Restaurant: Kaiju
Location: 384 Yonge Street, Unit 51, Toronto ON M5B
Price Range: $
[wp-review]
You know, I can’t believe I’m actually reviewing food-court food lol. Then I realized that as I work around the PATH, it has been a constant struggle to find cheap/affordable lunch options in the area, so I figure these food court reviews might be useful to some people.
Kaiju is one of those unexpected hidden gem located in the food court area of the Aura condo, and most of their items range from $6 to $10 with a few exceptions. To get here, simply go down the escalator, turn left until you see a tea store then turn right, and you will see a food court with only 3 vendors.
Being a food court restaurant, I didn’t expect good service or anything, but the owners are some of the friendliest people I have ever know. Everytime I went, they always took the time to explain the type of food Kaiju offers and made sure I have a pleasant experience.
Sorry for the not-so-glamorous pictures. The food are served in styrofoam boxes, I don’t know how I can make them look good lol.
The chicken katsu came out piping hot and fresh as Kaiju deep fried the katsu per order. I liked how they placed the katsu on the rice with no sauce poured over, so the meat wasn’t going to get soggy easily. Unlike other restaurants, the chicken katsu at Kaiju were lightly breaded, and left a good amount of thickness of the chicken meat, which allowed it to stay moist. The chicken was crunchy and tender on the inside, and the coleslaw was surprisingly good! The curry itself was smooth and not too thin. I also liked that the curry had a nice transition of sweetness to spiciness, and the spices didn’t get muddled among the sweetness of the curry. Overall I actually prefered Kaiju’s curry over Gyugyuya on Dundas street.
I thought this was just an average stir fried noodles dish and it was incredibly salty. My throat was craving for water after having a few bites, so I felt they used a lot of MSG for this dish :(.
Another reason why I love coming to Kaiju is their tofu cheesecake and the regular Japanese cotton cheesecake. Although the Japanese cheesecake is bigger and a bit more expensive, trust me, the cake tasted exactly the same as Uncle Tetsu’s cheesecake. However for both cakes, Kaiju only sell them by slices on Saturday, otherwise you have to place an order in advance for the cakes.
I’m pretty sure there isn’t any other downtown bakery that sell the tofu cheesecake, but please let me know if there is one! The base is a thin layer of gram crackers and brown sugar I believe. Although the base is quite sweet, the top layer of unsweetened tofu nicely balanced out the sweetness from the base. The tofu itself was really smooth and silky, it was almost like eating a pana cotta lol.
Although Kaiju is a food court restaurant, that have not stopped them from putting themselves on the map for serving delicious food. The portion of the food is big for what you pay, and the owners are incredibly friendly to the point they don’t even mind let you sample their food before placing an order. Although I haven’t tried other dishes on the menu, I say pass the stir fried noodles and get their Japanese curry dishes, as Kaiju is well known for it ;).