Finding a good restaurant in Shangri-La is quite easy.. but finding a quality restaurant in a cheaper price is a bit surprising.
Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant is the top food & beverage brand in Japan with over 700 branches in the Asia Pacific region. With original dishes and signature beverages, Watami Group’s slogan is “to receive the most number of thank-you’s in the world”.
From the outside, Watami looked homey and comfortable. Though it’s already obvious that the place is jam-packed, we enjoyed listening to their Japanese greetings and goodbyes from the door. I personally love the big TVs and the sets of furniture used in the restaurant. Granting that the place has a lot of grilling stations, the room temperature exceeded our expectation. The tables are near each other; but for some reason, the small wood dividers made each table private. The chairs are all comfortable and sturdy. If there’s one minor thing I don’t like, it’s the issue of space on the table. We usually order a lot; and for me, the size of the table is quite smaller compared to other restaurants.
So basically I’m deducting 1 point for the quality because the tempura isn’t freshly cooked and it seems to be reheated. Also, I didn’t like the sauce because it lacks taste and sweetness. The sauce’s ratio isn’t equal. 2 part ginger in every 1 part raddish; which I didn’t like. For the price of the tempura, the quality is already understandable. On the other hand, the quality shouldn’t suffer just because the restaurant was busy or the food is cheaper.
The presentation is good and the taste is even better. They were generous with the ingredients and for its price, definitely worth ordering.
Not the crowd favorite. it is literally bland in taste and something we won’t order next time. It made the tofu taste boring. Though again the price is really cheap.. the taste didn’t meet our expectation.
The chicken is undercooked. It didn’t absorb the teriyaki sauce and it lacks taste as well. I love the crispiness of the veggies and I appreciate their effort to add side dishes. Unfortunately, this is the first time that I tasted a chicken that is not at all tasty and as boring as the tofu. The smell is unforgiving as well. It doesn’t entice customers. I asked for an extra teriyaki sauce to try and add more taste on the chicken.. but because it is undercooked, the chicken is not juicy anymore. 😧
People (8/10)
Their servers and managers are all nice and friendly. I appreciate our server for checking on us once in awhile. Their servers are knowledgeable, courteous and very helpful. I deducted 2 points because it took us so many times just to get our water, extra sauces and rice. We waited for like 10 minutes only to find out that the server didn’t process our order. 😥 Also, there was a time when my husband needed a chopstick but couldn’t find one because one of the servers took it from our table to give it to the next table near us. It’s not an issue; but hopefully next time, servers will leave at least one chopstick per table in case the customer needs it.
I’m also thankful to our main server who took our photos and answered all my boring questions. Kudos to you! 👏 If there’s one reason why I want to give Watami a chance, it is for their staff who effortlessly give their smile to all their customers. We were all tired that day.. and though their food didn’t do well.. their staff is already enough to be the reason to go back there and give their food another try. 😉 Until next time, Watami.
Watami Level 6 Shangri-La East Wing, Mandaluyong City
MissInformation.Blog 