I seem to be writing a lot about Japanese establishments lately. When I read about Mangetsu a few month back, that got me intrigued, being the Japanese-food lover that I am. Mangetsu is relatively new along Jupiter street of Makati offering varied Japanese dishes. One rainy night, we decided to finally give it a try.

The interior of the restaurant was bi-level with high ceilings and simply designed. I loved that the tables are far apart from each other, very different from the cramped restaurants in Little Tokyo. We were seated right away upon entering.

The sound of cheese on anything always gets my attention. For appetizer, we ordered their Tofu Cheese Gratin with white sauce (Php 290). It does not only look sinful, it is sinful! It was cheese all over the tofu. The subtle saltiness and slightly gummy taste and texture of the cheese went pretty well with the blandness of tofu. It was really good.

As I have mentioned before, I love tuna sashimi (particularly Kikufuji’s). Mangetsu’s version is different. Their Spicy Tuna Sashimi (Php 330) is in mixed with Korean chili bean paste. I do not know what a Korean paste is doing in a Japanese restaurant too. The tuna was fresh and the taste was okay too but I would have preferred if their take on the sashimi was in line with the cuisine they are offering.

For the main, we ordered the Karaage Fried Chicken Thighs (Php 380) w/ 3 kinds of salt. The chicken were served really hot and if I remember correctly, they were boneless. They were so crispy but I could feel the oil with every bite. It was pretty normal tasting, like how you would imagine a fried chicken tasted like, only more salty due to the option of mixing different kinds of salt with it.

For some carbs, we had the Zaru Soba (Php 280) which is a cold soba. It was different from the usual noodle soup that I often order. This one though was quite bland, even after placing all of the stuff on the side in the soup. Though the serving was quite big for me, I think it can be shared by 2 people.

And, as we somehow wanted another soup dish, hot this time, we ordered the Beef Sukiyaki (served in a small hot pot) (Php 420). It mainly contained beef plus a lot of vegetables in a quite sweet hot soup. Unlike the ones I had before, this did not have any kind of noodles in it. The meat was tender but with a few strips of fat here and there.

The service here was pretty good. The servers were attentive to what we needed. I think they can keep the bottles for you in case you order one of those sakes and do not finish them, as shown on the shelf below.

Mangetsu
38 Jupiter St., Bel-Air Village, Makati City, Metro Manila
(63 2) 4783292

Tags: jupiter, makati, soba, sukiyaki, tofu, tuna