Okurama
Dragonara Road,
St Julian’s
Tel: 2785 5888
Food: 6/10
Service: 7/10
Ambience: 6/10
Value: 7/10
Overall: 6.5/10
A valid tip for drivers everywhere would be to start by making one’s intentions clear, and then to committing to the action. For instance, indicate well before taking a turn and then take the darned turn. This would keep our roads safer and turn national road rage down to a slow simmer.
There’s more to this sequence of events though. Let’s say you walk into anywhere that provides a service to the public and that requires you to interact with a human to obtain that service. You walk up to this person and he’s on the phone. There are two possible outcomes. The person chats away for five minutes and then acknowledges you. By then you’re seething.
The other option is for that person to acknowledge you, explain that they’ll be with you shortly, and spend 10 minutes on the phone. Even though this scenario includes twice the delay, you’re probably only mildly irritated by the wait but surely not furious with the biped providing the service.
Alas, this approach is as simple to execute as it is a rarity. If I knew anything about statistics I’d try to figure out what percentage of my weekly aggravation could be eliminated if this simple process were carried out a little more. Then again, around 42 per cent of statistics are made up on the spot, so I could just hurl a figure at you and hope you’ll never bother doing your own maths.
Which brings me to the weather. The link might appear tenuous so I’ll explain. It has been much hotter than I think humans were meant to deal with, and I complain loudly and annoyingly about this all summer.
One evening last week, while feeling like I was about to sweat the last drop of moisture in my body and turn into a giant raisin, I walked past Okurama in Paceville. I’ve often looked inside and wasn’t certain what to make of it.
I like Japanese food and will gladly try a source of sushi I haven’t yet sampled but the restaurant looked a little like a designer canteen, with rows and rows of tables in a vast, open space. This time it appeared to me like a source of Japanese food and an escape from the heat, so in I trundled, down the stairs I hopped, and was guided to a table by one of the young ladies in uniform who make up the service team.
There is a slightly elevated portion of the restaurant and the staff seemed to be doing all they could to seat as many patrons in this area. And it was hot there.
I picked a table in the corner of the room and, within seconds, another girl on the team approached us, apologising profusely and explaining that the air-conditioning had gone AWOL that very day and they hadn’t managed to repair it. She also suggested that we change table to one closer to the open windows and within reach of a fan they’d rigged to help alleviate the problem.
I did as she suggested and moved to the table that was indeed slightly cooler. Had they acted like there was no issue I’d probably have sat there fuming and dripping for five minutes and then stormed out, never to return. Acknowledging the issue and offering a solution won me over though, so I stayed and thought nothing of the heat all evening.
While not keen on all the décor of the restaurant, I appreciate the effort that went into it
So, back to statistics, she’d placed herself and Okurama within the small percentage of people who can make one’s week better, even in adverse conditions. And now that the link between statistics and the weather has been made clear, your patience is rewarded.
Despite adding ‘international taste’ to the name on the door, there are references to ‘international tapas’ everywhere else, and this had me half amused and half curious. Tapas does put one’s mind in Spain somehow, and the menu contains nothing from that corner of the earth. It does, however, add items from the Korean, Chinese and Indian cookbooks. This makes things a little more interesting than I’d imagined but doesn’t quite live up the tapas claim.
I had a look through the entire menu, and then started to order progressively through it, starting with the nigiri sushi and working my way to the main courses. So we hopped from nigiri to maki and on to sashimi, pausing only for some Cantonese dim sum on our way to the main course. I was having the lamb panang, mainly because I was curious about what Indian food at a Japanese restaurant tastes like. The better half was set on the Vietnam beef rolls that appeared in the appetiser section and decided to have that as main course.
The wine menu is unfortunately quite weak and priced to match, so there are several generic bottles that hover below the €15 mark. I ordered an Asahi. You know where you are with this beer and I like where that happens to be. I’m not sure whether the better half ordering a glass of white wine was brave or foolish and wasn’t about to ask which of the two I was contending with.
The service is very formalised. It consists of a synchronised front of house so that even though five different members of the team served us, the style and level was almost identical. In a restaurant of this size and location, this is something of a necessity and Okurama has implemented this consistency quite effectively.
Timing isn’t quite what it should be and this could be more to do with the kitchen than the front of house.
Our dim sum was served almost worryingly quickly and it was quite what one would expect of the little dumplings. They’re filled with that sort of fragrant sausage-consistency that is tasty and savoury and that you’d rather not worry about too much. Then nothing happened for quite a long time, during which the restaurant started to fill up nicely.
The sushi was, quite thoughtfully, served all at once. It is neatly presented and made with fresh ingredients across the board. The seared scallops, our only sashimi dish, were just great and cooked to the perfect temperature. Unfortunately, the rest of the sushi suffered from rather poor rice, and perfecting rice is the mainstay of the sushi kitchen.
We had another relatively long wait until the Vietnam beef rolls turned up. When they did, they were alone. Six of the spring rolls make the portion so it was more than enough as a main course and they were quite lovely. They were served with that sweet chilli sauce that I happen to avoid at all costs but I wasn’t the one who’d ordered the dish. The better half made all sorts of approving noises and devoured the dish while I watched.
Then, a few minutes later, my main course arrived. This time I was the one to eat while watched, and realised how uncomfortable this feels. The lamb is served as grilled chops with a little sauce on top and a neat mound of rice next to it. I’d been asked how I wanted the lamb cooked and I specified that I like it rare, but that ship had sailed, probably around the time the beef rolls had arrived. The sauce was tasty though, so I made my way through two of the five chops then just added the sauce to the rice.
There’s some interesting dessert on the menu but I wasn’t sufficiently impressed with the food to hang around for longer and wait for it so I asked for the bill. It wasn’t a terrible deal at €60 and I realised I’m paying for a location that is probably extortionate to rent out.
Okurama is actually a good idea. I like the way food from the East comes together and, while not personally keen on all the décor of the restaurant, I appreciate the effort that went into it. So we get to pick across the continent a little, have service that is polite, efficient and honest, and it’s wrapped up in quite a pleasant dining space. It won’t cost anything to fix the niggles, either.
So if you’re in this end of the woods and want to avoid the fried chicken and dodgy kebabs, this could just about do the trick.
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