YABU,The House of Perfect Katsu

This is how you get over mondays…..and tuesdays…and wednesdays…

You simply just think about happy thoughts…. happy, delicious thoughts of crispy and tender kurobuta katsu dipped in thick, rich katsu sauce mixed with sesame seeds you ground yourself.

I think it was four or five years ago when I had a love affair with tonkatsu. I’d go crazy every time we dine out and go to a japanese restaurant. My head immediately fills with thoughts of deep, fried and breaded crispy pork fillets dipped in sweet-salty sauce.

I even tried cooking tonkatsu myself but I never seem to get it right.

The word katsu actually came from the word katsuretsu which means cutlet. It refers to a slice of meat that is breaded and deep fried.

Can you imagine how I excited I was to know that there is a restaurant where I can find the perfect and authentic katsu?

Yabu prepares it’s signature katsu dish so differently from other restaurants that you immediately notice the difference on your first bite — the katsu is so crispy on the outside and so tender on the inside, you can cut it with chopsticks.

Before you even get to taste these lipsmacking breaded pork cutlet, they will serve you this mixture of white and black sesame seeds  in a small saucer with grooves to help you grind them.

After grinding, you mix it with their special katsu sauce…..

Here’s Ykaie with the condiments, preparing to pour out some of those wonderful sauce….

The other condiments there are the sesame dressing {which I sooooo love!} and the vinaigrette for the cabbage salad, himalayan sea salt, black pepper and chili oil…

For starters, we had Hiyayakko Tofu, a block of cold silken tofu immersed in ponzu sauce and topped with bonito flakes and green onions. We also had Edamame, young soybeans you eat by tearing the outer skin to get to those soft green pearls.

I ordered for the Kurobuta Tonkatsu Set which includes  a big cut of Kurobuta katsu, misoshiro,  unlimited japanese rice, unlimited cabbage salad, a fruit bowl, some pickled cucumber and radishes and a dollop of mustard on the side, in case you want some sting to your tongue.

They use Kurobuta US Premium Pork for this set, also known as the Berkshire Black Pig. Kurobuta is the kobe beef of the pork world. It is pink and heavily marbled. It was pure heaven to sink my teeth into those succulent, melt in your mouth, juicy cutlets…

Sis ordered the Seafood Katsu Set. Just like the set above it comes with misoshiro, unlimited japanese rice, unlimited cabbage salad, a fruit bowl, some pickled cucumber and radishes and a dollop of mustard on the side.

The Seafood Katsu Set is a combination of Prawn, Salmon, Oyster and Crab.

It was really nice of yabu to offer Kid’s Meal. Since Ykaie loves chicken, I got her the Chicken Katsu Set for kids. It came with a small chicken cutlet with curry and honey mustard dipping sauce, a potato croquette, edamame, cabbage salad, japanese rice and a fruit bowl.

For our drinks, we had Pineapple Shake, Green Mango Shake and Ripe Mango Shake….

…and to cap off our meal, we had the Choco Lava Cake, a warm chocolate cake bursting with more choclate inside and topped with vanilla ice cream.

Yabu absolutely redefines your Katsu experience and it completely changed the way I look at these breaded beauties!

It was a heavenly lunch followed by a heavy window shopping for cubic zirconia rings.

Yabu: House of Katsu
2nd Level,Mega Atrium,
SM Megamall
Mandaluyong City