Kushiyaki Chikuzenya Japanese Restaurant

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Review Deck - The Ramen Series
Place: Kushiyaki Chickuzen

So how would you feel when a ramen house is walking distance from your place?Approximately 150 steps.

To my delight while checking my ZOMATO app, I came across Kushiyaki Chikuzenya. An established Japanese restaurant located in Mandaue AS Fortuna that offers delightful options of japanese food staple like sushi, teppanyaki, bento, sashimi, ramen among many others. “Kushiyaki” is the japanese name for barbeque and “Chikuzen” is an old name of Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan.

The restaurant provides an immediate japanese ambience. The moment you open the door, the crew in unison chants a japanese phrase (I missed it everytime) to welcome you. A polite woman dressed more formal than others (I think they are the managers) ushers you to the table of your choice. As soon as you settle, an attendant in slippers while dressed in traditional kimonos serves you a wrapped plastic towel for sanitation. The place is pretty spacious and well organized. It has a live kitchen setup that can add comfortability to customers by seeing how orders are prepared.

For my most recent trip, I ordered my dose of tonkotsu ramen before heading to an errand. The tonkotsu tasted delicious as usual. The combination of hot pork broth, scallions, chashu (pork), nori (dried seaweed), pink ginger and fresh noodles were perfect. Normally, I would add chili pepper and chili oil to give the ramen an extra kick. The chashu was a killer. The grilled pork complemented the simplicity of the ramen and took it a notch higher. Chickuzen Kushiyaki’s serving is by far the biggest I’ve had. It can serve two for only P300.

If I am to base it from Facebook, TripAdvisor and Zomato assessments, it looks like this house is in the top quartile of ramen houses in Cebu. The reviews from these sources also lean towards more positives overall. The commendations range from good food choices, delicious offerings and staff behaviors.

There is a funny quote online about ramen.
Ramen (noun) “ A gourmet meal for college students and others oppressed by debt.” It may be true given that ramen is highly associated with cup noodles. But Chickuzenya’s version is not second rate. And it can only be enjoyed, appreciated and savored by a true ramen lover. Count me in.

Pay them a visit and relish the magic of authentic ramen. See you there!

Here's my verdict out of 5⭐️.
Food - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Instagrammability - ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Customer Service - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Price - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Overall - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Stopped by for dinner. We were able to get a parking space just outside the restaurant. We ordered quite a few items to share with a large group. One thing that stood out was the quails' egg wrapped bacon and the pork belly nabe. The Nabe looked nice when they brought it to the table but then took it away to cook.

Everything was tasty.

The place was quite hot though since they weren't able to turn on their air conditioning so it wasn't the most comfortable dinner. Apart from that, the meal was nice.

One of my frequently recommended restaurants to try whenever friends ask me about which Japanese restaurant they should dine in.

They sushis and sashimis are very satisfactory.

Also, should you order their great-tasting Butabara Nabe, make sure to order the ramen set with optional/additional Aji tamago. The ramen set, of course, only if you haven't finished slurping all the pork broth from the Nabe.

After several visits to Kushiyaki Chikuzenya Japanese Restaurant, I can definitely say it is Cebu’s best Japanese restaurant.

The first time I had their Tonkotsu Ramen I knew I’ll be coming back for more. The firm noodles in pork bone soup seasoned with fresh milk, miso and other japanese spices are waves of flavors potent to cure your weary soul. (TIP: You can ask for free extra soup. Just be polite.)

The special assorted seven kinds of sashimi (Jo Sashimi) platter completes the Japanese restaurant experience along with other staple food like sushi and tempura.

In every Japanese Restaurant cleanliness is a must. The proper handling of the raw ingredients is of utmost importance. Chikuzenya champions that by maintaining an open kitchen, you’ll see your food as it is prepared.

Located at the food avenue of Mandaue, it is close to home but trips should be planned wisely to avoid coming during heavy down pours, we all know the perennial flooding problem at AS Fortuna, right?

THE WORLD HAS TO KNOW ABOUT THIS PLACE! Okay, maybe that's an exageration, but this is such an underated place. The ramen was so good. The moment I saw the waitress bring my order, you could have literally seen my face turn :-o It was a lot, but not too much. Me and my friend were stuffed! And the waitresses looked so adorable in their yukatas. I don't know why, but the waitress that served us had a japanese accent, which I found rather odd. Couldn't say that their service was impecable; however, couldn't say anything bad about their service either.