Japanese Restaurant Doraya     定食 Doraya  

My dad and I were choosing between 阿利水 and 定食 Doraya

I read from Openrice that 定食 Doraya is famous for their Toro Don
so I decided to give it a try with my dad
but it turned out to be a pretty disappointing experience

We've ordered 2 lunch sets.Salmon and Toro [赤身] Don: The portion is greater than expected coz the bowl is quite deep BUT there is TOO MUCH rice,
the fish on top is TOO THIN (you can see the rice underneath)to test its truth taste.

Hot Soba: Though the big bowl of soba is served with hot soup, it still very chewy for the last mouth of noodles and you can taste the strong flavor of buckwheat BUT the 2 "balls" are very "loose" and I don't know what kinds of the meat im eating (probably minced pork <-- my dad said)

Steamed Egg: It has a smooth texture BUT strangely the egg on the top is tasteless while that at the bottom is very salty

Appetizer: It tastes like dried bean curd - nothing special

I can't finished all the rice and the melons. I didn't tried it coz the portion is too small for him (My dad has a 'big' stomach )

But I don't think he is satisfied with the meal

Again, there is too much rice compared with the portion of 大腩 slices given

We've also order 2 side dishesI was too full so I didn't try it but my dad said it tastes better than it looks.I love tomatoes so I ordered this dish. From the name of the sauce I at first thought that it would be a refreshing dish, but it turned out to have a strange flavor of ... meat ? It doesn't taste bad but sadly the entire taste of tomatoes was covered

It is a good dish IF you ignore the amount of oil used in this dish

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One VERY IMPORTANT point to note is that THE SERVICE IS REALLY POOR (though they were only serving 2 tables, including us)

The waitress who served us was wearing a long face from the start of our meal till we left

and we were asked to PAY RIGHT AFTER ALL THE DISHES HAVE COME.

I was pretty shocked.

coz I think we are eating in a restaurant, paying more than $300 for two with additional 10% service charged
but not in a FAST FOOD SHOP

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Overall:

This is the first time I've tried 定食 Doraya and it's quite disappointing.

The food is up to standard but it doesn't worth the money
I don't expect to have so much rice and noodles but so little meat

AND I don't feel I have gained the basic respect from the waitress

it makes me physically full but I was not psychologically satisfied (with both the portion of toro served and the service)

Next time IF I come again, I will order hot soba only (is there a choice like that?)

based on a recommendation from a friend (who was disappointed this place was "closed" and subsequently found out it had relocated) we chose this place to have a thursday night's date.we only waited 25mins (there were 5 couples before us) and we were soon seated on a separate tale but quite close to another couple. we chose to stick to sashimi and rice options of the menu. we were already amazed at the first few dishes: mushroom combination in garlic butter, pan-seared tuna and semi-fatty tuna sashimi. we were impressed by the freshness and texture of the fish - and for me it was the best tastig mushroom dish outside of home! the dishes boasts of high quality yet it was unpretentious and we felt as if we were at the home of an overly hospitable japanese family.for mains we had two rice sets - chirashi as well as salmon/uni sashimi - each supported by miso soup, chawan mushi and various tsukemono. both were polished off in no time. a particular thing to note was the size of the uni pieces: enormous!we will definitely be back again and hope to try the hot and cold noodle items!