Whenever a new Japanese restaurant opens up in a mall or any other accessible venue, people automatically consider that it must be a fusion type Japanese restaurant wherein the whole family can enjoy slightly 'innovated' Japanese foods, but this is not the case at Ootoya. Why? Because when you come in any day of the week, you can see that the majority of their customer base are Japanese business-types enjoying their meal with the compulsory beer or sake. And here's a tip for you- this lets you know that the dishes here are the real deal as the native Japanese will not tolerate inauthentic Japanese food.

With the warm, soothing wooden ambience and comfortable layout where you can enjoy your meal crouched on the floor (authentic Japanese style), chair or a comfy booth, and inhale the wonderful smells from the passing whiff of soy sauce to whatever is cooking over the charcoal, all these elements make for an enticing invitation.

Upon looking at their impressive selection on their menu, you will see that you can either have a choice of a la carte or set menu that comes with either rice or salad. So far the Negisauce dish has garnered a lot of attention among the other choices. This dish resembles chicken karage except that it has got a nice big dollop of Japanese potato salad with a fantastic homemade sauce that is just sweet and sour and everything nice. Definitely a good choice for a starter or as a main with a bowl of warm rice.

One of their other specialty dish uses an ingredient that would most likely be found in a Korean restaurant, the staple Korean Kimchi. The Kimchi in this case is sauteed with the premium grilled Australian beef and is the second best way to eat Kimchi after eating it raw.

For you meat lovers we recommend the Demi Burg that comes on a hot iron plate of sizzling charbroiled beef burger steak with a demi glazed miso flavoured sauce and chunks of vegetables and is quite a feast. The meat of course is very tender and juicy and the kick of the miso sauce adds so much flavour to the overall dish.

Their kids' menu is put together quite thoughtfully by Ootoya and is ridiculously affordable. For example, dishes like Omuraisu which is basically fried rice wrapped in a thin omelette will surely will go down well with the youngsters especially with a dollop of tomato ketchup.

Ootoya have their own unique dessert menu but like in any Japanese restaurant, most of their desserts incorporates red beans, ice cream and sticky rice balls. We recommend the Pafe which is the heavenly layered goodness of soy bean pudding, jelly, ice cream, and red beans.

It comes to no surprise that Ootoya has 260 outlets all over Asia, and their popularity is due simply to the fact that they really do serve authentic homemade Japanese food with the freshest of organic vegetables, premium Australian beef and none of their food is pre cooked. The author highly recommends that you ditch those unhealthy fast foods temporarily and give Ootoya a try for a change, the price is very reasonable (considering the location, service and ambience) and you will definitely not be bored to try all of their dishes as they are all unique and simply delicious.