Katsu by Kyu offers a trim menu starring pork katsu.
The pork used for its signature dish comes from Jeju Island.
Katsu by Kyu is located at OUE Downtown Gallery in Shenton Way.
The ordinary is given the extraordinary treatment at Katsu by Kyu, with a signature dish that bears all the trimmings of exceptional execution.
Katsu needs no introduction. The dish’s uncomplicated composition involves a piece of pork, coated with a crisp layer of breadcrumbs, with rice and sauce served on the side. But perhaps it’s this simplicity that makes the dish so difficult to get perfectly right. For Katsu by Kyu, every element of the dish is worth obsessing over, down to the smallest detail.
This new Korean tonkatsu restaurant at OUE Downtown Gallery in Shenton Way is built on a disarmingly simple idea — if you are only going to offer a few things, then do them exceptionally well. Summed up by Katsu by Kyu with the philosophy “Go Deeper, Not Wider”, the restaurant focuses on a limited selection with a trim menu that includes all the essential elements that make a katsu meal great. Here, it is all about making familiar flavours taste impressive without having to dress them up.
The humble pork cutlet used at Katsu by Kyu for its signature dish hails from Jeju Island. Famed for its standout savoury flavour and chewy texture, cuts from the prized pork here are dry-aged to extract deeper layers of flavour and finished over rice-straw charcoal. That level of attention to the dish’s main component extends to its accompaniments too.
Case in point, Incheon rice from one of South Korea’s most highly regarded premium cultivars is freshly milled every day and cooked in a traditional gamasot iron pot to ensure it reaches diners at its best. Other dishes for the table include a panko-crusted beef short-rib patty, plump prawns wrapped in kadaif pastry, and a cold flat udon.
Taking a leaf out of the architecture of rustic hanoks, the interiors of Katsu by Kyu, from wall to ceiling, are rendered in wood and bathed in soft light filtered from lanterns — instilling a sense of warmth discernible from Korean hospitality. In a city where lunch can sometimes feel like a race against time, the restaurant welcomes the idea for diners to pause and appreciate the moment.
In a dining culture increasingly preoccupied with novelty, something is refreshing about simply making every element count on an everyday dish. At Katsu by Kyu, that ordinariness means comfort at its finest level.
Where: Katsu by Kyu, Shenton Way, OUE Downtown Gallery, Singapore
When: Monday to Saturday from 11am to 3pm and 5pm to 10pm
Contact: www.katsubykyu.sg