Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant    居食屋「和民」  

Watami continues to surprise on a monthly basis, I admit! The new or seasonal dishes that come out each month are really FUN to eat, and despite most of the food being previously frozen are cooked to a very good standard. Watami is probably the best quality Fast Food restaurant in the world to me, and I'm continually amazed by how they could keep such standards across the board and still come up with new menus on a regular basis! This is not the 1st time I've covered Watami and it's probably my 20th time eating here - as my friends or family enjoy coming here for some cheap quaffer of a wine over a casual Japanese meal, but the last visit is always most surprising than the meal preceding it ! チーズせんべい
This is a Parmesan cheese crisp of sort, went very well with the Red Australian wine. 8/10

.Red Wine from Australia, $29 for 2 glasses.
Jacob's Creek Shiraz Cabernet. Buy 1 Get 1 Free. A perennial favourite and quite drinkable on a daily basis. If I wanted a good Burgundy or a quality Rhone I'll keep those to a finer dining meal! 6.9/10

.黃身とろ牛つくね
Fatty Yellow Beef is made into Tsukune hamburger like balls. These were slightly under-grilled and lacked that perfect combination between a Well Caramelised / Pyrolysed fat / Maillard reaction / Flame Grilled taste profile Not bad, but needs a bit more charring to achieve above described effects to take it to a better level. Eggy dip was a good afterthought! 6/10

.青ねぎ牛肉巻串
Another winner, This was beefy and wrapped with the greener parts of the spring onions. At only $29 for 2 skewers, what is there to complain about, seriously? 8/10

.釜たきパエリア
Spanish Paella served in a Japanese 釜飯 style. Interesting. The slightly chili sauce with the lemon and herbs is added in by the customer after it has started boiling - after which you must wait around 15-20 minutes until the flame dies down before consuming! This was more fun than being truly tasty but at only $52 and 552 Kcal, it was a fun experience and totally edible. Not impressive, but for a fast food restaurant this is more than a pass. 6.9/10

.野菜のいため (豚肉入り)
A popular stir fried vegetables with pork slices. Not much pork but what there was it was kinda tasty. A nice mixture of a variety of vegetables. Done even better than many proper Izakaya's do on a regular basis.... 7/10

.焼き鯖
Grilled Mackerel is fattily oily and served with daikon oroshi and a lemon wedge. This could have been more grilled on the outside but it wasn't too far off from being ideal. The fish quality itself was good enough without the oft associated fishiness from poorly stored Mackerel-Saba fish.

.豚平焼
Grilled Egg Omelette with Pork, Cheese, Egg and Cabbage is a typical Kansai affair, and here it is once again cooked to a an exceptional degree. Also found in Tonbe in Wanchai, the version here is surprisingly even of a higher standard. At $43, it is pretty good value for money!