和民 WATAMI Japanese Casual Restaurant [review]

Watami!

I have always wanted to try this place because I see it's advertisement outside my window every day... I asked one of my Japanese friends and turns out, this is a big Japanese Izakaya chain.

Service:

This is actually quite disappointing, I would expect that it would be much easier to grab their attention, but it took too much effort to order or even get "stuff". 

I ordered the set for 2 combo

Price: $278 + $80* (Wagyu Beef upgrade) + 10% service charge = $393.80 HKD (approx. $50.00 USD)

Caesar Salad with Bacon (Half version)

This was a "fixed" item we couldn't choose another option.

impressions:

• fresh veggies
• soft croutons
• Bacon chunks were nicely made
• nicely drizzled amount of Caesar sauce

This was off to a good start... I liked the salad... I found the veggies to be very fresh and "crispy".

Salmon Carpaccio

This was also a "set" item... already fixed... we couldn't choose to have it or not

impression:

• portion was too small
• salmon was very fresh
• lovely black pepper enhanced the flavour

I was also quite happy with the taste, I couldn't tell what sauce they used to make this dish but the black pepper enhanced the sauce's intensity making this a great dish... my only complaint was that the portion was too small.

plum liqueur with soda

We had a choice of choosing Oolong Tea, Hot Honey Ginger Tea, a variety of soft drinks, lemon tea, milk etc. 

Even for Liqueur, we could choose Plum Liqueur on the rocks... we were afraid of the alcohol percentage so we opted for plum liqueur with soda. This was none other than a drink that combined plum liqueur and plain "flavourless" soda.

Impressions:

very tasty

quenches thirst

Deep Fried Chicken Gristle

For those who do not know what Gristles are... they are like knee caps... so these are like Fried chicken knee caps.

Impressions:

• good portion
• nicely fried
• needs more salt and seasoning
• easy to chew

I found these to be slightly plain tasting... although they were fried, I wished they had sprinkled on some salt or powdered herb to make it more flavourful. 

In most places, I find it a bit difficult to chew gristles because the joints tend to be hard, this was not the case for these at Watami, they were easy to bite into!

Rice Cake Au Gratin

This was a fixed item... so we didn't have a choice to get this.

I was looking forward to these the most because I love rice cakes... however this turned out to be the most disappointing dish out of the whole set.

impressions:

• flavourness
• not chewy
• disappointing

If Pot Stickers got their name because they stuck to pots, then these are definitely the most bowl sticking rice cakes ever!... I had to take a knife to ripe them from the pot... they were not flavourful at all and worse, they weren't even chewy. There wasn't even a hint of cheese!

Clams cooked in Stone Pot

This dish was so-so... I was expecting it to be much better... but it didn't turn out as expected. Keep in mind that the picture makes it look much bigger than it really is... 

impressions:

• a good quantity of clams
• there was "sand" in the clams
• soup was nicely made with clams
• soup needed more seasoning

I would suggest that they add some white wine into the soup to make it more flavourful... although the current soup tasted of clams, it was very bland. I was also disappointed that there was "sand" in the clams, they failed to take out the sand making the chewing experience frightful.

Beef rice with Hot Spring Egg Tokyo style

I wasn't looking forward to this but it turned out to be one of the best items on this set.

impressions:

• beef was lovely marinated
• large amount
• extremely tasty

I finally understand why the Japanese love to mix rice with soft egg yolks so much, it really does make a difference in taste, texture and moisture. I will start adding egg yolks to my future rice dishes!

Kagoshima Premium Wagyu Beef Sukiyaki

So, if you were wondering where did the Wagyu beef was... here it is... in the Sukiyaki dish... we had to pay an extra $80 to upgrade to Wagyu beef.

impressions:

love the Wagyu beef

heat was too high

inside the pot: Kagoshima Premium Wagyu Beef Sukiyaki with veggies and mushrooms

To begin with, I was never a big fan of Sukiyaki dishes... I find them to be too sweet. I always think that soup bases should be savoury instead of sweet.

The heat was too high and this made it extremely difficult to cook the beef properly. We had to rush when we were eating the veggies and tofu because they were being overcooked.

I was glad I made the decision of upgrading because the Wagyu beef was delicious!

Verdict:
I found this meal to be slightly pricey, and was disappointed in certain items... I didn't like the service... and was forced to give them 10%. I would come back to try their a la carte, but never their set meals again.


score: 6.0/10
website: http://www.watami.com.hk/menu/menuslide/hkgm_en.html