What We Ate at Omakase, Marikina

Isay Dizon
Mar 8, 2017
2 min read

We've been driving under the hot beams of Philippine sun for too long yesterday, and my boyfriend and I were hungry. A few minutes short to the first of a chain of container food parks in San Roque, Marikina, he recalls this little Japanese resto called Omakase which stands just along the street.

It was a Sunday, and even though there were only few parking spaces available, we managed to park between the resto and the neighboring tile store with the help of manong guard. Entering the air-conditioned place was a relief to our sweltering bodies and foodless guts. So, we ordered the minute we sat on their comfy sofas.

The place was half-filled with families spending their chill afternoon on Japanese feasts. The interiors whisper cutesy Japan with its matcha-colored walls painted with cherry blossoms which probably inspired us to get our dessert.

Apparently, we’ve had this agreement on saving up for future’s sake, so we ordered the cheapest meal we could get for our sort of cravings. I ordered a Salmon donburi, while he ordered the pork variant (Both P205). To add a little kick to our simple lunch out, we added a five-piece Salmon nigiri (P210/5 pcs.) and Matcha ice cream (P85). Okay, so maybe this isn’t cheap for a simple lunch at all, but because of the quality, I give kudos to him on this one.

Both our donburis were served warm and quite generously. I could taste in my Salmon donburi, the interplay of the light flavors of the tender fish, the eggs, and the rice topped with fishy furikake. I’ve found that donburis are served differently in other restaurants with but mine comes with small cuts of carrots and green peas. The Pork donburi was tastier than mine. It tastes like the typical ones so I recommend it for those who opt for safe meals.

The salmon sashimi was nice. I wasn’t totally honest about expecting a let-down considering its cheap price but, it has the same freshness and creamy salmon taste you get from your legit Japanese restos. The rich-favored Matcha ice cream? You could see in both our flirty smiles we were having a good time with it. One was enough for us to enjoy a little chitchat before we billed out.

Takeaway

If you’re adulting like what we’re trying to do, you probably want to lay off the expensive eats like Japanese food. Omakase, however, is one option you have for fairly prices ones.

Verdict

Cleanliness and comfort – 7/10

Ambience and presentation – 7/10

Price and quality – 8/10

Pros

- Affordable lunch sets and nigiris

- Serves house tea

- Servers are quite alert

- Servers promptly refills your glass with water

- Air-conditioned and clean

- Convenient location

Cons