With more than 600 restaurants developed in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Shenzhen and Shanghai, Watami Group has finally landed on Malaysia, with the opening of Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant first in Pavillion KL and second outlet in One Utama Shopping Mall. Being a new type of tavern, Watami not only focuses on casual and comfortable dining environment, but also concentrates in providing food at affordable prices and with less empahsis on alcohol.
Watami offers grand menu or the ala-carte menu, lunch menu from RM17.90++ including beverage and salad, and set dinner from RM40++ onwards. Needless to say, their ala-carte dishes was priced reasonably to cater customers from all walks and their set lunch and set dinner was a steal, nicely priced! =D
Chicken Katsu TamagoToji. (RM17.90)
Chicken Cutlet With Scramble Egg Sauce.
We visited Watami twice. First time there, we ordered a set lunch of Chicken Katsu. Though being a common dish in Japanese restaurant, Watami was not sloppy in preparing this dish. A while after the order, the waiter placed a cute mini stove on our table, and the cooked chicken katsu with pot on top. So I thought: ” Ouu? Meaning I will have my chicken katsu heated until the end? good. ” But there was also an egg, a raw egg came together with the cooked chicken katsu, that made us wondered. -.-
Our doubt was cleared when the waiter instructed us to turn on the fire and heat until the dark sweet sauce boiling, then poured in the beaten egg dark sweet sauce and waited for one minute before turning off the gas. We like this DIY concept as it was fun to work out a little for our food plus we could eye on the egg cooking in front of us, just right and not overcooked.
The portion was huge enough for two. Not only big in piece, the meat was thick, tender and juicy. Having the bottom layer of breaded chicken soaked in the dark sweet sauce and upper layer remaining crispy, slightly coated with egg, every bite was enjoyable.
Eating the Chicken Katsu alone would be a waste as the Katsu sauce was a mixed of saltiness and sweetness, so it was best to go with a bowl of rice. Note that the rice was only included during set lunch and not ala carte, if you ordered the rice separately, it would price at RM4.90, which I thought was quite expensive.
We went for second visit with another friend after having good impression with Watami, hoping to introduce her some nice food there. But too bad, this visit wasn’t as pleasant as the first time.
Ishiyaki Garlic Rice. (RM19.90)
Garlic & Butter Seafood Rice In Stone Pot.
This was my friend’s order, the all time seafood lover. Asking her how it taste, she said it was quite dry, tasteless and she ended up adding spoonful and spoonful of soy sauce to add up the taste. She also complaint that the rice get burnt faster than she ate..making her meal less enjoyable as she wasn’t really into burnt rice. >_<
Ishiyaki Demi Omuraisu. (RM19.90)
Seafood Omelette Rice In Stone Pot.
My girl ordered this as she said it looked delicious from the menu. But it was a let down as well. Tasted like tomato sauce mixed with seafood and omelette, the dish turned out more like a Korean plus Malay dish. Not to say not nice, just she did not fancy it. One thing nice was they served the rice in hot pot, allowing the rice to stay hot for long.
Unagi Kamameshi. (RM19.90)
Eel Pot Rice.
For me, I had the unagi rice. The rice came uncooked, and I had to wait 15 minutes for the rice to get cooked, using the heat provided by a small flame below the pot.
Aroma of the sweetness of mushroom, carrot and special sauces filled the air as the rice is cooking, making my feeling so hungry. Not a good choice when you were super hungry, as what happened to me. -.-
Unagi to go with the rice.
Once the rice was cooked, unagi was added into the pot and mixed together with the rice, then enjoyed. Satisfaction filled the heart with a good pot of full flavor unagi rice, good things are meant to be waited. Another thumbs up DIY dish.
Though the second visit was a little disappointing, we still believe that Watami serves good food, as they had some special DIY dish besides the usual ramen, don, sashimi and sushi.
Photographer: Summer
Writer: YLing
Address:
Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant
C4.04.00, Level 4,
Pavillion KL,
168, Jalan Bukit Bintang,
55100 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: +603-2141 6671
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F355-357,
1st Floor,
Rainforest,
One Utama Shopping Mall,
1 Lebuh Bandar Utama,
47800 Petaling Jaya.
Tel: +603-7727 1399
