Spices: Tonkatsu by Terazawa

Ever since Yabu, The House of Katsu opened two years ago, there has been different katsu restaurants that's been opening up in the metro. Late last year I got to try out one of the new katsu restos that opened, Tonkatsu by Terazawa.

Tonkatsu by Terazawa

Since it was the well loved Yabu who kind of started the katsu craze, I'll use the resto as benchmark. Upon looking at the menu, Tonkatsu by Terazawa practically offers the same food items as Yabu. Sets consist of miso soup, fruit, unlimited rice and cabbage. The dressing for the cabbage was the same, a choice between a Ponzu Vinaigrette or Goma Mayonaise. Even the sauce for the katsu looks and tastes the same.

Katsu Set

To  go with our meal, we ordered a carafe of Sochikubai Sake.

Sochikubai Sake - Php 335 for a carafe

The first katsu set we got to try was the Oyster, Prawn, White Fish Set. It looked really good, beautiful pieces of golden fried delights greeted us. Among the three seafood katsu, my least favorite was the white fish. I'm really not sure what kind of fish they used, I felt that it was a bit overcooked, the texture of the fish was a little bit dry. The prawn was pretty good, I liked that the prawn was of generous size.  Among the three, my favorite was the Oyster, it was divine. The oyster inside the golden crispy shell was huge and cooked to perfection, juicy and milky.

Oyster, Prawn, White Fish Katsu Set - Php 490

Oyster, Prawn, White Fish Katsu

The next set we tried was the Kurobuta Rosu Katsu. The first thing I noticed was the thickness of the pork lion, I felt that it wasn't as thick as Yabu's. Flavors and texture wise, it was pretty good though the pork wasn't as tender as I expected it to be. On my very last piece, it was a turn off when I chewed on a tough rubbery piece of pig skin, kitchen staff must have forgotten to trim the skin off properly.

Kurobuta Rosu Katsu Set - Php 595

Kurobota Rosu Katsu

Tonkatsu by Terazawa serves good tasting katsu but Yabu sets the bar up high that it still remains to be my favorite katsu place. If I had a craving for katsu, I would definitely pick Yabu but if I found myself in the Makati area, Tonkatsu by Terazawa is a katsu resto that's worth visiting to satisfy my hankering for the crispy golden treats.

Tonaktsu by Terazawa
Address: Ground Floor, Greenbelt 2, Ayala Center, Makati City
Tel. No.: 729 9121

Spices: Spatzle Euro Market Cafe

Walking around the new wing of Shangri-La mall, we spotted Spatzle. The resto looked really interesting with its rustic interiors, we checked the menu and got sweet talked by a nice lady. She told us that Spatzle was actually a type of German egg noodle or pasta. She proceeded to tell us the resto's best sellers and specialties, we got sold and immediately took seats.

Spatzle

I really liked how the wooden utensils organizer looked like, simple and efficient. There was even a hand sanitizer spray bottle, nice!

A complimentary small bowl of crunchy potato chips was served when we got seated.

Complimentary Potato Chips

Upon ordering, it was frustrating to find out that every bestseller that the lady told us about was already sold out, we felt getting caught in a trap. Nonetheless we asked the server for other recommendations among what's available. First up was the Spatz Carbonara, the cream based Spatzle was served with Pancetta and on the center was a poached egg. It felt like eating a bowl of cream mush, the Spatzle was so soft, the addition of the poached egg added to the already gooey texture of the whole dish. This was terrible!!! It's my first time to try out Spatzle, I'm really not sure if the consistency and texture is really like this. They could have added more or bigger pieces of meat and the poached egg is totally a bad idea.

Spatz Carbonara - Php275 solo serving

Next up was the Roast Chicken Sausage on Mushroom Spatzle. A piece of chicken fillet stuffed with a housemade sausage. Chicken was a tad dry but seasoned well, the sausage tasted ok, nothing to rave or rant about.. I didn't like the way they drowned the chicken in gravy and I really didn't like the Spatzle that came with it.

Roast Chicken Sausage on Mushroom Spatzle - Php295

I know that I only got to try out two dishes but from what I tasted, I'm really not a fan. It will take a lot of convincing for me to come back here.

Spatzle
Address: 5th Floor East Wing, Shangri La Plaza Mall, Mandaluyong City