THERE’S really no stopping young celebrity chef Bruce Ricketts and The Moment Group. Their partnership has given birth to yet another potential ‘blockbuster’ of a restaurant concept, Ooma, which has just opened its doors to the dining public on the Third Floor of SM Megamall’s hip and chic Mega Fashion Hall.
Ooma Japanese Rice Bar is their take on bold new Japanese cuisine. Getting its name from the Japanese word umai, which means ‘good,’ the restaurant is a concept of the innovative The Moment Group (with young and daring restaurateurs Abba Napa, Eliza Antonino and Jon Syjuco) with the menu crafted by Chef Bruce Ricketts. Their first collaboration, Mecha Uma, has turned out to be a huge success, and Ooma is expected to follow suit.
Redefining Japanese casual dining, Ooma boasts of a creative menu hat offers a variety of dishes Japanese food lovers crave for. Of course, the staples, such as Ebi Tempura, Chicken Teriyaki and Kani Salad, are on the menu, but with slight to bold twists. Its Ebi Tempura, for example, comes with aligue mayonnaise and avocado mousse; the Chicken Teriyaki has a miso vinaigrette dressing; and the Kani Salad combines aligue mayo and Yakiniku sauce. But what diners would really go to Ooma for are its creative dishes that offer an interplay of flavors, colors and textures, as only Chef Bruce Ricketts, the new and talented kid in town, can whip up.
The menu is built around fresh ingredients and creative ideas, interpreted in inexplicably delicious dishes served in a cozy and comfy setting. “This is a menu of dishes whose quality we can stand by, marked with Bruce’s unique and tasty interpretation of Japanese fare, at prices that won’t break the bank,” says Abba Napa of The Moment Group.
The Moment Group, with Chef Bruce—and Chefs Raffy Hubilla and Liezl Enriquez, who shall be manning the Ooma kitchen on a daily basis—held an exclusive food tasting for media and VIP guests last Tuesday (July 7, 2015), which was the eve of the formal opening of the restaurant. My husband Raff and I were privileged to have been among the first ones to try the food of Ooma.
The tasting menu offered a good representation of Ooma’s Small Plates (appetizers), Maki (sushi rolls) and Aburi Maki (blow-torched makis with a smoky flavor), Taco-maki (open-faced temaki wraps, Udon and Chahan (noodles and rice), Hot Plates (main dishes), Donburi (rice bowls) and Desserts.
EDAMAME (Php115) is a generous heaping of perfectly boiled fresh Japanese soy beans served with kimchi sauce. Unlike other Japanese restaurants, which served their Edamame plain, Chef Bruce Ricketts goes a step further and serves it with the lightly spicy Korean kimchi sauce, which gave the soy beans a kick and made the soy beans not just something to much on while waiting for your order to come but something you’d go back to even when your order is already on the table.
SALMON TATAKI and TUNA TATAKI (both Php195) are great starters because they’re served very fresh and gets the palate ready for more. The Salmon Tataki has even slices of sesame-crusted salmon served with roasted pineapple, pickled red radish and ginger garlic sauce; while the Tuna Tataki has the sesame-crusted tuna dancing on the plate with picked mushrooms, fried shallots, pickled red radish and ginger garlic sauce. Take the fish with a bit of everything, and it’s an explosion of melding flavors on your palate.
CALIFORNIA TACO-MAKI (Php135) is one of Ooma’s four Taco-maki flavors. Taco-makis are open-faced temaki wraps, inspired by the cone-shaped maki called temaki but interpreted in an open taco style. For the California Taco-maki, the nori is crunched up beautifully and layered with kani sticks, aligue mayo, herb aioli and mango pico for that perfect blend of color, flavor and texture that Filipinos have come to love. It’s torched on top, and you eat it not with chopsticks but with your hands. Pick up a piece—the nori holds everything together—and pop it in your mouth, and, again, it’s sheer gastronomic pleasure.
ASSORTED MAKIS AND ABURI MAKIS IN AN OMAKASE BOX arrives on the table, and it’s a treasure trove of makis and aburi makis. Think Spicy Tuna Maki, Ebi Tempura Maki, Salmon Belly Maki, Scallop and Tuna Aburi Maki, Hamachi and Kani Aburi Maki, Salmon Skin Aburi Maki and Unagi Maki. Everything looks so good that you would not know where to begin and, once you’ve begun, how to stop.
O-GYOZA (Php235 for 5 pieces) is a familiar and classic Japanese dumpling like the ones other Japanese restaurants serve, but this one doesn’t stop at being a regular Gyoza. It has gratinated mozzarella and cheddar cheeses, scallions, togarashi and unagi (eel) sauce.
CORN & OYSTER KAKI-AGE (Php155) is a platter of crunchy fritters made with fresh oyster meat and Japanese corn kernels. The kaki-ages are lined on a plate with a scoop of kimchi mayo dressing and some nori salt to add different flavor dimensions to them.
TORI KARA-AGE (Php245) from the Hot Plates menu would make any chicken lover very happy. It’s crispy chicken thigh pieces coated with sweet potato strips before being cooked, served with scallions, togarashi, seaweed and Okinawa sauce.
HANGER STEAK (Php495) is a generous serving of sous-vide hanging tender, cut into thin slices and served on a bed of sweet potato mash with sautéed mushrooms and crispy baby potatoes, drizzled with white truffle oil, pickle dressing and Ponzu butter. It’s an incredibly affordable and totally satisfying steak meal for its price!
HOUSE CHA-HAN (Php99) is Chef Bruce Ricketts’ take on the classic Japanese fried rice, using mixed vegetables and egg in frying the sticky Japanese rice. It goes very well with any of the Hot Plates items on the menu, although diners can have other fried rice variations, too.
UNI UDON (Php495) will totally wow any diner. It’s a generous bowl of udon noodles cooked with fresh uni (sea urchin meat), shrimps, onion and fresh mushrooms in uni cream sauce, and topped with nori crumbs. It looks and smells good when served on the table, but it tastes even better.
MATCHA GREEN TEA-RAMISU (Php195) is perhaps the best way to end a Japanese meal at Ooma. It’s matcha green tea mousse layered with rum-soaked, coffee-flavored ladyfingers as an exciting Japanese interpretation of the classic Tiramisu. You’d love to have a second shot glass of this dessert.
If the menu, the service and the speed at which food kept coming at a fast pace (despite the fact that the restaurant was full) were to be the gauge of just how Ooma would fare against the bevy of Japanese restaurants in the market today, it’s sure to be another big winner.
(Ooma Japanese Rice Bar can be found at the Third Floor, Mega Fashion Hall, SM Megamall, in Mandaluyong City. It is open from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily.)
