Oki Oki Review--Is it Really OK?

Rating: 2/5

Prior to writing this post, I searched for reviews about Oki Oki, a Japanese restaurant with a branch at TriNoma because I wasn't sure about its name. Mostly, I saw positive reviews, but I don't think I share the same thoughts with them.

Why?

Before you read further, you should know that my basis of how great a Japanese restaurant is is their Katsudon. That's friend pork with egg on top of rice. I have tasted a lot of Katsudon dishes from various stores, but the one that I love the most is still the one found locally in Los Banos, Laguna, where I live. As for the Katsudon at Oki Oki, its serving was huge! I was not able to finish it all, and if you know me, I try my best not to have any leftover food on my plate because I have any food going to waste. But their serving was really too much for me.

Katsudon, PhP195

On the other hand, my friend, Karen, loves Gyudon, so she ordered a Gyudon meal set complete with miso soup and iced tea. Just like their Katsudon, and I think all of their other dishes, it was served in an overwhelming quantity. If you are a big eater, this restaurant can fill you up!

 

Gyudon set from top to bottom:  Miso Soup  Iced Tea, , and Gyudon, PhP 195

Since we love Japanese food and wanted to try out other dishes, I decided to order a serving of Yaki Gyoza and Karen chose a skewered dish that I forgot the name already.

Yaki Gyoza. This order was supposed to be fried. 

What did I expect from the gyoza? Meat. What did I get? Ginger. But hey, there are various gyoza varieties, so I can't judge them poorly just because I didn't like their recipe. The five pieces were already too much as a side dish for me.











Karen ordered these skewered shrimps, which I forgot the name already. For her, they tasted overly sweet, but for me it was okay. I'm usually the one that likes sweet dishes, that's why. :)






I just have to say that Oki Oki needs to add more stuff outside their counters and cooking areas. When we visited, there was only one waitress (green shirt) and I'm assuming that the other female helping her out occasionally was the manager because of her different uniform. Just imagine how hard the waitress had to work and shuffle all over the room just to accommodate everyone. I felt really tired for her because the place was packed and she had to alternate in ushering them in, seating them, taking their orders, serving them, and addressing their food concerns.

One or two more waitresses would have made it all better, even if that meant adding service charge to the total bill.