Yabu: New Katsu Dishes and More

One of the things that I love about being a food blogger is being asked about resto or food suggestions. If you have questions (or you just want to say hi), you may tweet me or post on my Facebook page. I'll give you the best suggestion I could give, I promise! :)

Yabu is one of the restos that seemingly knows that there's always room for improvement. Since my first visit, this resto hasn't failed in impressing me each time I visit. Also, my first Yabu review also has a space on their wall (at SM Megamall branch) and on their website. Sweet.

the black and white sesame seeds for the Katsu Ritual

This post is a combination of my two recent visits, only a few days apart.

First visit

Before we start our meal, we got appetizers: Edamame and Superior Potato & Egg Salad (Php 195).

Edamame

Superior Potato & Egg Salad

My personal favorite is the Superior Potato & Egg Salad. A visit to Yabu is incomplete without it.

I also got to try Yabu's new katsu sets: the Soft Shell Crab Set (Php 480) and the Menchi Katsu Set (Php 350).

Soft Shell Crab Katsu Set

Yabu used Japanese soft-shell crabs that are harvested immediately after they've discarded their old shells, so their new shells are still soft. I'm not really huge on crabs but I liked this one. My friend, who ordered this one, pointed out that she loves eating crabs but finds deshelling really difficult, so it really helps that she doesn't have to do that with Soft Shell Crab Set.

What I fell in love with is the Menchi Katsu Set.

Menchi Katsu Set

Menchi is authentic Japanese minced meat made with superior ground beef and pork and stuffed with creamy cheese. I love cheese so much that loving it is an understatement. Menchi Katsu was oozing with cheese that I dug in as soon as it was served to me.

Another friend who joined us for dinner had Hire and Seafood Katsu Set (Php 485), which I suggested, so I could have grabbed some dory from him. hehe. The seafood sets now come with the Ponzu-Layu sauce.

Hire Seafood Katsu Set

Ponzu-Layu Set

We also had Watermelon Shake (Php 90) with our katsu sets. Other fruit shake flavors are Ripe Mango (Php 100), Green Mango (Php 100), and Pineapple (Php 90).

Watermelon Shake

For dessert, we each had Choco Lava Cake a la Mode (Php 155). Ice cream flavors are chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.

This is the only dessert item Yabu has on their menu, but I have no complaints about it. I love it! :)

Second visit

I got to visit Yabu again with my college friends. It's our good friend, Dren's dinner despedida treat since she's leaving for the States this weekend.

I'll like to call this visit my "Ultimate Unli Dinner", you'll find out later why I called it such.

Everyone in the group had the Menchi Katsu Set, but since I had Menchi a few days ago, I got Rosu (Php 355 for 120g).

Rosu Katsu Set

Rosu is a 3/4 inch thick pork cutlet with a trimming of fat. I realized that I always order Hire (pork cutlet with no fat) before and not Rosu.

Eating Rosu reminded me of how I eat a pork chop, where I separate the fat from the lean part so I could eat it last.

Yabu Katsu sets come with unlimited Japanese rice and unlimited organic cabbage. We also had bottomless House Blend Iced Tea (Php 95) and bottomless Lemonade (Php 80) to go with our katsu. There was no one in our group that had only one helping of everything. I think this was the Yabu dinner where I ate the most that I almost couldn't stand up. I blame it to the Goma dressing for the cabbage, it was sooo good!

My visit to Yabu has always been better than the previous one. The staff is well-trained and sure knows how to accommodate customers. The food is consistent of best quality that it's worth every penny. It's one of the restos that I recommend that hasn't let me down.

I'm glad that Yabu is planning to open more branches around the metro (can you guess where?) so more people would get to try their Katsu.

I'll surely schedule another visit soon and finally, try their Kurobota katsu.

Have you been to Yabu? What's your favorite Katsu?

Thanks to Erika Lim of Yabu for having me (first visit)
Thanks to Dren for the dinner treat (second visit). Bon Voyage!

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Yabu: The House of Katsu
2nd Floor
Mega Atrium
SM Megamall
Mandaluyong City
Contact No.5763900
yabumegamall@yabu.ph
http://www.yabu.ph

Other locations are Robinsons Magnolia and SM Mall of Asia