Yabu, House of Katsu

Yup, we braved the traffic and the throng of Christmas shoppers at Megamall for our Christmas lunch at Yabu. There is so much hype about this new Japanese restaurant that we just had to make an extra effort to make this lunch happen. We arrived before 12 nn and we were seated immediately.


Wakame and Potato salad at Php 175
For starters, we had the Wakame and Potato Salad. The seaweed salad was very good but I thought that the potato salad had too much mayonnaise.

Hire and Seafood Katsu Set at PHp 425
I ordered the Hire and Seafood Katsu Set. This set had Hire (pork tenderloin), cream dory, scallop, tiger prawn and an eggplant. I really enjoyed this dish especially since it had pork tenderloin which was fat free. The scallop was to die for. I exchanged half of my cream dory for Ella's oyster which was not in my set but in her Chicken and Seafood Katsu Set. Oh my, oh my! The oyster was humongous and so, so good. Of course, that's me because I just love everything oysters. It really was my lucky day that Ella does not eat oysters.

It was an excellent set if not for the little details that the service staff missed out big time. When we asked for the sauce that goes with our dishes, the waiter said that the mustard was for the scallop (notice that yellow blob on the top right), and the tartar for the fish and the shrimps. It was only when we were almost done with our meal that I remembered reading about the sesame seeds that we should have been served. When I asked the waiter about it, he came back with a bowl of bulldog sauce with sesame seeds on top. No pestle and mortar for us. By then, we only had about a slice left of our katsu.

Rosu Katsudon at Php 265
Ruby had the Rosu Katsudon which she exclaimed was excellent. I suppose this is the Katsudon you would ask for if it was your last meal on earth. Unfortunately, she also had a side order of the tiger shrimp which she claimed was nothing spectacular. I would have preferred dipping the tiger prawns in tempura sauce but they didn't have tempura sauce. Sigh.

As you can see the table was too small for the dishes we ordered. It would have been a great lunch if not for the missing sauce and oysters.

Notice those two humongous oysters sitting on my set. Can you believe that the chefs forgot to put these in the Chicken katsu set. We had to ask for it and they brought it to us when we were almost done.


The food at Yabu is really great and so in the spirit of Christmas, I will forgive the waiters and the chefs for forgetting to serve us the sauces and oysters that were suppose to be part of our meals. Maybe, they were simply overwhelmed by the Christmas crowd. I will definitely return with my family after the holidays. Hopefully, the waiters will be better trained and there will be quality control in the kitchen next time.

Yabu, House of Katsu
2F Atrium
SM Megamall