka irodori sushi. This deluxe assorted sushi also priced at RM 24.90. This one comes with assortment comprising of salmon, grilled scallop, shrimp. I love this combination very much. Salmon is really fresh and the roll of rice is moderately pleasant.

 

 

And if you really like salmon like me, a must order is the Salmon zukushi although I find the price a little steep for such tiny portion. However, at RM 32.90, this assorted salmon sushi and sashimi prevails the perfect slicing of salmon and the perfect thickness for the top texture and followed by a roam of natural aroma of mayonnaise when chewing and swallowing. Should I return and pick one dish from the list of dishes reviewed, it would be this with no hesitant.

 

 

Japanese steamboat lovers alert! The Hokkaido sumo wrestlers hot pot called the Hokkai shio chanko nabe is a great hot pot to order at colder weather. Sweet as most usual Japanese steamboat, this one is luscious with the usual sweet vegetable and not forgetting their awesome thick salmon slices.

 

 

Selling at RM27.90, it comes with a 200g portion of Udon noodle. Optional to that maybe the white rice serving at 180g which I don’t recommend because everything else already have so much rice in it.

 

 

Next is the Asari no ishiyaki soup which is lots of clams cooked in Japanese style broth selling at the price of RM 22.90. The clams were certainly not the best I’ve had and if you like fresh clams, stay away from this one. Not that it is bad, but they are not fantastically fresh with the wow factor. Palatable since the flavour of the soup still made up the flaw of this dish. Lets just say that this aren’t their forte.

 

 

Of course when sharing, also try their potato pizza, which I thought was a brilliant cross of Japanese and Italian. It is called the Mentai potato pizza and is priced at RM 19.90 for a pizza topped with cod roe and potato. Potato pretty much goes well with almost everything, so together with the cod roe is no exception as well.

 

 

And after the fusion style pizza, how can we skip the Japanese pizza? With super authentic name like Hiroshima okonomiyaki, the name already carry some sensational feature. I have not been to Hiroshima, so I cannot say how authentic this Hiroshima style okonomiyaki is. However, for R M18.90 this one is pretty bad considering the flour was pretty bland and the texture was a little mushy. The heavy bonita flakes kind of saves this dish but I still don’t recommend this.

 

 

Another great dish for sharing is the Hotate butter yaki and the Kushiyaki moriawase. Starting with the Hotate butter yaki, these baked scallop with butter is the perfect fresh and savoury dish for hotate lovers. The thick aroma of butter brings out the natural flavour of scallop while giving the creamy grease for a more flavourful texture. Also served with the scallops are fresh mushrooms. Squeeze in some lemon to enhance the flavour while relishing the dish.

 

 

If interested with meat, then the Kushiyaki moriawase at RM 19.90 would be the best dish to order. Reason being, they serve assorted skewers somewhat like a combo mix of all the other available skewers. There is the chicken tight, chicken gristle skewer, roasted beef and spring onion roll, beef and eringi mushroom, as well as the chicken wing skewer.

 

 

The fried camembert cheese is one amazing sharing dish. Wedges of camembert cheese are breaded, deep fried and dipped in a sweet raspberry sauce. Best condiment for this is subjected to each restaurant and here in Watami, is the sweet raspberry sauce. Raspberry also tastes a little tangy so the creamy flavour from cheese would be very well complimented.

 

 

Lastly, it is almost impossible to have more than one dessert so I went with the Matcha tiramisu which sells at RM 11.90. Japanese desserts are almost always impressive with the delicate effort from the chef, where every small and tiny precision counts. Matcha and tiramisu blends in the way that it is slightly bitter with sweetness trailing by. To finish entire portion is not a challenge but a slightly smaller one would be delicately better.

 

 

Watami Japanese casual restaurant is located at :
F355/356/357, 1st Floor, Rainforest,
1 Utama, 47800 Lebuh Bandar Utama, PJ
Tel: 03-77271399
Refer to their website for other outlets : www.watami.com.my .

 

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