A piping hot bowl of Katsu Don brings back memories of my first visit to Japan as a young child. My parents can attest that I was just stuffing my face with the bowl of katsu don at some smallish place in a train station platform waiting area. It was the best katsu don that the five year old version of me have ever had. In retrospect, I'm not sure how good the katsu don was, but science have proven that memory can often play tricks on us. But I'll never know.
I was in the Yonge and Steeles area and had no clue what to eat. I remember there's a place in the Shops on Yonge food court that I wanted to try, but what is that place called? After getting off the escalators on the second floor, I realized that the place I was thinking of is called Uncle Don, a Korean owned (Japanese style? Because they used the Japanese name Katsu don) joint that specialized in selling deep fried pork cutlets.
By the time I was ready to order, I was really contemplating until the bitter end whether to just get the regular katsu or katsu don. I guess nostalgia won over, so katsu don it is!
For about $11, you get a pork katsu, a cabbage salad and a bowl of miso soup. Cabbage salad had a creamy mayo dressing. I personally prefer cabbage salads with Japanese sesame dressing. The miso soup was clearly the dried powder mix variety, which I would expect from a food court establishment. No complaints there. And now the moment of truth for the katsu don. I stared at it... ummm.... what's this brown sauce taking up half the bowl??? I poked my disposable chop sticks into the egg portion... ugh.. it's not runny. Huh??? Why are there red and green peppers in the bowl???
I think nostalgia got the best of me this time. In my mind, I really wanted a bowl of Japanese katsu don and not a Korean one. So the disappointment is mostly due to my own personal preference. To be honest, if you take their pork cutlets and the brown sauce that they serve the pork katsu with, it's actually pretty good. The panko batter was crunchy and on point. The pork was tender and had a decent meaty taste. The brown sauce kind of reminds me of most of the brown sauces served at slightly fancier katsu places. If you walk in with the expectation that it's a Korean katsu place, it's actually a good economical alternative to places like Katsuya or Cotolet. The cut of meat may be a bit inferior... you may not be able to grind your own sesame with a mortar and pestle... but you will leave the place (umm.... food court) satisfied! read more