Monday, December 17, 2012

Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant

I had read too much blogged about Watami and got such good reviews. It's not like most Watami restaurants which has quite a found anywhere else at the other global branches around Asia. But this Watami branch restaurant in Chupei City Hsinchu was a bit disappointment about the quality of their food. I'm going to be honest and you may not like it for patronize Watami goer. First of all, the atmosphere is a picture of modernity, extremely intimate. I found it quite nice actually. The menu had Chinese, Japanese and English translations and the food is exceptional, especially considering how big the menu is. We went here for lunch and there's no queue and not much customers and saw an empty tables! We were seated quickly and given our menus and our orders are taken.
First to arrive at our table was an chawanmushi it has a smooth texture but it wasn't good if we compare it to Sixteenth Avenue Japanese Restaurant in Kuangfu Road.
Tonpeiyaki is an egg roll loaded with pork, cheese, cabbage and eggs it is drizzled with a sweet mayo-mustard sauces a heaping pile of spring onion are added on top of it. I find it quite similar to my favorite okonomiyaki. However it was a solid food.
We ordered some sushi fo my kids and they really like sushi and sashimi or raw fish more than us. So we sampled some of thier sushi platter that they can share was a deluxe assorted irodori sushi was a salmon, scallop and shrimp on a sushi roll with wasabi. Lightly glazed with a sweet soy sauce dressed with a mayonnaise.
Next up is the deluxe assorted irodori sushi was salmon, eel and tuna which is similar to deluxe assorted irodori sushi. The presentation is good but if we compare it to the other sushi shops a little bit let down. Their sushi is fresh but it wasn't that really fresh!
We never miss ordering their Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki pork and seafood. It was okay and nothing so special. I've had other okonomiyaki meals before in different styles. But this okonomiyaki it was bland,  tastes like just a batter and noodles with hint of thick soy sauce.
The roasted horse dried mackerel probably wasn't the best quality it was stench and smelled like it died in the ocean. We didn't eat anyway.
This breaded and fried pork cutlet or tonkatsu is most definitely my son favorite Japanese food.
For desserts, we shared a generous portion of fruit in honey toast box covering sliced of banana, strawberry, mango, ice cream, whipped cream then drizzled with chocolate sauce and caster sugar it was quickly disappointed.
The watami azuki red bean soup with rice cake was a bit bland. Overall; the service was better than the food, fortunately we only ordered a few dishes. Though, considering the tonpeiyaki was delicious but there are so many other good restaurants nearby, stay safe, skip this one.
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Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant-居食屋「和民
No.137, Guangming 1st Rd., Zhubei City, Hsinchu County 302
竹縣竹北市光明一路137號
Tel No: 036570208
Website:
http://www.watami.com.tw/

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