Ogawa - Metro Manila

The food at this restaurant was fantastic, the service was excellent, and overall it was a perfect dining experience. We tried the Steak, Tori Katsu, BentoNox #6, salmon sashimi, and the green tea ice cream.

Some restaurants have a price to value ratio that is very off-balance, and in my opinion, Ogawa is one of them. Perhaps I do not appreciate the food enough, but there are many Japanese-inspired restaurants that I believe are much better than Ogawa.

This place is as "traditional japanese" as I am...The decor could be considered ok but the ventilation system is very poor for a teppanyaki restaurant. We wanted to try a set dinner but the choice in the menu is quite restricted (only 3 options).We opted for a Kobe beef set dinner. We got a trailer with "complimentary" appetiser (a small piece of the head of a fish which I thought was tuna), a small salad, a miso soup and one small cube of pineapple and one small cube of mellon. The latter we later come to know was our "dessert"...We were then served a single plate with a few small prawns, three scallops, a bunch of beansprouts and some Kobe pieces. The plate was later accompanied by a fried rice that was disgusting and I left it untouched after first spoon.We had asked to minimise the use of margarine before to be served since we were in front of the teppanyaki chef and we saw how he was using a spoon to through margarine at the grill with a generosity that we cringe at but regrettably the meat was soft but way too sweet for our taste.We did not got anything else. The check for that plus a glass of chardonnay and one kirin beer was an astonishing 13,200 pesos for two.It was a robbery, I sincerely recommend everybody to stay clear of this place.

Going through the menu, our group decided their set menus were the best deals. They have sets for P320, for okonomiyaki, up to P2,300 for a lobster and steak teppanyaki set. Our group opted for the bento set #6 (P590) which was very generous with 3 kinds of sashimi, salad, chawan mushi, gindara teriyaki, ebi tempura and fresh fruit slices/dessert. It was plentiful and impressive. Unfortunately, if you are a fan of good Japanese food, you will realize that the quality and freshness leaves much to be desired. You would have tasted better chawan mushi, fresher sashimi and better gindara (that tasted like tuna) elsewhere. Our other choice was set menu #11 which was steak, salmon and prawn teppanyaki at P760. The seafood and mixed vegetables were not fresh and great tasting. The steak was not bad. We ordered several a la carte items such as their oysters, chicken teppanyaki, scallops, and chicken wings. The consensus was that they were either poorly or under-seasoned. They were not worth the money spent on them. There are much better tasting Japanese restaurants in Metro Manila. They are very expensive if you order a la carte. The only thing we really enjoyed was the grilled chicken wings. With all the hype and good review, Ogawa was definitely a let down.

It was recommended by my friend. We went there with family while we are having a vacation in Phil. Food is so good. The seafoods are fresh and literally melts in your mouth.