My visit at KIMUKATSU Japanese Restaurant located at the East Wing of Shangri-La Mall was a long time coming. Their famous take on tonkatsu which is a 25-layered Mille-feuille-style pork cutlets was something new to me. Having read good write ups about Kimukatsu from fellow food bloggers in Manila, I figured I should really make a time to visit.
There are a lot of katsu restaurants here in Manila ever since the katsu craze hit us, but Kimukatsu, a Japanese franchise takes pride being unique from the rest because of their unusual rendition of a katsu dish. Add to that, a list of other Japanese dishes on the menu that's equally impressive.
When I finally had the time to visit Kimukatsu, my mother and I visited their branch at the East Wing of Shangri-La Mall. It was lunchtime during our visit and the store is still near empty. But a minute or so, people started coming in until there's already a waiting list.
Since I have an affinity for color black, I fell in love with the color palette of their store. The only problem is that it can be a challenging feat when you're the type who takes photos of your food. Although majority of the color is black and in that same shade, the play on pattern made the entire area seems lively and interesting.
The lamps on the ceiling as well as the black ghosts chairs added sophistication to the place without making it intimidating. There's a small private room available for diners who prefer some privacy while having their meal at Kimukatsu.
The menu comes in two colors; black and white. I was told that it has something to do with their diner's genders. Black for guys and white for the ladies. The items on the menu consist of numbers of Japanese dishes with main focus on what they do bet, the 25-layered Mille-feuille-style katsu in different flavors.
Our lunch with a serving of Ebi Mayo (Php210) for appetizer. Plump shrimps in a very light orange batter coated with mayonnaise. Although it has a little zing to it, I appreciate the texture and the flavor. My mom also love this because she thought the shrimps were perfectly cooked.
My mom is big on potato salad so we had Kimukatsu's Potato Salad (Php130) as well. It was a good salad because it has a fine balance of starchiness with a hint of savory flavor brought by the fried crisp onion sitting atop.
The Negi Shio Tofu (php130) which my mother didn't really enjoy because she find it too bland for her taste ended up as one of my favorites, surprisingly. I love that it remained true to the true taste of tofu while the addition of the mildly sweet sauce with spring onions was just superb.
Just like the other katsu places, Kimukatsu has the usual sauces and black sesame for the katsu and the shredded cabbage.
There are also two types of miso soup at Kimukatsu. One of which has a lighter color compared to the other. The darker miso called Red miso suggests a flavor that is a little salty than the lighter one. We were told that again, it has something to do with gender of the diners. The lighter miso for the ladies while the dark ones are for the guys.
Aside from the uniqueness of its pork cutlets, Kimukatsu prided itself for serving different flavors of katsu. These katsu can be availed through Rice Sets which includes rice, shredded cabbage, miso soup, and Japanese pickles. All of which are unlimited save for the katsu. For big groups Assorted Sets are preferrable as it includes different flavors of katsu, unlimited rice, unlimited shredded cabbage, miso soup, and pickled cabbage.
We tried the 5 flavor Kimukatsu Set (Php 1,800) because the set of 7 would be way too much for my mom and I. We go for the best selling flavors that are available that day; plain, garlic, cheese, ume shiso, and yuzu pepper.
Of all the flavor we tried, I like the cheese and the ume shiso the best. The ume shiso is flavored with Japanese sour plum and shiso leaf. I like it for its uniqueness, something that I wasn't able to get in any other katsu which I have tried before.
Since these pork cutlets are layerd, the distribution of fat was well balanced making each cut really flavorful and moist.
Since most of our katsu has flavors, we barely touched the sauce. But for the plain katsu, it went perfectly well.
I rarely eat pickled vegetable on katsu sets but Kimukatsu's Japanese pickles were too good not to devour. I think I have asked thrice to refill my serving. the shredded cabbage I was told were organic cabbage, hence way healthier compared to others.
Kimukatsu also uses Koshihikari Rice, a high quality Japanese rice that was so good I couldn't get enough of it. Other restaurant which I have been to that serves the same type of rice is Ginza Bairin.
For dessert I was dead set on having the green tea ice cream but unfortunately it was not available at that time. So instead we settled for Kurogoma Pudding (Php110) which color my mom does not approved but taste made her really happy.
We also had Japanese Panna Cotta (Php110) which made me a happy camper despite not having my favorite green tea ice cream. This panna cotta was definitely one of the reasons why I will definitely go back to Kimukatsu. I love that it was not too sweet and the kinako (roasted soybean flour) on top of it made it all the more interesting.
I have to admit that I was not one of those who went crazy over the katsu craze that rocked the food enthusiasts' world for the past years, but I have my moments when I would crave for some. Kimukatsu gave me a different experience with katsu and for that, I will definitely be back again.
Kimukatsu
Level 5 Shangri-la Plaza East Wing
Shaw Boulevard corner EDSA Mandalyoung City
Telephone: +(632) 727-0333
Website: kimukatsu.com
Facebook: /Kimukatsu1129
