METRO MANILA | Saboten Glorietta ~ Tonkatsu Goodness in Makati
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
I’m no expert when it comes to Japanese food but I’ve always been fond of it—the cooked ones particularly. And even though I have visited Tokyo before, I am ashamed to say that my experience with this cuisine is quite limited to ramens, tonkatsus, gyozas, and tempuras from a popular Japanese fast food here in Manila. I was quite excited then to try out Saboten’s offerings, it’s not everyday that I get to pig out on legit Japanese dishes.
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| SABOTEN GLORIETTA’S VERY JAPANESE INTERIORS |
The restaurant is located at the ground floor of Ayala Center’s Greenbelt 5 in Makati. It has another branch in BGC, but I haven’t visited that one yet. Saboten originated from Japan, you might say that it is the Jollibee of Japan when it comes to tonkatsus. They have numerous branches at every corner and malls of Japan, not to mention the 500 branches all around the globe. This is a popular place to have your tonkatsu fix indeed.
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| I’M LOVING SABOTEN’S INTERIOR’S CLEAN LINES |
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| NICELY DESIGNED PARTITIONS FOR PRIVACY AT SABOTEN |
Being located in a mall, I really didn’t have high hopes for the interiors of the restaurant but I was quite surprised at how classy and how very Japanese everything was. Their dining halls are subdivided into mini spaces by unpainted vertical wooden balustrades. It was quite clever; enough to block the outside area, making you have a bit of privacy inside, but still transparent enough to make the place feel uncluttered.
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| AGEDASHI TOFU ~ PHP175.00 |
For starters, we were served with chicken salad with bang bang ji dressing and agedashi tofu.
Salads aren’t really my thing, so I passed up on that one and concentrated my chopsticks towards the traditional Japanese deep-fried tofu, which was wonderfully crisp outside and soft on the inside. I ordered for a can of Kirin Ichiban beer and it was perfect.
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| SHRIMP FRY SET ~ PHP450.00 |
For the main course, we were treated with all the fried goodness of Saboten’s miso katsu tenderloin, shrimp fry, curry loin, claypot chicken, oyster set, sweet and sour chicken nanban, ginger pork shogayaki with sweet radish steak, and of course, their original tonkatsu—both the tenderloin and loin set.
It was as overwhelming as you might have imagined it to be. We were ten in the group and still, it was way too much. I thought we’d ordered Saboten’s whole menu!
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| CLAYPOT CHICKEN SET ~ PHP395.00 |
Saboten’s prices are a bit on the high side for a simple chap like me, but their serving size were quite generous. More than a few of their dishes were good for sharing. Food presentation was also quite decent; good plating with nice accents and textures. It definitely made my mouth water while waiting for my friends to finish taking their Instagram photos, lol.
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| TONKATSU! |
And as for the taste, I absolutely love everything. It may be that I’m more biased on all things fried when it comes to Japanese food, but Saboten’s take on my favorite tonkatsu was far, far better than what I’m usually accustomed to on my go to Japanese restaurant. Aside from their miso katsu tenderloin set, my favorites include their claypot chicken and their gravy-filled curry loin set.
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| CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT CREAM CAKE ~ PHP195.00 |
For desserts, plates of chocolate hazelnut cream cake and sesame sans rival cake along with glasses of strawberry parfait were laid on our table. We were unabashedly full but were game enough to have a few more bites. And what a bite they were, the chocolate hazelnut cream cake was simply amazing. I totally forgot about the two other offerings and filled what little space left on my tummy with it.
~ BIG THANKS TO RAINTREE FOR HOSTING OUR AYALA FOOD TOUR
Saboten Makati
Address: Ground Floor, Glorietta 5, Ayala Center, Glorietta Complex, Makati City, Metro Manila
Contact Number: (02) 625-0909 | Facebook
Opening Hours: 11:00AM to 11:00PM, Daily
GPS Coordinates Map: 14.551552, 121.027070
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