One of the things that I usually do when I blog-hop is search for new restaurants that I could try out.
Last year, Yabu introduced its "premium katsu" to Manila.
Honestly, I wasn't really ecstatic to try it out since it's only breaded something--breaded pork, breaded shrimp, breaded vegetable and so on lol.
So yea, it took me a year after its opening to finally dine there haha.
And well, guess what? I absolutely enjoyed it!
It's totally unique and different!
So first stop, the sauce/condiments for your katsu.
What's nice about Yabu is that they offer several spices/dressing/sauce that you could put on your dish. They have wasabi, shoyu, sesame dressing for your cabbage, yabu's special katsu sauce, sesame oil, chilli powder and the usual pepper.
But what caught my eye was their "pink salt" in this cute little jar.
For P31, you could order this Layu sauce which is basically chili garlic sauce in layman's term lol
Initially, I thought it was spicy but it's not so it was a little bit of a letdown but overall, it enhances the dish's flavor so it's all good.
But the true blue Yabu sauce experience is the "crushing/grinding" experience.
You will be given a mortar and a cute wooden pestle to crush the black and white sesame seeds.
After you have fully pulverized the sesame seeds, you add in the katsu sauce and mix it together making the perfect sauce for your dish.
You could google on this one for detailed pictures :)
So here's what we ordered~
I got the Kurobuta set 90g (P459.82, discounted from my dad's senior citizen card lol) forgot the regular price though sorry!
All sets come with unlimited rice, unlimited cabbage, miso soup, vegetable and fruit.
The pork comes in 120 and 90g. I got the 90g since I don't really have a big appetite. But just take a look at how large their serving is! I wasn't able to finish this actually.
My brother chose the Menchi Set (P312). It's a delicious mix of minced premium beef and pork covered in crunchy panko filled with oozing creamy cheese.
Beware of that yellow mushy thing. It's japanese mustard. And it's like yellow wasabi! Just to give you an idea on what it tastes like read THIS.
I took quite a handful when I tasted it and it really exploded in my mouth up to my nose, down to my throat. NEVER AGAIN =/
My dad ordered the Salmon set (P424) which was absolutely divine.
I'm not really fond with salmon in general but this was really good.
I highly recommend it.
Look at how these salmon were cooked to perfection!
Lastly, my mum got the Hiroshima Jumbo Oyster Set (P401)
This one, was really delicious. It's my first time to try Hiroshima oysters and they really are huge lol. Aside from that, this dish is a nice contrast of the breading's crispiness and the oyster's creaminess. LOVE <3
Closer look at the hiroshima's gooey goodness.
Verdict:
Quality of food:
Delicious and scrumptious. Everything was cooked well but then again, it's all deep-fried. Not something I would eat everyday.
Price:
It's expensive. Period.
Well, it is a "high-end" katsu restaurant after all, so what do you expect?lol
I could practically make katsu in my house given the right cooking ware and ingredients w/o cashing out much haha
Service:
WOW
Great service, I must say. The staff was knowledgeable about their menu.
The waitress who was assigned to us was very accommodating and friendly.
She explained each of the dishes and sauces well! even some of my dad's ridiculous questions lol
2 thumbs up!
THE MAIN QUESTION:
Will I go back? Definitely.
But as I mentioned, it's just deep-fried food so I'll probably dine here once or thrice a year or maybe when I'm just craving for some katsu lol
