Ootoya     大戶屋  

Ootoya is right in the middle of busy Time's Square in Causeway Bay and occupies the entire 3rd floor of this building. It a nice casual dining restaurant and the relative low prices attract a younger but well dressed set of customers.

The menu is quite large and something for everyone. Most of the mains are presented as a 'set' inclusive of several side dishes (egg custard, seaweed salad, miso soup).

First up were a series of classic chicken skewers done yakitori style along with some grilled vegetables. These were nicely presented and quite tasty. Some were simply salted and others with a special sauce.

We ordered a simple salamon sushi & cooked platter and again while well presented missed the mark. The fish pieces were terribly thin and there was simply too much rice. One of the pieces was a mayo/pesto which while novel.

Next were cold soba noodles with a warm tea to be poured over the top. It a nice presentation but frankly, they lacked much taste to them.

A set of fried terriyaki chicken in a bowl was ordered and this was excellent. The chicken was hot n' crispy and full of flavor and the terriyaki sauce was just right. The set included some add'l vegatables.

Finally, some grilled mackerel, this was sufficiently moist and a touch oily (as expected) and a little fishy (expected). A nice presentation.

Summary
The restaurant was quite busy but we still found the service quite accomodating.

While none of the dishes were in the 'wow' catagory, they weren't bad and were all nicely presented.

It's decent food in a nice environment!

Our gang of three hit Ootoya today for lunch.
This is a Japanese family restaurant which we often go when we can't think of anywhere else to go. The food has always been up to standard for the price.
We ordered spinach salad with small fish, grilled fish, cold noodle with tempura, salmon sashimi over rice and grilled pork lunch sets.
Spinach salad came with dried bonito fish flakes, very small portion and bonito fish tasted quite artificial.
Next came the cold noodle with tempura. Rather than serving the cold noodle on wooden net, it came in a red, wooden bowl that looked very beat up- probably rejects from their Japan HQ. We asked for sauce for the tempura, to our surprise the waiter replied "IT WILL COST YOU $10 EXTRA". Hey..$10 is not a big deal for anyone but the concept of milking your customer for extra $10 was just downright- inhospitable.
The grilled pork lunch was OK and salmon sashimi don was below standard with small slices of salmon and the rice so wet that should have been called "Salmon over congee".
The bill came to over $500..oh sorry $500 plus $10.

Great food for hungry eaters. Udon, rice, chicken cutlet set. However, forgot my order and I had to wait 40 min for my food. Nobody refilled my tea, no plate setting, napkins etc.

I have been here numerous times, and the food is consistently good, however there are less choices than before.

The fried chicken in black vinegar is superb, the chicken remains crispy, and the vinegar is refreshing.
The big side of finely chopped cabbage balances out the meal with an intake of vegetables.
The other vegetables with the chicken match as well, such at the lotus roots, and sweet potato.

For the rice, I opted for the seaweed rice, there are many other rices that all taste good too such as the rice with yam, and rice with tiny fishes.

food:
tuna rice with 凍面 $80 - fair
黑酢豬 set 轉海藻反 $82 + $10 - ok
生薑燒豬 $61 - fair
薯餅 $20 - delicious
but overall portion - small

service - ok, conveneint for guest in wheelchair
environment - noisy when more ppl arrived
only one cubicle for ladies' washrom, most ppl need to queue
temperature - very cold

we did not take photo this time. photo here were from another dinner in early 2010

This shop offers unlimited rice for set menu. Why ?? Because their portion is like kids menu.

We ordered a Lunch special which included 3 pieces of deep fried chicken, 1 pc of potato and salad. The deep fried chicken has no taste at all, feel like frozen / defost / frozen chicken. The potato are big block of uncooked dough.

We have picked the Best Selling Set in Japan..... black vinegar chicken.... this is a chinese dish cooked in Japanese style... No thank you !!

Raddish chicken cooked in a hot pot.... again this is a Not Jap Not Chinese style dishes. the raddish was too young and it do have a stange taste.

The cold entree is full of water, and No taste at all.

(This is actually a chain restaurant from japan with branches in taiwan, thailand, and singapore)

i knew the portions are going to be small so i ordered a few dishes:

kimchi pork hot pot set ($85): lots of chinese cabbage, served with an egg and thin slices of pork. not really filling in my opinion for one person. it came with a small bowl of rice and 2 dishes of marinated vegetables (cucumbers in one, lotus root and carrot in the other)

plain udon: i think it is handmade. nicely chewy texture + good broth. had some wakame topping too.

stir fried sweet and sour vinegar pork: apparently this is one of their signature dishes. it was served with a heap of vegetables (not sure what it was, i gave it to my mom)

mushroom hamburger: came with a small amount of potatoes. patty was thick enough; sauce was sweet and paired nicely with the mushrooms. also served with a mix of vegetables on the side.

soymilk with black sugar: i don't have a very sweet tooth and found the sweetness to be just right.

pudding with vanilla ice cream, cake (caramel flavor, i think) and adzuki paste: i adored the red bean paste which came with whole adzuki beans (not mashed!) and i was impressed by the real vanilla ice cream - you can see the vanilla pods in the scoop! the pudding was nicely creamy, not gelatin-like at all which is awesome. didn't try the cake.

i enjoyed all the dishes but will not order the kimchi pork hotpot next time. will try other desserts on the menu and i definitely recommend ootoya. no wonder they are able to expand across asia!

Finally, with its new branch now established at CWB, my friend and I got to try this now-famed restaurant which has gained tremendous popularity both among locals and Japanese patrons. The setting is nice, clean, brightly lit and spacious. Window seats offer good views of Times Square and the surrounding neighbourhood. There is also a room set aside for private use. Lots of items to choose from in the menu and we had a really hard time picking our choices, as everything just looked so delicious ! At the end, my friend ordered the deep fried chicken with cold soba set while I ordered the hamburger with radish cooked in plum sauce. The soba arrived first in a nice wooden box, together with soy sauce in a separate bottle, which was already chilled prior to serving. The soba was very nice with a tangy texture, and was a perfect match to the sauce provided The deep-fried chicken came with a big bowl of rice and it was also nice according to my friend. My own hamburger came on a sizzling hot plate on top of some onion rings, together with miso soup and a bowl of rice. The miso soup was nice, and with just a few sips, you could readily tell that it was freshly prepared and not the usual " generic" stuff you get from other local Japanese restaurants. The hamburger was very nice as they obviously used good quality mince here, with a good beefy flavour, and with the meat juice mixed with the plum -like sauce and the fragrant onion rings and radish, I finished the rice with no difficulty at all Portion was very satisfying and price was certainly reasonable given the high quality of the food served. Thumbs up for home-style Japanese cooking by Ootoya !!