ALL YOU CAN EAT KUSHI KATSU IN KOBE!!!

Kushi katsu is basically fried food on a stick. Kushi means skewer and katsu means cutlet. Japanese people love fried food, it's no secret (although, doesn't everyone...) and their kushi katsu can range from seafood, to weiners, to my favourite... cheese! That's right, fried cheese on a stick. It's amazing. Kushikatsu normally is accompanied by some kind of soy-based dipping sauce. It's delish.

So, after dipping our toes into the kushi katsu waters recently for the first time in Osaka ( we just ordered a couple of sticks each as an entree) and we decided it was great so we though that going to Kobe's all you can eat kushi katsu place would be great!　We were not disappointed....


The place is called Kushiya Monogatari, in Kobe's Harborland. It's a little pricey by Japanese standards. Lunch, from 11-3, was 1600 yen plus 200 yen for the drink bar. Dinner was I think around 2000 yen without drinks bar. For that price, you get a table with a deep fryer in the middle (yassss) and 90 minutes of unlimited access  to a bar filled with little things to fry, a salad bar, japanese curry, soups and rice, fried noodles, and a small dessert bar with a chocolate fountain.

 

 

 


Jason and I started off slow, picking out a bunch of bite-size skewers from the kushi katsu section. We don't eat seafood, so our selection included wieners, cheese donuts (that's right),  beef, pork, and potato gems (yes friend, potato gems). We took these to our table and also got a sectioned plate and filled it with a variety of dipping sauces. On our table was a dish of batter and a dish of panko bread crumbs. We battered, crumbed and fried our skewers, dipping them in our selection of cheese, ponzu, sweet, and tartar sauce. To make a token effort to be healthy (ha!) I even battered a brocolli and deep fried it, dipping it in cheese sauce for maximum irony...

We followed that up with another serve of our favourite kushikatsu (the beef, potato gems and pork were winners) and a side of Japanese mild curry on rice, and fried noodles.


And then, my favourite part... Dessert!


I took taiyaki (fish-shaped pancakes filled with sweet beans), swiss roll cake, strawberry mochi, and I deep fried all of them. That's right, I crumbed and fried a slice of cake. Come at me. Then, the piece de resistance, I took them all to the FOUNTAIN OF MELTED STRAWBERRY CHOCOLATE and I smothered them all in warm, pink love.

 

It was amazing. The taiyaki was the best. It tasted like a hot donut. The outside was delightfully crispy and the inside was soft and gooey. Jason doesn't even like red bean taiyaki, but even he loved it. The strawberry chocolate was delicious, and not too rich. The chocolate they use is seasonal, so it's not always strawberry. It might be milk, or dark, or white, or something else, depending on the day. The fried mochi was interesting... It basically became a fried ball of goo... But I enjoyed it.


They also had jelly and a soft-serve dispenser so of course I had a bowl of soft serve covered in melted chocolate. Does it even need to be said?


After we had eaten our fill (more than our fill really), we paid up our bill and rolled out of there feeling mildly sick and very sleepy. The fried-food-coma was upon us. It's an experience you could only do once in a blue moon. But rest assured, the next blue moon, I'll be back there, filling up my plate with fried taiyaki and chocolate...