Went on soft opening for dinner
Venue (4): Still under construction but looks promising. Cute design reminiscent of a cafe in Tokyo. Outdoor patio on side street makes it a great place to stop by in the summer.
Service (4): Friendly & attentive albeit a bit forgetful. Waitresses are Japanese with limited English skills, but they try their best.
Food - Taste/Texture/Appearance (2): Ordered katsu-curry. Simple home-made style curry roux, the kind you can buy from a grocery store and make by adding water. No other vegetables added, which is common in a katsu-curry in Japan so no big issues on the curry itself given context.
However, they neglected to add any pickled vegetables, which is needed to offset the richness. Instead they opted for a plain salad with no dressing and a potato salad.
As for the katsu, the meat was overcooked despite them opting for the thicker style of katsu and the skin was falling off due to poor breading technique.
Food - Value (1): The disappointing katsu-curry was vastly overpriced for what was provided at $16 before tax and tip.
Drink (n/a): Only ordered water. Strange that as a restaurant they don't offer tea. Also did not see any special drinks on menu but there was a soft opening $5 Asahi beer, which I did not purchase.
Overall verdict (11/20)
Recommendation to restaurant:
1. Number the menus sequentially instead of using the letter/# codes, so that waitresses can use those to take orders.
2. Either increase the quality of the food or lower the price. Can't have it both ways and expect the store to survive for long if the food quality is sub-par.