I had an appointment off of Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, so I decided to see if I could grab some lunch in a not too busy spot. I crossed the street and saw that Katsu Cafe wasn't busy and it had been over five years since I last visited. So, I thought why not?
I was surprised to see the place fairly empty as Katsu Cafe had always seemed popular for lunch when I worked in the area.
I decided to go with what I usually order here; the Chicken Katsu Plate ($13.50). Man, I remember when the Chicken Katsu Plate used to be eight bucks....I also remembered when they used to have it on the menu as "Chicken Cutlet"....yeah, Katsu Cafe used to call their chicken katsu, chicken cutlet.
I grabbed a table and soon enough my lunch was ready.
I had mentioned that the Miso Soup here was not terrible on my last visit and it's still not too bad.
It's not overly watered down and you can actually taste the miso.
As for the Chicken Katsu.
Well, the portion size of the chicken katsu, which I've always thought was quite large is now two-thirds the size. Which is big enough for me. As on previous visits, it looked like it had been fried for too long a time based on the color, but this wasn't too bad. The breading while being hard instead of crisp, wasn't peeling off and the chicken was decently moist, though a bit on the tough side. And best of all, it had some flavor.
As for other things...well, the rice was dry and hard. The salads, which I had enjoyed before weren't quite as good. I found a few brown and wilted leaves under the greens salad, which was still dripping wet, which watered down the dressing. The potato-mac salad had too much mayo and was mushy. It also needed a good dose of salt.
Still, in terms of price, at least for these days, this might be a bargain. This is after all, more about quantity and value, food for the masses and they seemed to be descending here as I left. I'm glad I arrived when I did and it's always good to follow-up on places which I hadn't visited in a while.
I did enjoy when we had our office in the area. There were so many choices for lunch.
Katsu Cafe
7305B Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111
nice
Posted by: kat | Thursday, 23 February 2023 at 04:13 PM
It did the job Kat!
Posted by: Kirk | Friday, 24 February 2023 at 09:22 AM
That doesn’t look too good.
Posted by: Som Tommy | Friday, 24 February 2023 at 05:11 PM
Well, considering the price ST....
Posted by: Kirk | Saturday, 25 February 2023 at 01:57 PM