Chicken Katsu Curry
KAHT-soo KUR-ree — 'Katsu' is a shortened Japanese borrowing of the English word 'cutlet.'
₹320
The most comforting crunch in the world — a British curry, a French technique, and a Japanese kitchen all had to happen for this to exist.
Japanese curry arrived by way of the British Royal Navy in the late 1800s, who had themselves adapted it from British India — Japan then made it entirely its own, thicker and sweeter than either predecessor. Katsu, the breaded cutlet, arrived separately around the same Meiji-era period through French cooking techniques introduced to Japan. Someone eventually put the two together, though nobody agrees on exactly who or when.
What makes it taste like that
The curry roux is built from a dry spice-and-flour base cooked in fat until deeply toasted, which is what gives Japanese curry its distinctive thick, almost gravy-like body compared to Indian or Thai curries. The katsu stays crisp because it's fried separately and placed on top rather than simmered in the sauce, so the panko crust never gets a chance to go soft before it reaches you.
Chef's note
Keep the curry and the katsu apart until the last possible second — that's the only way the crunch survives.