Here’s the low-down on the latest action-

The Beef: OMG.

First let me ‘splain…Japanese cuisine tends to stick to a specific dish and work it to perfection. When visiting Japan, you’ll have noticed that they are purists - ramen shops only serve noodle soup bowls, yakitori shops only do grilled meat skewers, sukiyaki places….you get the gist. So when you roll up to a restaurant doing don(g) ("don"= short for “donburi”, literally “bowl”. Don't know why they put the extra "g" in there. For the sake of dirty jokes?), expect a menu limited to oversized rice bowls.

This is why, being someone who likes to order an array of dishes, i.e. massive fan of Chinese style dining, the menu felt too homogenous for my taste. However, eventually amongst the beef, chicken, and pork selection of don(g)s, I honed in on the Dafu combo bowl which offered a sampling of all three types of meat (as I said, I’m a stickler for variety).

The lineup of master meat grillers started to prepare my food, and it only took about 8 min before my set tray arrived – includes kimchi, chicken soup, onsen egg, and meat bowl! Oh, and garlic butter dip for meat (yaassss!). The first bite was heavenly - the beef was grilled so good and perfectly pink on the inside (no dirty joke here either). Refer back to first sentence about working things to perfection.

Every single bite was sinfully rich in buttered meatiness. And to top it all off, when I finally mixed in my gooey runny onsen egg with the rice…you know what I’m talking about.

The Motive: Located in the B2 level of the XTD plaza, and 4 locations across the city inside higher end mall food courts (Reel, IFC, MetroCity). Which means I’d most probably make it here if I’m within close vicinity. And alone – this is perfect for a one-person meat-glutton type of meal. Still, wish they had a bit more variety on the menu, maybe a side salad to balance out the richness of the meats.

The Damage: 206RMB for 2 bowls and 2 beers. Bowls range from 68-98RMB and come as a set meal.

The Down n’ Dirty: Actually the B2 restroom is located pretty much right next to the restaurant. This is one of the fancy mall bathrooms that provide nicely scented soap and hand lotion. Do I smell like BBQ meat though?

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