Watami Grill & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Quezon City

WARNING: Do NOT be fooled by the high and glowing reviews! If you are here for quality Japanese food, look elsewhere. Watami will leave you scratching your head, thinking, "wat-am-i doing here?"

Let's start with the food. The food here is...mediocre. I got myself a katsu curry set consisting of rice, katsu curry, and some veg and soup. The katsu and curry itself were just fine. That's the keyword here: just fine. It is not outstanding, it's just a simple meal that's just okay.

The breading on the pork detached very easily, which, if you've eaten some good katsu, you know is a hallmark sign of less-than-stellar quality. The amount of curry sauce was laughable, and there simply isn't enough katsu to go around; at all. I mean, I typically clean my plates, but I couldn't finish the rice on this one as there was too little katsu on it.

You wanna know the kicker here? This katsu set costs 475 PHP! A steal...in the sense that you're being swindled of your money. This should cost 150, max. I can get far better katsu at, say, Yabu or Katsu Sora, for LESS! There is no reason for this restaurant to charge Breakfast at Antonio's-type prices on dishes that have worser value than even Yayoi. This is shocking. And it's actually sad to see that this restaurant is so highly praised — considering that this restaurant could be many people's first introduction to Japanese cuisine, it is shocking that they couldn't get the essentials of a Japanese katsu curry right. Just give me more pork, proper breading, and more curry sauce, and maybe some carrots and potatoes. Could it be that hard to do on a 475₱ budget? Katsu Sora could even fit an entire salad bar in 400₱...

Now, look. Maybe I just got my order wrong. Maybe I should've ordered what was in the restaurant's name: grilled skewers and sushi. Then maybe it'd be good? But even then, at least make your non-landmark dishes...good? If you're pouring all your money into skewers & sushi then maybe consider serving just...skewers and sushi.

TL;DR: Extremely mediocre and sloppily made katsu curry at high prices; there are much better places for Japanese...

We visited Watami UP Town Center and enjoyed a variety of dishes.

They served us a complimentary dish to start, which included eggplant, bean sprouts, and seaweed.

We ordered the homemade gyoza and California roll as appetizers. The assorted chicken skewers for starters had an odd taste, so we had to skip eating some parts of the dish.

For mains, we had salmon teriyaki with karaage teishoku and ramen with karaage teishoku, which we found satisfying, though some dishes lacked seasoning.

For dessert we had the matcha cheesecake, it was delightful but missing the matcha taste.

The staff, especially Geraldine, provided welcoming vibes, consistently checking on us, and ensuring our drinks were refilled. Overall, a pleasant experience with room for improvement in dish seasoning.

To make our stay more enjoyable, we availed the 50% off discount using our Security...

The place was quite busy when we arrived, and since we were a big group, we had to wait a bit longer to be seated together. The food also took some time to arrive, but the staff were very accommodating and attentive to our requests, which made the wait more manageable.

When the food came out, it was okay—nothing particularly standout, but decent overall. Fortunately, they had a 50% off promo, which made the experience feel much more worth it at that price point.

It’s a nice place to try, especially if there’s a discount running. But at regular price, it might not be...