Hey Hive!
Even though there are still people getting covid, it's basically being treated like a cold these days so thankfully almost everything is back to normal now! There are no more restrictions on dining these days and you don't even have to wear a mask anymore if you don't want to! It's a huge relief and this allows us to try different food places again!
So back in October I was set to meet some of my viewers from my Twitch community for a meal. If you've seen my art posts you might've known that I've been streaming on Twitch for a while now, and a few of them are from Singapore so we do meet up from time to time.
We arranged to meet up in the city center so it'd be convenient for all of us and decided to try this Japanese restaurant that recently opened up here called Katsu-An! Apparently it's a famous tonkatsu restaurant in Japan but for all the times I've visited there I haven't actually heard of this place until it popped up in Singapore!
Because Japanese food is so popular here in Singapore, the queue for Katsu-An gets real insane during peak hours and since we were meeting on a Friday evening it was indeed quite crowded when we arrived, and we had to wait at least 20 minutes or so.
There are quite a few tables in the restaurant though so as long as people eat and leave we wouldn't have to wait long. Because of how they operate I don't think you could reserve a table either.
If you don't need to dine in they also have a take away option which would probably be faster, but the food courts don't allow outside food and there aren't many places to sit and eat in the mall so we had no choice but to wait.
On the plus side, we didn't have a big group so thankfully we managed to get a table pretty quick. There were more tables in the back which I didn't expect but there was indeed quite a capacity although the store itself isn't that big.
Here's the full menu! Katsu-An prides themselves on their affordability without sacrificing quality and for a Japanese restaurant in the city it was indeed quite affordable, with the cheapest thing being a $5.90 katsu don bowl.
I was tempted to get one of the combo sets which would be double the price but since it only comes with a side, soup and drink for that price it didn't seem worth it to me, when I could get 2 bowls of the regular katsu don for the same price. I was curious how good the cheapest bowl would be though so I decided to try that.
After about 10 minutes or so, our orders arrived! This was my katsu don, which is crispy loin katsu cooked with fluffy eggs and seasoned with dashi. It's slightly sweet and full of umami, according to the menu anyway.
It is a pretty simple bowl and because the katsu is also dipped in the egg it didn't turn out as crispy compared to the teishoku sets. Thus it's not really my favourite type of rice bowl but I had to try it since this is their specialty after all.
Overall I thought it was still pretty good, and the chicken was still a little crispy, but it was a tad sweeter than I would've liked, so I ended up adding salt to my rice bowl since I like more savoury tastes.
I did add some of their original sauce to it to see how it would taste, as every table comes with a pot of their special Original Sauce as well as Apricot Sauce, along with himalayan salt, sesame dressing and soy sauce.
But turns out their original sauce is also quite sweet, which did not really help when I wanted it to be more savoury instead of sweet. It did have a yuzu taste and I was trying to decipher what other ingredients were in it. It was still a good combination just that I found it too sweet.
My friends ordered different sets, this one the Original Sauce katsu don set with the boiled egg combo which comes with a drink and a bowl of miso soup (not pictured as it came later).
One of my friends also ordered the Deluxe Curry set which comes with the tenderloin katsu, an ebi fry and chicken karaage. He also ordered the set which comes with extra karaage and a drink.
Overall, the meal was alright. I think for Japanese cuisine in the city it's pretty affordable but I wouldn't say it's anything fantastic, or worth queuing a long time for. I'm not sure what all the hype is about but then again Singaporeans do love Japanese stuff a lot. I'd say it's worth trying if you like katsu, and for the price it's pretty good, just not as great as everyone makes it seem.
We did have a nice meal though and it was fun catching up with viewers even though we hang out almost every stream anyway.
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
