Ooma at SM City Cebu: The Best Room in the North Wing, and What It Costs

Roughly forty carp hang in rows on the wall, in navy and rust and pale blue, printed cotton on bamboo poles, the kind flown from Japanese rooftops in May for Children’s Day. Beside them a neon sign reads Nihon no baa, the Japanese bar. It is the single best wall in the North Wing and most people walk past it looking at their phone.

Ooma is the Japanese one in the row The Moment Group opened at SM City Cebu across a few days in the middle of 2025, alongside Din Tai Fung, 8Cuts, Manam and Mo’ Cookies. It is also the one that has been written about least, which is odd, because it is the only one of the five that does not look like a mall restaurant.

A note on the prices below, before you use them

Every other piece in this series prices the food off a photograph of the printed menu. That is not possible here, because the in-restaurant menu was not photographed on this visit. The figures further down are taken from the branch’s own delivery listing, checked in August 2026.

Which matters, because across this whole restaurant row the platform prices run above the board, by roughly three to thirteen percent depending on the item. So read what follows as a ceiling rather than a price list. The dine-in bill should come in under it. When the board gets photographed this page gets rewritten with the real numbers.

What Ooma is

The Moment Group launched Ooma in 2015 and the tagline on the shopfront has never changed: Bold Japanese. Not traditional, not omakase, not a sushi counter with a queue for the chef. The format is torched rolls, rice bowls and small plates, built to be shared and ordered fast, with the flavours pushed harder than a Japanese restaurant in Japan would push them.

That is the honest read of the name. Bold is doing real work in it. If you want restraint, this is not the room.

The menu, and what it runs to

Three things anchor the list: the aburi maki, which are torched rolls; the donburi, which are rice bowls; and a set of small plates.

Aburi maki, torched rolls	Delivery price
Kimchi prawn and enoki	₱365
Ebi and kani	₱375
Salmon skin	₱385
Truffled steak	₱385

Bowls and plates	Delivery price
Gyudon	₱390
Gyudon bento	₱419
Spicy salmon, small plate	₱415
Bara chirashi don	₱695
Salmon katsu	₱705

The shape of that list tells you where the value is. Four torched rolls sit within twenty pesos of each other, between ₱365 and ₱385, which means the choice between them is a choice about what you feel like rather than what you can afford. The bowls split hard: gyudon at ₱390 and then a jump to ₱695 for the chirashi and ₱705 for the salmon katsu, with nothing in between.

What to order

Gyudon, and get the egg on it. Thin beef and onion over rice with a raw yolk sitting in the middle of it, and at ₱390 on the platform it is the cheapest full plate on the list by a distance. Break the yolk into the rice before you start.

Then one torched roll for the table, because the aburi is the thing the kitchen is actually built around and a rice bowl on its own does not show you what the restaurant does. The kimchi prawn and enoki is the cheapest of the four at ₱365 and it is also the one that most obviously earns the word bold.

The two dishes at the top of the list are the ones to think about rather than default to. ₱705 for the salmon katsu is real money in a mall, and it is the order for a table that has decided this is dinner rather than a stop between shops.

It stays open latest, and that is the practical reason to come

SM City Cebu publishes 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM every day. Ooma’s own listed hours run to 9:00 PM Monday to Thursday and 10:00 PM Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Set that against the rest of the row and Ooma comes out latest. 8Cuts stops taking orders at 9:30 PM at the weekend, Din Tai Fung at 9:45 PM, and Manam keeps mall hours exactly and shuts at nine every night. If it is half past nine on a Saturday and you are in the North Wing and hungry, this is the door. Checked August 2026.

Getting there

Where. Upper Ground Level, North Wing, SM City Cebu, Juan Luna Avenue corner Cabahug and Kaohsiung Streets, North Reclamation Area, Mabolo, Cebu City 6000. Kaohsiung Street is the closest entrance, and the 03Q jeepney from Ayala sets down on Juan Luna.

The queue. Nothing like the one next door. Ooma turns tables at ordinary speed and you can generally sit down, which is not true of the Taiwanese end of the row on a weekend.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Ooma in Cebu?

Upper Ground Level of the North Wing at SM City Cebu, in the restaurant row with Din Tai Fung, 8Cuts, Manam and Mo’ Cookies. It is the first Ooma in Cebu.

How much does Ooma cost in Cebu?

Torched rolls run ₱365 to ₱385 and rice bowls from ₱390, with the salmon katsu topping the list at ₱705, on the delivery listing checked in August 2026. Dine-in prices should sit below those figures.

What are Ooma’s opening hours at SM City Cebu?

10:00 AM to 9:00 PM Monday to Thursday and 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM Friday to Sunday, which is later than the mall’s published close and later than anything else in the row.

What does Bold Japanese mean?

It is Ooma’s own description of itself and it is accurate. The format is torched rolls, rice bowls and shared small plates with the seasoning pushed harder than a traditional Japanese restaurant would push it. It is not an omakase counter and does not pretend to be.

Who owns Ooma?

The Moment Group, which launched the brand in 2015 and also runs Din Tai Fung, Manam, 8Cuts and Mo’ Cookies in the Philippines.

What are the fish on the wall?

Koinobori, carp streamers, flown in Japan around Children’s Day on 5 May. The carp is a symbol of persistence for swimming upstream, and a household traditionally flies one for each member.

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Photographed at Ooma, Upper Ground Level, North Wing, SM City Cebu. Prices are from the branch’s delivery listing rather than the printed board, and are expected to sit above dine-in. Hours and prices checked August 2026.