Botejyu SM City Manila — Restaurant in Manila

When we got to the restaurant, I was surprised out how big it is. When you first go in, you;d think it was just a small place with only a couple of tables available. But when you walk further in, there's actually a bigger space inside with several tables. It can seat a lot of people, but when it's full, it's really crowded and hard to move around. It can also get real noisy really fast. And because of that, getting the attention of the servers can be really challenging, We had to stand and approach the servers directly several times.

The place also has low lighting, I don't know what they were going for, but the inner part of the restaurant is more dimly lit than the outer. Maybe they want the effect of the old style lighting of Japanese bars and stalls. I wasn't a fan of the lighting. I prefer to enjoy my food in a brightly lit place.

But despite the misgivings of the place, the food was delicious. They offer a variety of Japanese dishes, from ramen to sushi to rice bowls to their world-famous okonomiyaki. I chose their prawn tempura rice bowl. It was dinner time when we ate there and the photo of the tempura looked so delicious. And it was. The tempura was fried perfectly. There was a distinct crunch with every bite. The prawn meat was sweet and succulent. The rice was Japanese rice so the grains were big and sticky, making it perfect for eating with a chopsticks. But the best thing I loved about the dish was that the prawn actually made up the entire tempura. I've had tempura dishes before where the shrimp or prawn was really small and just made up half of the actual tempura; the rest was flour.

I can say with confidence that the prawn tempura will be a favorite of mine at Botejyu. The restaurant is a bite pricey, with each dish ranging from P350 to P600. So it's not your typical restaurant where you can eat often. But it's worth giving a try if you're a fan of...

Everything was just bland. For its price, it feels like robbery. I would never recommend this place without a promo. The ramen broth was comparable to places like kuroda which are half the price. The curry was not discernable from boxed curry. All the Yakitori meats lacked seasoning. We even had pork yakitori with orange sauce, the orange was imaginary. The meatball yakitori had less flavor than a CDO burger steak. The only item that tasted good was the Garlic Steak.

Overall, it just feels outdated. It was also a terrible service, the waitress did not clarify the promo (we thought we were getting 50% off). The manager looks tired despite an empty restaurant, he looked bored and unbothered when he served our plates. The waitress looked and felt more presentable than him. You will have better and more accommodating service at Tokyo tokyo, a fast food chain. On top of that, the air-conditioning...

Today was wet and cold, perfect weather for Ramen! And so we headed to one of our go to Ramen place… BOTEJYU We were seated instantly by the courteous staff and handed the menu. We chose the cushioned bench against the ornate wall. House water was served soon after our order was taken, warm as requested. The tempura had crispy breading, the shrimp was a little bit on the bland side (per my preference). Ramen with Clear soy based soup was flavorful… the BBQ grilled pork was a good complement to the perfectly cooked noodles The Chicken Terriyaki was tender, perfect with the rice, I was given extra sauce per my request. We ordered to much. After tasting the Yakisoba, we had it wrapped. Last to arrive was the desert. Sweet Potato was lightly glazed and had a distinct taste of sesame seeds. Sweet potato was cooked just right…...