Restaurant Review: Monkatsu

Udon Japanese recently? Try this one

I don't go to Japanese restaurants very often but when I do I tend to order sushi as it's the healthiest option. These days I tend to get my sushi fix when I'm in central london and there's an Itsu nearby. If you get the timing right their sushi and bao buns drop magically to half price thirty minutes before closing time. I've not been banned from Itsu yet for abusing this offer, but my partner has banned me from bringing it home so I tend to smuggle it in after she's gone to bed. Please don't snitch on me.

So when we went to Monkatsu the other night we decided to skip the sushi and go for something different. If you don't know Monkatsu it's tucked up North Cross Road. I think the location used to be a bar, The Drum, which had a speakeasyish vibe and I think it was a tapas bar at one point too. In fact when we first moved to East Dulwich I think it was our local grocery (back then Bora was a spare tyre place. And I’m not gonna lie, doing this column is giving me s spare tyre.

Last time we ate here was when lockdown was easing and we sat outside. This time we had a perfect location right by the window. Well, perfect to watch everyone going into Thai Corner Cafe which seemed to be doing a roaring trade. But it was very early in the evening and after our arrival Monkatsu soon started getting busy too. We were merely early adopters.

The room had a nice ambience. Not clinical and bright, more rough wood and exposed brick, with tables against the walls down each side. It's dog-friendly which is nice (if you like dogs as much as we do). My partner was a little irritated by the young staff walking past us to hand takeaways to a stream of bikers but I thought it was a good sign that business was so brisk.

As for the food, we quickly ordered a couple of starters. Beef miso soup (£5.50) and pork gyoza (£7.50). I don't know what it was about the way I said it, or maybe we just looked like a couple of skinflints, but the waitress seemed to think that was all we wanted. We were quick to put her right and ordered two mains. More about those in a moment....

And actually the first course was almost enough. The soup was delicious. Miso can be on the watery side but this was more like a meaty broth, bordering on kosher chicken soup (with beef though). We fought over the single bowl and were actually tempted to order another. I don't usually associate gyoza with Japanese restaurants, to me they are more Chinese - we had them at Silk Road a few weeks ago and these were every bit as good, with the added attraction of pickled vegetable on the side.

It was lucky we didn't order extra soup because when the mains came we thought we had over-ordered. There was nothing light or minimalist about my partner's prawn katsu and chicken teriyaki (£17.25) which came on a bed of rice plus cabbage salad and sesame seeds. The prawn katsu had rows of Japanese mayo drizzled on it. The chicken had a sticky red coating on it, probably not the healthiest way to eat chicken but undeniably more-ish.

I'd opted for the chicken Katsu curry. Yes, I know that Katsu curry is a Japanese dish, but this felt quite uncharacteristically heavy. The chicken was cut into strips and well-coated in something like panko, but the sauce was on the glutinous side. As I ate the rice the sauce seemed to spread across the plate like molten lava. It was, I should add, tasty, but not exactly nuanced when it came to flavouring.

My partner certainly enjoyed her food. In fact she was generally enjoying the experience so much that after a beer she opted for a plum wine. Sweet and gluggable and £7. When the waiter came over our plates were empty. He looked down at them and said: "you done with that?" though for a moment I thought he was offering us some udon noodles to go with the wine.

By the time we left the room was filling up and buzzing. We were filled up and buzzing too. Curry and sugary plum wine often has that effect I expect. Canoodling couples were getting stuck into noodles. And they of course do plenty of ramen, sashimi and sushi options. It’s good value too. Don’t expect to be transported to Tokyo for an evening, but do expect to be fed well.

Monkatsu, 49 North Cross Rd, London SE22 9ET

All meals paid for and identity not revealed before or after.