Watami, ION Orchard

You would see long line snaking outside Watami on B3 of ION Orchard when it first opened. Touted as similar to the fare served at Waraku Japanese Restaurant, people were eager to try it out. I was there around 5pm on a weekday so it was fairly empty, with about 30% of the tables taken up.

Everything looked good from the menu and we decided to just share a few dishes. The prices were pretty decent too, but then again it also reflected the quality of the food.

We ordered the scallop croquette and Irodori sushi grandeur which were their signature dish. The sushi came with salmon, scallop and eel toppings. I thought it was average. You could taste every single grain of the rice and the taste was so-so. Inagiku, Tatsuya or Japanese Dining Sun, they are not. In fact, it was similar to the sushi served at Itacho Sushi, also in ION Orchard (B2), which I felt was too terrible to even want to blog about it. The wasabi was awful too. I was not sure what was wrong but it tasted a bit powdery?

The kani and hotate cream croquette was crispy on the outside with the cream sauce oozing out when you bit into it. The sauce was not extremely creamy which might be disappointing to those expecting a rich sensory experience to the tastebuds.

The last dish was the fried chicken with rice and miso soup. The soup was average, probably from a mix and not very well done either. The chicken was juicy and crispy and tasted great with the sauce which came with the croquette.

The selection of sashimi was limited and there was no chirashi. It seemed to served a bit of everything from pizza, skewers, hotplate, grilled food to ramen and even bibimbap. The service was typical ~ polite and with the standard Japanese greetings, but they did not observe the diners once the food was served. The water glass was not topped up, extra plates were not given even though we were sharing. We had to request for that when staff should be trained to ensure a smooth dining experience.

I think I am probably a bit too spoilt with other Japanese places which served better quality food with equally attentive wait staff that other places serving average food just do not appeal to me anymore. There is nothing worse than having really mediocre food which is totally unsatisfying, because then you would keep thinking of what you could have had the entire day.