Katsu Bar

Much like Omori Katsu & Ramen down the street, Irvine’s Katsu Bar offers a menu that appears Japanese at first glance but quickly establishes itself as offering Korean versions of Japanese favorites – including deep-fried katsu cutlets, bowls of ramen or udon noodles, inari sushi-like yubu tofu pockets, and sweet or savory “sando” sandwiches. With indoor seating for around 20 people and communal outdoor seating shared with the Junbi tea shop, Katsu Bar uses modern fast-casual service system: Guests order their meals entirely from touchscreens, then await delivery of items from the front counter/kitchen next to the dining space.

As its name suggests, katsu is at the core of most of the dishes, including “plates” pairing one (large) crispy breaded cutlet of pork, beef, or chicken with rice, tomato-topped coleslaw, macaroni salad, and sweet pickled radishes; rice bowls without the other frills; tteokbokki spicy rice cakes; noodle soups with either curry udon, black garlic udon, black garlic ramen, or mala-spiced ramen; and sandwiches combining either milk bread or traditional buns with rosemary, caprese, or mustard flavorings. A handful of entrees can be ordered without cutlets, but you’ll need to be okay with spicy chicken udon, mushrooms, or egg salad. Yubu, fried shrimp, and fried mandu dumplings are offered as appetizers or entree components, while standalone appetizers include tempura-style vegetables, waffle fries, calamari, and sausage rice cakes.

Without exception, the items we ordered all fell into the “pretty good” category. From the largely fried appetizer collection, we went with kimchi mandu dumplings that were more crispy and dumpling shell than kimchi, and sweet & spicy garlic Korean gang jung – chicken tenders unevenly striped with a thin but pleasantly chili peppered sauce. We also liked but didn’t love four yubu, selecting bulgogi, crab, seaweed, and shrimp from a larger collection, each piece modestly uplifting dull rice and tofu with our chosen ingredient.