大戸や・おおとや・Ootoya

Hello people! I'm back with another dining experience! This time, it's your typical around the neighbourhood Japanese restaurant, Ootoya! :D
(and I just realised that they only got like, 3 branches in Kyoto itself. not so 'around the neighbourhood' apparently..)

This time, I ate at the Shinsaibashi branch in Osaka. It was a cold, cold night and the heating system inside really helps. It was a bit quiet that night however, it gave me even more better reason to be able to take pictures peacefully (Yes, most people tend to look at you when you are working with your big camera .___. ).

And along with good customer service that they offer, we were immediately given water and tea by the waitress after seated. Let me repeat, WARM TEA. It was my first experience of receiving warm tea directly when I entered a restaurant and it was bliss~! Normally in Japan, iced water will be given in most restaurants so you don't have to worry about paying extra for it (I'm quite a cheapskate lol :x) but tea?? I rarely experienced it in my whole time living here, so this is a bonus point! And the best thing is? It's refillable! :D

Lots and lots of food to choose from, mostly they will offer it in a set menu (定食・ていしょく・teishoku) which comes with 5 types of rice to choose from, and miso soup and/or sometimes salad too, according to your menu choice. If you wanted to eat extra, you can order the big-sized rice (大盛・おおもり・oomori) for no additional charge! We could also order the food separately (単品で・たんぴんで・tanpinde), so if you don't feel like gulping down a big portion of it, you can always eat one dish only :3

This was my dish! Vegetables cooked in black vinegar sauce. I ordered it with red rice and miso soup. This dish itself is awesome, it smells so sweet yet appetizing. I don't exactly know how they managed to cook this dish, and it makes me curious. The vegetables are evenly charred and it was both soft and crunchy at the same time, like, how the heck did they made it??

I would put portions of vegetables on the rice and eat it together, so the sauce would drip down and hit the rice, doubling the taste. Every moment I took a bite of it, the warm sweetness permeates my tongue and there was a slight tangy vinegar aftertaste afterwards... the fresh taste of the vegetables still can be tasted and my hands can't really stop literally. The warm and bouncy rice boosts the taste even further. I love how colorful the pieces of potatoes, carrots, eggplants, lotus roots, and onions taste could be; each of the texture adds to the dish's beauty. I kind of managed to find some inner peace to actually stop eating and take pictures of it while my mouth was drooling lol.

The miso soup... I guess they didn't put enough miso powder in it. I would seriously prefer my university's canteen's miso soup than this one, because the taste wasn't quite thick enough. I would usually gulp mine down after every meal to cleanse my palate however this soup couldn't satisfy me so I actually finished it down first.

This, ladies and gentleman, what my adventurous boyfriend decides to order. It was some kind of dish apparently inspired from Mapo Tofu. I don't usually take spicy foods (rephrase, I hate spicy foods), but then I dared myself to try some of it just because:

1) I like tofu, tofu is nice
2) apparently the 'spicy foods' in Japan are not even as spicy as South-East Asian or Chinese food (approved by some Indonesian friends), he even said it's not even spicy!
and 3) just because he was brave enough to steal my yummy food!

I initially thought it will be sweet and sour, so I took the upper part... but it turned out to be very very spicy -__-. It was a stupid decision. I regretted it, the silkiness of the tofu was quickly defeated by the spiciness and I immediately drank a full glass of water to disperse the pain. "The spiciness was similar to the usual Chinese Mapo Tofu, or any spicy Chinese chilli kind of thing. It is kind of rare to find especially in Japan, I liked it", he said happily. 

To compensate, he gave me his potato salad, which has quite different texture with normal Japanese potato salad. Each bite I took consists of chunks of potatoes accompanied by onions, with a hint of black pepper; which in normal Japanese potato salad, you'd only taste the mayonnaise's sweetness instead of the potato's.

***

So what makes Ootoya different from other Japanese restaurants?? Pricing was quite average (￥600~900 for a set meal) and the portion was enough. The obvious difference is in the menu, they have this unique and stylish combinations of food, but still presented in a very Japanese way. They put extra effort in making customer healthier by putting vegetables in every dish/set menu, and they put calorie count in every dish they offer and I'm not even kidding. I didn't have enough room for dessert this time because it was quite late, but I'm sure there will always be next time...


Here is the store list in Kyoto if you guys are interested: Kyoto Branch
and here is the store locator all over Japan (it's in Japanese, beware): Store Locator
Thank you for reading! and see you next time :D