Ootoya

Franchise chain restaurants are so popular that they are just popping up everywhere. Unfortunately, the image associated with these types of restaurants are sometimes sloppy or poor quality. But not this one! Ootoya, whether it’s a branch at the busy Chatan area or in a thin alley street in Singapore, the quality of both the venue and the food still holds to an impressive impeccable standard.

Ootoya is a Japanese style restaurant that serves a variety of different Bento-like meals in a more indoor dining atmosphere. They have all the standard popular dishes such as the Stir-fry dishes, Tonkatsu, Karaage, Saba-miso (mackerel in miso sauce), and many others. I personally tried the chicken Nanban set which is basically a deep fried battered chicken with tartar and sweet soy sauce. I found it delicious but honestly, I am a bit partial as I think anything with battered fried chicken and tartar sauce is a win in my book. The rice which comes with almost every meal is also “swappable”. Basically, if you would like to go a little healthier and at the same time, add some kick into your regular boring steamed rice, you can have it swapped for gokokumai (5 grain rice) which is a mix of some wheat, sesame, and red beans. Trust me, it’s good. They also put importance in having a balanced meal. With most of their set meals, you will get your main dish, your rice, miso soup, and a small side salad. Excellent value for money. For desserts, they maintain the theme and offer a lot of green tea, red bean, and mochi sweets. I personally recommend their classic – the zenzai parfait – which is red bean paste with white mochi balls on top of vanilla ice cream. Heavenly stuff. For the price, you get a real-deal-feel-meal (in other words, a good quality bargain meal) as most of the set menus range around 800 to 1000 yen which is more than enough food for 1 meal.

Ootoya is truly a solid choice for your regular lunch outs, quick dinner, or even family night out with the kids. With quality like this, it’s not surprising that they have branches all over the world including China, Thailand, and even in the U.S. For Okinawa, they have a whopping 16 branches with the easiest to access probably being the one in Chatan. Directions are, from route 58 headed north, just as you pass Camp Lester main gate, the Ootoya will be on your left. It’s along the major route 58 highway. You can’t miss it.