Mortar and pestle with sesame seeds? What's this for?

It's actually a dip for your Katsu. What's a Katsu?

It basically means breaded and deep-fried.

This is a house specialty of Yabu. It's a Japanese-themed restaurant in the Philippines which specializes in Katsu dishes. Their menu has a variety of breaded and deep-fried goodness in it.

Left photo shows all the condiments you can use, a wide variety of sauces (which I don't have any clue what they are). Right photo just shows what we can see outside. The restaurant is situated on the 5th floor of SM Aura. You can see ads by Yabu themselves (showing their Lava Cake and Katsu burger!), a fountain outside, and an art installation (the Philippines eagle).

SM Aura has art installations like that showcasing the animals found in the Philippines (some are the Tarsier, Tamaraw, and the Philippine Eagle - which is our National Animal).

The ambience inside is great. Dim yellowish lights, high ceiling, wooded furnitures and decors. The photo above shows how their walls look like. They're overlayed with wood that are actually small square compartments on the walls. Looks nice. (may be a good way to display lots of SD Gundams if you ask me!)

The most amazing part of this restaurant is that they have these posters/prints on the aisle showing manga (Japanese comics) that's showing how frames about what their restaurant offers and even where they get their meat from.

The Food

So, how was the food?

It was great! They have all these dips that gives your dish amazing flavor. You're not limited to the numerous condiments already on the table, when your order shows up, they also have these customized dips that are completely different from those on the table top.

This is a kid's meal. A Chicken Katsu meal for kids (the menu says this is only for kids 10 years old and below, wonder if they really can't serve it if you're no longer 10!). This is for our baby Zion, he already eats table food. It has chicken and potato katsu in it, white rice, cabbage and beans. All servings come with a slice of watermelon and pineapple. One of the dips was curry flavored and the other had a hint of wasabi in it.

This order's mine. It's the deluxe set. It had a prawn, oysters, salmon, and pork katsus in it, along with the usual fruit slices and vegetables, as well as brown rice, and there was a lemon for the cabbage. It came with a miso soup too (which tastes great!). The dibs were soy and mayo (or sour cream) with chives (maybe - dunno).

Wifey order pork katsu with lemonade, not in the picture. I was already hungry so I had to eat and feed Zion as well. It's really hard to dine out with a baby though, if there's only 2 of you.

Earlier when I was preparing the dip with the sesame seed, this happened (lol):

Dining in Yabu (Japanese Katsus anyone?)

The Food