Ah Cai and I had been to Ootoya a few times, but only outside. Reason was, the casual Japanese eatery was always full-house and there was always a snaking queue during the times that we went. We gave this a miss a few times, but on this day we were dead-set on dining here. It’s either Ootoya or nowhere.
Ootoya serves simple, home-cooked Jap fare in the teishoku –style. The set consisted of a miso soup, 2 appetisers, Jap pickles, and the main itself. My 3 appetizers came in the form a stewed pumpkin (soft and super yums) and stewed spinach topped with silver fish, shiitake mushrooms, and inari (pretty bland and normal).
Cai had the Charcoal Grilled Atka mackerel set ($17). The oily (naturally) fish was salt-cured and grilled to perfection, with moist flakes that were a little fishy and salty crispy skin on the underside. I wouldn’t have ordered this dish as it had way too many bones! I’m just too lazy to pick out the flesh from all that bones, but Cai had no complaints.
I had the Soy Milk Mixed-grain Porridge with Vegetables and Chicken. I couldn’t really discern the soy milk; the milky coloured broth seemed more like chicken broth to me but it sure tasted good. It had 9 different kinds of grains – pressed barley, millet, leaf mustard, black bean, green bean, red bean, black rice, black sesame, and amaranth. The grains were really soft yet retained their bite. There were also lots of spinach, onions, carrots, shiitake and shimeiji mushrooms in it. It was really pleasant and comforting. I tried to replicate this dish at home but it didn’t taste anywhere near. Lol.
We ordered a side dish Deep-fried Chicken with Sweet and sour vinegar dip to share as well. The chicken was very juicy, though oily, but it went well with the dip. The chicken pieces were quite big too.
Verdict: Overall, this was a pleasant meal. I would probably return again for the Soy milk porridge, it’s my kind of comfort food. And also I would like to try the enticing desserts! E.g. Soy milk blanc, Green tea parfait, Banana parfait etc
*The pictures were taken from Google as I forgot to take pictures of it =x
