Foodie Times Ootoya @ Clementi Mall

Went there with my mom and sis and wanted to have Japanese food. After much consideration, we went to Ootoya @ Clementi. And indeed, "This is one Japanese restaurant with no ramen, sushi, sashimi, nabe or yakitori." Source

Despite that, we still go ahead with our plan.

Queuing is expected but if you are looking for someone to be waiting at the counter to guide you to where the queue is, don't! Ask the people where the queue is.

There were two things that surprised me though. 

Call me a "mountain tortoise" but I was amazed by the pen ordering menu BUT I didn't get to use it because I didn't even know about its existence nor did the staffs tell us about it. The pen was at the door entrance slotted nicely and even though the menu had instructions at the bottom of the menu but... Well, maybe it is still in testing phase and not available for use yet, I don't know. So, we had to call for them to take our orders and they memorized our orders! 

Another thing that surprised me is the free flow of rice. A pity I didn't get to refill my bowl since I felt quite full after 1 1/2 bowl of rice.

Okay, We started off with potato salad but it failed to impress my sis who is crazy over potato salad. Maybe it could be the portion, maybe it could be the slightly mild taste of potato...
The overall blend is towards a natural taste of fine ingredients.

 This is charcoal grilled pork fillet set. The pork meat is well done, slightly tough with slightly burnt charcoal taste(?) and without much spices or artificial flavorings (somehow I was reminded of char siew and bbq chicken fillet)  My mom sang praise of the meat sauce but never really tried the sauce. There were only 5 pieces of fillet accompanied with finely-sliced cabbage. (Not enough for meat eater like me!) But this set portion seemed just right for my mom.

My sis went for the grilled chicken with egg set. Reminds me of katsu don and oyako don. Didn't like how the rice was which was soaked with the egg and sauce but it could have been very soggy if not for the japanese rice grain used. Seems to use the same cooking method as the charcoal grilled pork because they taste almost the same except that this is using chicken and not fillet and with eggs. The portion is big so if you are a big eater, you might want to pay this restaurant a visit.

This was what I had. Fried pork fillet (coated with breadcrumb) with simmered eggs. I know it looks like baked rice but it's due to camera-man's lousy skill (which is ME) thus it looks weird. Now, this is really another BIG portion dish. The breadcrumb fillet was very compact (and so was the simmered eggs) and I was instantly reminded of Tonkichi (as in the fillet size). Everything tasted natural, comparable to homecooked food using quality ingredients.

Maybe it's due to culture differences or language barrier, service was not as expected. (as mentioned earlier, maybe the idea of using the pen to order was what we were expected to do)

Total expenses: $64.75 (for the above + 2 cups of hot tea)

Recommended for big eaters (as rice is refillable) or if you like fine ingredients and prefer natural food taste.