Yabu... Delicious Tonkatsu!

My partner has been wanting to try Yabu for the longest time, and finally I gave in last week. After hearing mass, we went to the 2nd floor of SM Megamall - Atrium and finally found the restaurant. 

How would I describe the restaurant? At first glance, it looked like a Japanese Restaurant taken out from a 5-star class hotel. The design, color scheme and over-all look was very classy and fancy. In the middle was a set of Japanese Comic Strips supposedly to tell the story of "How Yabu Came to be?" Cool touch there!

The Maitre'D was very knowledgeable and pleasant. We were 2nd to get a seat, and were pleasant surprised to find out we already have a seat after about 5 minutes. I ended up ordering Chicken Katsu (which was my favorite anywhere) and he ended up having Rosu Katsu (if I spelled that out right - it was the thick Tonkatsu cut with a little fat trimming on the side).

The one who educated us about the sauce and how the whole shebang works didn't make us look stupid - but was actually nice enough to guide us through. It was fun making the sauce while waiting for the food. I didn't have this much fun - before the food - ever.

After some time, the food finally came in this big tray, with the unlimited cabbage, dessert, rice and miso soup. Wow! It was so pleasing to the eyes and it was almost literally calling out our names to eat them up! LOL!

Both of us found the katsu tender, juicy but suprisingly not oily. I've had bad experiences with Tonkatsu's before - wherein a big chunk of fat was there - and I don't like fat. Plus, it kinda makes me feel that it becomes an extender for the pork and I'm short-changed. Yabu's Katsu was a blessing - it was filling and light. The fat trimming on the Rosu Katsu my partner had was just right - and I didn't feel so shortchanged on the pork.

What makes this restaurant very memorable would be the service really. They were sooo prompt and efficient. I was so amused with those handling the re-fills, it's like they knew when I needed it. They were also very polite and always served with a smile. Simple things like that really makes a memorable experience.

With that said, we will definitely go back to Yabu. And as I said, their service is work every cent of the service charge they ask.

Food: 4 and half checks

Serving & Money Value: 5 checks

Ambiance: 4 and half checks

Overall: 4 and half checks! :)

Yabu SM Megamall

Second Floor, Mega Atrium, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City, Philippines

Japanese - Komoro Soba

Taken from OpenRice.com "Komoro Soba"

I always promised myself that if I were to do a food blog, the first restaurant that I will ever review would be a restaurant that I practically grew up with - Komoro Soba.

Komora Soba is a Japanese Casual Dining Restaurant that can be located at the SM Megamall A, Ground Floor - just across Toy Kingdom. It has been in it's location since mid-90s, and regardless of the competition, has seemed to find a niche in the Japanese Restaurant Market.

Yakisoba (Taken from a Nokia 6300 phone)

The one main thing I like with Komoro Soba is that it is one of the very few Authentic Japanese Restaurants that markets itself to the lower and upper middle classes. Now, when I say it's authentic, it has to be of course owned, cooked and managed by someone who has had food from Japan.

The resto's owned by this nice Japanese - Filipino Family, wherein the Japanese patriarch is the head cook of the restaurant, while his wife manages the store. It always was a treat whenever I eat at Komoro Soba @ lunchtime, and it was always the Japanese owner cooking the food and managing the kitchen (which can be seen through the glass windows - always nice to watch them cook your food, similar to other Japanese Restaurants in Japan).

Tendon with extra order of Kaki Age (Taken from a Nokia 6300 phone)

Food - 3 and a half checks

Given that they cook your food before serving, I like the fact that it's always hot and fresh. You know that it's not just cooked somewhere and re-heated.

The rice that they serve with their ricebowls is very delicious. Big strands of rice that are very tasty. You could see it's well washed and cleaned before cooked. :)

The restaurant is known for it's very fulling Hot Soba soups, which can be topped by Tempura or Tonkatsu among others. I'm not a soup person really so I'd normally have Tendon, Gyoza and occasionally, Yakisoba.

The TENDON is actually pretty good. One thing I'm very particular with Tempura is that if it's mostly shrimp or all batter. I mean, come on, when we order tempura, we expect to eat shrimp not flour, right?

When you bite into the Ebi Tempura, you get a big, full prawn inside it. The Tempura sauce make it a lot more delicious, with it's sweet and tangy taste.

The KAKI-AGE, that's part of the bowl, is good as well. As said above, it's pretty authentic to the KAKI-AGE recipe. It's really a mixture of different vegetables, and not just carrot and pumpkin mixed all together. Definititely not a lazy version of Kaki-Age, where restos would just slice through the vegetables, deep fry it and that's it.

Even without dipping into the sauce, the KAKI AGE is very delicious in itself. The secret really is the batter that the restaurant uses that makes their deep fried goodies taste well, even without the sauce.

My only beef into these two dishes is that it tends to, at times, be very oily. Too much oil overpowers the taste of the dishes that the batter mixture naturally gives it. I've had some times wherein the tempura was soggy, and not crispy.

However, most of the time that I eat there, it is well cooked and the batter, soft and crunchy. :)

The YAKISOBA is very tasty and filling. Key here again is their thick, delicious noodles. You get a nice hearty mix of veggies and meat with it, which makes it a meal in itself.

Serving and Money Value - 4 checks

A lot, the serving of each of the dishes is always a lot. You really can't wrong with it. Fact of the matter is, you got so much value for your money when you eat in Komoro Soba - compared to when you eat at other Japanese Casual Dining Places.

Also, they are very consistent in making sure that each dish is nicely plated - just as every Japanese dish needs to be.

It goes back to the fact that it's really very authentic - NOT A COMMERCIALIZED VERSION OF THE DISHES. The dishes that you get aren't something that is adjusted for the fast paced dining of most people. It remains true to the real recipe of each of the dishes.

With PHP 200.00, you can eat a lot more things here, compared to when you eat at, let's say *****-*****. And that's the reality and the fact.

Ambiance - 3 checks

Komoro Soba is currently desgined a modern inner-town Japanese restaurant. One thing that helped them with this new design is that it made the restaurant 'wider' compared to how the layout used to be. As such, they were able to sit more people in the restaurant.

I'd probably like it better that they continue playing real Japanese Pop Songs in the stereo, instead of English or Filipino songs. J-POPs really good, and it adds again to their authenticity of being a modern Japanese resto. I just find it weird being in a Japanese resto and hearing Filipino music.

Would I go back?

Hell yeah.

Over-all: 3.5 checks

Komoro Soba

SM Megamall - Building A

EDSA corner J. Vargas Ave.,

Brgy. Wack-Wack, Mandaluyong City