Dinner @ Ootoya Orchard Central

Second visit for me and first time visits for my dining companions, Ms Chen and Ms Lim. We ordered set meals (chicken salad, deep fried sweet and sour chicken and grilled pork) and one ala-carte saba fish.

grilled pork dish with hijiki rice

closer view of the pork

Typical Japanese set meal with main dish, okazu (side dishes), rice and miso soup. The nimono (stewed dishes) was nice but the pickled vege (tsukemono) I didn't like. It tasted like a non-spicy version of kimchi and less tasty. The normal rice that night was a little bit too soft as well. But the girls liked their hijiki rice, so it ought to be good (or maybe everyone was very hungry!)

nimono

I had the sweet and sour chicken ('coz it was recommended by Wendy) and it tasted pretty much like 糖醋鸡. I can't recall if I'd eaten 糖醋鸡 before, but I reckoned this was how it'll probably taste like! The deep fried chicken was tender (unlike tori karaage) and coated with thick vinegared sweet sauce. The only downside was that it came with fatty skins. =P

yummy deep fried sweet and sour chicken

They do chicken dishes pretty well over here at Ootoya, and it was evident in both the chicken dishes that we ordered. Fragrant and tender. The grilled pork was slightly tough but not too extreme. The saba fish was nicely executed but the star factor, in my opinion is still the chargrilled chicken.

This place loves chicken, even in miso soup there's a fatty bits of chicken in it!

The place is quite popular (reservations recommended) and patrons can be seen queueing outside on a Saturday evening. Getting the attention of the service crew at times, could be quite challenging. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant dining experience thus far, at Ootoya and for now, there are promotions for various credit cards ranging from 10% to 20% off. UOB (10%), StanChart (15%) and ANZ (20%).

The pictures were taken with blackberry camera phone.