I was quite excited when I saw the commercial for Cafesta on the Chinese television channel. A restaurant specializing in Japanese curry and tonkatsu? I thought I was dreaming! So my bro and I went to check them out tonight....
The menu was divided into tonkatsu, curry, omelette fried rice (omuraisu), ramen & udon, snacks, and drinks. That was quite a large menu for a specialized restaurant but since it features some of my favourite yoshoku items, my excitement did not diminish. After much dicussion, bro and I decided to order a thick-cut tonkatsu set, a curry tonkatsu set (regular thickness), and a gyoza ramen in miso broth. I was really hoping to try their omuraisu but I figured it would be nicer to stick with their specialties. Each set meal came with miso soup, salad, marinated seaweed, rice, and green tea ice-cream.
I was expecting the thick-cut and regular cut tonkatsu would be different (fattiness? tenderness? thickness? hello?) but as far as we could tell, they were quite identical except for price. The cutlets were not greasy but the meat lacked juiciness. It screamed for some Bulldog sauce!! In place of this typical condiment, Cafesta offered a DIY sauce in the form of some toasted sesame seeds, a gingery sauce, and a mini mortar & pestle. It was a cute concept but it did not taste very distinguished unfortunately. The curry sauce that came with my curry tonkatsu reminded me of out-of-the-box S&B instant curry roux. It's not bad at all but I was hoping for more than just instant curry. Perhaps it is an unfair comparison to a typical Japanese curry fastfood restaurant but where's the selection of pickles? Bro found the ramen to be overcooked and the gyozas were more deep-fried than pan-fried.
I guess we would not be going back anytime soon even when our cravings for yoshoku hits. Oh well.
Cafeta Japanese Curry & Tonkatsu Restaurant
633 Silver Star Blvd
Scarborough, ON M1V 5N1
