Ootoya

Finally met up with my one of my dearest girlfriend who just graduated from Melbourne Uni and came back to Singapore for good. In a way, I feel that she's the one I'll talk to most often about Aus/Sg stuff most cos she gets me when I talk about overseas education/lifestyle/experience. So for our first meeting after she came back, we decided to meet in town for some Japanese food...

Ootoya; Black bean side dish; Side dish from part of my set meal; Menu

The queue for Ootoya was quite long when we reached there (partly cos my deaaaaaaaaaaar Jams was late! haha. I won't let you forget Jams! snigger.) and we decided to get a queue number and go shopping first before going back to the restaurant in forty minutes time (as advised by the waiter). So we walked over to 313@Somerset for some shopping (plus gossiping) for a bit, before walking back to Orchard Central when the time was up. This time round, we got our seats almost immediately (phew, we were starving!).

Torotoro set (Scallop and soup combo)

Jam's Torotoro set was quite delish. I sampled some of her scallop and rice (which was flavoured) and it was yums. The soup was okay, nothing special.

Grilled mackeral set

The weird thing is, I'm not a mackeral fan. I'm a sucker for salmon, raw or cooked. But mackeral? I tend to give it a miss like 99% of the time. Or better, it's not even on my radar at all. Ha. I didn't know why, but that day, looking at the menu, I suddenly had a craving for grilled mackeral. So that's exactly what I ordered. And oh my god. Can I say now that I'm a total fan of mackeral??? Perhaps I havn't tried alot of grilled mackeral (despite my intensive Japanese dining experiences in Singapore) but the one at Ootoya was simply divine. Salted just to the right amount, grilled to the extent where the skin is crackly brown, and the meat was succulently white and flaky. A piece of the fish really melts in your mouth. Even Jams couldn't stop sneaking bites of it. The portion of the fish was also quite big, so it was a pretty filling set. :)

Mochi; Green tea ice cream 

The service was really good! Especially our waitress. After taking our orders, she informed us that there was complimentary free dessert for UOB cardholders. So I took out my card and she was like okay, you can have one free dessert then! Then she asked Jams if she had a card too, she didn't, but I had another UOB card in my wallet, so I took it out and ask if that counted as another card. And she said yes! Haha. Seriously. She totally had Jams and me at "Yes". Hee. Jams wanted her Mochi, while I stuck to the classic matcha ice cream.

Here's Jams as hand model for drizzling the brown sugar sauce over the mochi dessert. It was mostly a show for a photo opportunity for me. Haha.

Acid Bar for Lychee martinis after

The food at Ootoya was good, I can't wait to go back again...that is, if I can actually go through the long wait again. :)

(Edited - 18 October 2010 4.55pm) I'm meeting another girlfriend for dinner later on at...guess where? Ootoya! I feel very very tempted to get the mackeral...again. ;)