I first tried Yabu about a year ago, and I’m happy to report that the quality has stayed the same between then and now. One difference is that they added new dishes to their menu, including salmon katsu, branding these dishes with their special brand of Katsu magic.

Yesterday, they launched three new flavors for Yabu fans to try:

• Soft Shell Crab Katsu Set
• Menchi with Cheese Katsu Set
• Menchi with Cheese Curry Katsu Set

The Soft Shell Crab Katsu Set (phew!) is comprised of two decent-sized pieces of soft-shell crab. It’s a bit oilier than the other dishes I usually get, only because soft-shell crab tends to be a bit flimsy and crispy than meaty. Never you mind, though, it’s delicious as expected.

It also comes with this magic sauce—the ponzu-layu sauce!

Ponzu is a tangy Japanese sauce. La-yu is a wonderful concoction of sesame oil and chili. Together, though, WOW.

The Menchi with Cheese Curry Katsu Set (phew! Again!) is pretty fricken’ great. Prior to the dinner, Sarie, Michelle Ayuyao, and I were puzzled at what looks like to be the trend of putting cheese in dishes that they do not normally belong to. And we saw this. But it was amazing. We get it, now.

Menchi is basically a ground meat cutlet or croquette. In this case, it’s a croquette, with cheese inside, swimming in Yabu’s standard curry. Which is already good anyway. Holy cow, this is pretty good. I like my curry “Very Hot,” but spotting a new condiment on the table, I couldn’t help but mix it with my food anyway.

Notice anything different about this La-Yu bottle? Well, I’ll tell you anyway. It’s got a red cap instead of the standard yellow-orange cap! Why mess up something already awesome, right? Wrong! You do that to make it even better.

Chili-babies swimming in la-yu! Yum.

If you haven’t already tried the appetizers in Yabu, you should really check out their Wakame, or seaweed. I know it doesn’t look like your typical nori, but it’s really good. You get some roe, too, which I like.

Sarie has a post up on Yabu as well. Go check it out, because she is a food fiend, too!

In case you haven’t already heard, there’s a new branch in Mall of Asia, which just opened today! If you live near or are around the area, you should really drop by. I love Yabu, and a bunch of people also seem to love it too. I can’t even eat in their Megamall branch on Sunday anymore. It’s just too full!

Aside from new digs at the biggest mall in the Philippines—it’s still the biggest one here, right?—they’ve got new digs up online, too! Check out Yabu’s new website:

It’s got their menu (and yummy pictures of yummy food!) and general restaurant information, but it’s also got links to blog posts and reviews, as well as a healthy dose of original content, in their new section, Journal. I loved perusing their new website.

Good job, Yabu! Now, let me settle into this enormous food coma I now have.

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