はぴ☆ぱら なおりん
Today, I had the day off work, but my wife was going to a railway event in Ebetsu, so I decided to drive her there. The event was in Omasa, and it was going on until 5 PM. On the way, I saw a chain restaurant with a large photo of mapo tofu rice bowl displayed outside, which caught my interest. I dropped off my wife at the venue and headed to the restaurant. It was a branch of Katsuya in Ebetsu Noppo, and I thought they would be open at this time. However, the automatic door didn't open, and it showed that they were still preparing. I checked the opening hours on the door, and it turned out they opened at 10 AM. I could have sworn they used to open earlier. Well, I decided to wait for another 15 minutes until they opened. During the wait, I confirmed that they were serving a limited-time mapo chicken cutlet rice bowl. As soon as they opened, I entered the restaurant and ordered the mapo chicken cutlet rice bowl. The cutlet took some time to fry, so I had to wait for about 15 minutes until the dish was served. The rice bowl consisted of a chicken cutlet on top of rice, covered with mapo tofu. I started by eating the cutlet, which was quite large, and then moved on to the mapo tofu. The dish had a good amount of mapo sauce, which gave it a flavorful taste without being too heavy. The mapo sauce had a slightly artificial sweetness but a decent level of spiciness. There was not much tofu in the dish, but there was a good amount of minced meat. Overall, the dish was delicious, and the key factor was the generous amount of mapo sauce. I don't usually eat at Katsuya because their cutlets tend to give me heartburn, but surprisingly, this mapo chicken cutlet rice bowl didn't cause any discomfort. I enjoyed the dish without needing to drink water, but it might be too spicy for those who are not used to spicy food. I recommend this dish to those who can handle spiciness well. It was a satisfying meal, and I enjoyed it until the end. Thank you for the delicious meal!