Katsu restaurants seem to be sprouting up everywhere nowadays. Happy days for us :). But for these eateries, it's getting harder and harder to stand out in the crowd. It'll take a certain "something more" for a katsu place to really leave it's mark. Enter one such place, Saboten. Located in the upscale confines of Serendra (in BGC), the place provides a neat and peaceful venue for a date or small gathering. They even have a pebble-lined walkway from the door to the first few tables - very Zen-like. Oh, and they serve real green tea! Not that rice tea stuff everybody else gives out - let's be honest, that rice tea tastes like the washings of a rice cooker that had loads of burnt rice on it.
The servers gave us the usual cabbage starter while the food continued cooking. Compared to Yabu, the slices weren't as fine or as uniform, but still good enough to handle your choice of either of two dressings. I think it was sesame dressing and maybe balsamic? Not sure, we only had the sesame dressing, which is by and large the tastier between the two. There were some other pickled items here, but we didn't have much of those - nothing especially wonderful about them.
Here's the sesame seed grinding set. Good way to pass the time. For the uninitiated, the sesame seeds are ground up then mixed into the tonkatsu sauce. The sauce is usually in a separate container somewhere on the table.
I can't recall for sure, but apparently all this cost just under 900Php (says my credit card bill). Now for the quality of the food, plus the ambiance, it's well worth the price. If you're a katsu fan like we are, this is one trip you should definitely make. You may end up as patrons here even :)
Saboten
G/F, Serendra 11th Ave,
Taguig City, Philippines
+63 2 625 2000
https://www.facebook.com/raintreesaboten
