咖哩屋 (Curry House)

Go go curry! Step aside... you've been topped. On a return trip to 一一八巷, I had to settle my stomach, but with what? I've gotten kind of bored with beef noodle soup... I mean, awesomeness has its bounds, and when everything tastes exponentially great, at some point, it loses its appeal, you know? My new found addiction... Japanese style curry. That's right, I've fallen in love with katsu, I could eat it for pretty much every meal (and from my future marathon of posting... think 50 or so restaurants in the next month), you'll realize just how much of it I actually ate. One of the more famous places, that is... having been on the news, for curry is 咖哩屋... located conveniently on 和平東路 一一八巷. Compared to most places, Curry House has a relatively nice exterior (and interior to boot!). It sits right next door to a relatively well known beef noodle place, so I had to be sort of impressed just to ignore that and walk in. Inside, the place looks fairly snazzy, pretty fancy really... glass tables, neon plastic chairs, mood lighting. It actually kind of reminds me of a NYC shop to be honest... so take that for how you will, good or bad.


Since I'm too lazy to explain the whole thing about prices, I just took a snapshot of the menu... remember, it's about 33 NT per US dollar. See? Even the menu looks nicer than that of most places. For that reason, I expected it to be slightly more expensive than other places, as most dine in options run a bit higher, but they turned out to be reasonable... virtually nothing over 110 NT.


As for the food... it lives up to its expectations. Furthermore, because the prices aren't insane like some other Japanese restaurants (you pay for exoticism I guess), the food seems to taste that much better. My mom went with the beef and chicken curry combo, with which she was displeased. I ate some and thought it was good... a nice blend of heat and sweetness, not overpowering in any manner, but at the same time... adequately flavorful. The beef and chicken were both nice and juicy, so I'm not sure what she was complaining about (she kept saying that even she could cook it... debatable). As for me, I got the pork katsu curry... the pork chop was exactly as I imagine a cutlet should be. Pounded thinly into something less than a centimeter in thickness, then fried to golden brown, it came out crispy and still sizzling. No joke, this would cost about 250 NT ($8) if you went to SOGO. So if you're in the area, and have no inclination for beef noodle soup... go here.