We have been to TOWA many times but today’s experience was disappointing. We took their omakase set and dinner took almost 2hrs 30mins. It was too long for my liking as we usually schedule 1.5hrs for dinner here with plans after. There was only 1 chef and the server who doubled up as assistant chef. So the front of house service was lacking. We saw guests who had to wait for more than 20mins to place their drinks order as the server was busy cooking. The kitchen help also came out to assist briefly as the whole restaurant was full. The food standard also dropped a lot - the crab was very fishy, the donabe wasn’t flavourful and the wagyu beef was a tad overcooked. We liked their beef hand roll and scallops - these were very good. In addition, they stopped serving sake by carafes or small bottles and only had the 720ml which is too much for 2 pax. We noticed most guests ended up drinking just green tea. Based on our experience today, we are not sure if we will be back.

I’d dine in to this restaurant more than once now, tried both Omakase menu & à la carte menu(but not all of the dishes yet). I’ve to say dinning at Towa is great, the atmosphere is cool & chilling, the chef wearing his iconic cap is a good friend of mine and known him close to a decade, great character, charismatic & personality, and the waiter is a cool guy as well but of course the most important is the food so let’s talk about that. Recently I tried the $228 Omakase, 10 small dishes in total & all are unique but there’re two particular dishes that leaves a unsatisfied taste in my palate which are the tempura with lots of seaweed in it & the claypot rice. For some reason they have these weird tastes like “medicine” & “mouth wash” after you start eating them in my opinion. So personally I prefer having à la carte menu than Omakase to be honest but please don’t let that discourage you to not dine in here because there’re other dishes that taste really good & I’ll come back to dine in someday again for sure. If you love Japanese food & at the same time watching chefs cooking your dishes from start to finish, I definitely recommend you to try here & see for yourself. So marks I’ll give it 4/5, it may not be perfect 5/5 but definitely approved by yours truly. Why? Because I said so.😁😏

We walked in on a Wednesday night to try their tsukemen with pork and their omurice. The tsukemen broth is savoury and goes very well with the noodles once mixed together, at $24, the value is there. The omurice and beef stew ($20) was perfectly cooked on the sizzling pan; just note the beef portions are small, so it may not fill you up. Adding their hamburg is an extra $20. We also enjoyed their house plum wine, with very refreshing notes. If I’m rating Towa on food, value for price, and service alone, they’d deserve 3.5 stars. That said, we found ourselves seated near a few large groups who were very loud, which I suppose is part of the ganbei culture. Whether that bothers you depends on how you like your dining experience.

The soup was actually very flavourful and thick (regardless of what some other reviews mentioned). I liked the original flavour the most, but was also delighted to change it up a little with some vinegar and chilli oil. I got the special, worth it. The chefs and host were also very kind and had the same service as what I experienced in Japan.

I love their Tsukemen. The noodles have such a good chewy texture, and the dipping broth is rich, thick and packed with flavour without feeling too heavy. That said... the atmosphere kinda threw me off. We went on a weekend afternoon and the restaurant was pretty dim, the music was slow, and everyone in the kitchen just seemed really gloomy. No one was talking, everyone was quietly working with their heads down, and everything felt like it was moving in slow motion. Usually I wouldn't even notice something like this, but because the seating faces the kitchen (I'm guessing it's usually set up for their omakase experience), it was inevitable that the mood back there became part of the dining experience. So... dining there was kinda awkward and the atmosphere made it hard to converse but I'm not gonna let that affect my rating though. Would definitely be back for their Tsukemen!