Ooma Japanese Cuisine — Restaurant in Taguig

I've landed 3 weeks ago in the Philippines and I've just visited Ooma again for the 6th time tonight and I was EXTREMELY disappointed.

I would always come with my family or friends and I'll be ordering the same usual "Katsudon" with side sushi/gyoza/udon orders. Tonight, we ordered Tori Karaage, Ebi Tempura, Oyudon, Oyakudon, Katsudon and Buta Kakuni Udon for 5 people.

First thing I realized was that the prices went up approximately by 20% with a newly designed menu. When the food arrived, I was excited as I thought I got to taste the same flavours that I enjoyed last time but:

Tori Karaage was in smaller portion and it was a bit too salty. Gyūdon's beef became thinner; too salty and sweet. Katsudon's pork was too DRY. Extremely dry, in fact, I finished a few glasses of water to rehydrate myself. Also, there was a hint of sourness from the pork that wasn't there on my previous visits. Oyakodon was average. Although, there was also the same hint of sourness in the chicken, similar to what the pork had from Katsudon. Ebi Tempura; it was our first time ordering it, just wanted to comment on the batter as it was TOO THICK and was soaking in oil. Japanese tempura is supposed to be light and fluffy, but this ain't it.

Overall, no problem with the service, although we had to stand up to take menus and remind a few times regarding our food but I understand as it was peak hours.

In the end, their superior explained to us regarding the adjustment in prices and recipes as it wasn't only effective in their outlet, but as a whole, after we gave our feedback. She also explained that we weren't the first customers to voice out and mentioned that even the staffs had the same comment as us regarding the food. She kindly took my name and contact and I hope that I receive a message from them regarding our experience.

I didn't get to take photos as it wasn't an enjoyable moment but here's the receipt and a photo of the Oyakodon.

We've also purchased their Moment Card as we visit their restaurant quite often and other partners eateries, but I am now having second thoughts on dining at Ooma again. I hope that Ooma Management fixes this as soon...

Dear The Moment Group,

My family and I love your chain of restaurants; from Manam to Din Tai Fung, and Ooma. We even bought a Moment Card. Your branches in SM Fairview and Megamall have great service but this particular OOMA branch in BGC is the WORST.

57 minutes waiting time for everything to be served.

YES.

57 minutes!

I decided to bring my friends here for a get together. I confidently chose Ooma kasi alam ko hindi ako mapapahiya sa pagkain. Hindi nga ako napahiya sa food, pero sa waiting time naman ako nadale.

We ordered the following:

✔️ Tori Karaage ✔️ Ebi Tempura ✔️ Hanger Steak ✔️ Oyakodon ✔️ Cheese Katsu Curry Don ✔️ Mochi & Matcha Cheesecake

The Karaage arrived 23 minutes after our order was taken. After 10 minutes, some of the food arrived. I had to make numerous follow-ups and after a total of 45 minutes of waiting, we still don't have our complete order. They told me to wait 3 minutes more for the Cheese Katsu Curry Don, but it arrived after 10 minutes+. 57 minutes after the order was taken, our food was complete.

My bad, maybe I should have asked how long the waiting time was. The lady who took our order did not give us a heads up too so we thought all is well.

In fairness, the food is really good. Due to the long waiting time, everything went cold. Before the last meal was served, we decided to go ahead and eat.

I don't know what went wrong. Kulang ba sa staff or management issue? I've read some of the reviews here and it looks like some had long waiting times as well.

I have never experienced waiting for almost an hour for my whole order to be served. Plus another 25 minutes for the cheesecake, wow. The long wait time is really not the main issue here because other restos have busy times too. But maybe you could have changed the whole experience if you have just set the right expectations and have better customer service. Don't leave your...

It's only an okay place at best, although I didn't enjoy my experience here one bit unfortunately. This is probably what I'd consider to be an "Instagrammable restaurant", where everything looks good but has no substance whatsoever in terms of food quality.

Efficiency was ridiculously bad. I reached around 745pm to wait outside, and ended up getting a seat only around 820pm. I ordered immediately (with desserts too), but got my food 840pm. Being alone, I finished up my Unagi and Tamago Aburi Maki + Hanger Steak in 15mins, instead of serving the dessert next, I was given the bill by the same server who took all my orders. Got my dessert 10mins later, and I only managed to leave the restaurant at 930pm.

Servers are friendly and nice, but not proactive. Doesn't help that there's so many of them and none of the many could meet my service level bar. E.g. I was given disposable wooden chopsticks when everyone around me was given back dine-in chopsticks. They served my the bill instead of my dessert. Each interaction with the servers took about 3-5mins to be responded (like from the time I asked for the bill to the time I closed it, was easily 10mins). It's ridiculously inefficient given how many people are working there.

Food wise, my aburi maki was served cold (when it should be torched warm?), and when I continued observing, could see how long each dish was sitting on the service counter for. Hanger steak was just drowned in truffle oil, and not much taste of the steak nor sweet potato. The molten lava cake was a bit of a saving grace, until I reached the icecream - tough frozen and doesn't cut well when I cut from the top to the bottom of the cake. There was no way I could have the icecream + cake + chocolate together. They could have used a better quality gelato for the price point.

All in all, very hyped, but hype was all...