While it is normal for local restaurants to adjust their foreign dishes to the taste buds of Filipinos, Kushiyaki Chikuzena has claimed it has maintained its authentic Japanese menu since it opened its doors three years ago.
“We always try to be authentic in Cebu. Chibori has been in the business for more than 20 years. And for all those years, it has been trusted by a lot of Japanese and locals who have good taste of Japanese food,” said Bea Evardone marketing head of Kushiyaki Chikuzenya. Kushiyaki Chikuzenya is Chibori’s sister company.
Besides, Evardone said the Japanese are “very keen” on the quality of food they take and they don’t like it being mixed with other ingredients that are alien to them. Also, she said chairman of these two restaurants (and Barikata, also in Cebu IT Park like Chibori) comes to Cebu regularly to check if the taste of the Japanese food they serve is stays true to its name.
She added that Kushiyaki Chikuzenya, for one, has to import most of its ingredients from Japan.
She said Kushiyaki Chikuzenya’s buta bara nabe and yakitori, for example, have captured the taste buds not only of the Japanese customers but also of the locals’.
“A lot of people have already come here (at Kushiyaki Chikuzenya ) because of the buta bara nabe (buta: pork, bara: belly, nabe:soup),” she said.
Buta bara nabe is P690 but is good for four persons. It has unlimited soup and vegetables, and one round of ramen and egg. As to the drinks, it’s all on Kushiyaki Chikuzenya, as it serves unlimited authentic iced tea, also imported from Japan.
This dish, originally from Fukuka, Japan, is usually prepared during Chinese New Year and winter. At Kushiyaki Chikuzenya, the dish is mounted like a volcano, only it is made of bacon strips, with the vegetables and the flavored soup (tonkotsu broth) are underneath waiting to be cooked. It takes a maximum of 30 minutes to get the soup ready for serving.
Another bestseller at Kushiyaki Chikuzenya is the yakitori, a Japanese barbecue. Evardone said in the past yakitori only consisted of pigeon meat and quail egg, but over the years, pork, beef and different parts of the chicken were added to the ensemble. At Kushiyaki Chikuzenya, there are five sticks of yakitori, which, Evardone, said the customers can choose the variants (quail egg, pork, chicken innards and others) they want.
Evardone said for the past years, the Japanese restaurants have been sprouting like mushrooms in Cebu. She said it could be because the Filipinos are embracing the Japanese food, as can also be reflected in Kushiyaki Chikuzenya ‘s clientele, which is 30 percent composed of Filipinos.
“As you notice, a lot of Japanese restaurants are popping out like mushrooms, so that means the Filipinos are slowly embracing the Japanese food,” she said.
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