Watanabe Curry 渡邊カリー梅田本店

Watanabe Curry is one of the curry rice restaurants which we have in our shortlist for the 2019 Japan trip, but never got the time to try it back then. This time round we finally made it here, better late than never!

April 2023 Update: We also re-visited Watanabe Curry in April 2023, tried another dish combo we wanted; Black Curry + Gyukatsu!

Do scroll down for the update!

**Crisp and thick tonkatsu**
Watanabe Curry 渡邊カリー梅田本店

**Chicken Curry**
Watanabe Curry 渡邊カリー梅田本店

**Black Curry Minced Meat**
Watanabe Curry 渡邊カリー梅田本店

**Carrot Puree?**
Watanabe Curry 渡邊カリー梅田本店

**Spinach Puree**
Watanabe Curry 渡邊カリー梅田本店

Premium Pork Cutlet Curry (¥1800)

This is the signature dish of the restaurant, we have to order it! (And I love myself a good tonkatsu too!)

During the ordering phase, they will ask you on the spiciness level + amount of rice.

Spiciness Level Options: Normal or Spicy

Amount of Rice Options: Small, Medium, or Large

For both of our dishes, we opted for Spicy for the spiciness level.

For the amount of rice, it will be Medium for me (this dish), and Small for Poka (Original Watanabe Curry).

Now onto the tasting!

Chicken Curry (default curry): It is balance of sweet and spicy, quite unique compared to other curry restaurants. We feel it is ok for most people even those who can’t withstand spicy much to eat. It is not spicy for us, but then we love to eat spicy food.

Tonkatsu: Crispy and moist pork, and the batter is just nice (crunchy on the outside, yet still can feel the moist meat on the inside).

Black Curry (pork minced meat curry): Seasoned well, spicy and very flavourful curry taste. The black colouring is made using squid ink as we can see from their description. The minced meat is stir fry (we believe) with good ratio of 50:50 lean and fat portion, and it also fully absorb the curry spices and flavour. Squeeze the lemon (juice) onto it also adds a hint of refreshing lemon taste to it.

Spinach Puree: When infuse with the tonkatsu, it adds a bit of herb taste to it in a good way.

Black curry is like a stronger version of the default chicken curry, you can definitely feel the kick, this will be great for spice lovers. (We love it by the way! That’s why we even bought back their pre-made curry for home cooking too!)

Overall: Definitely a well worth signature dish of the shop, on point on everything!

Rating: 3.75/5

Usami Beer Curry Lover Ale (¥850)

I mean with a name/tagline like this, I got to try it too. One thing I learnt from my travels, just try it (if your budget allows) if you are hesitating, rather than regretting it afterwards and can’t try it anymore (either no time or already travel to other cities).

In collaboration with Usami Beer, they created a craft “Curry” beer. It is not a curry or curry flavoured beer, but a beer that pairs well with curry (spice).

I’m no connoisseur to beer, so my observation and tasting will be: smooth drinking when pair with spicy curry, I don’t really necessary taste any notes particularly well or stand out through the beer though, while drinking or aftertaste.

Rating: 3/5

**Original Watanabe Curry + Gyukatsu**
Watanabe Curry 渡邊カリー梅田本店

**Close up on the chicken**
Watanabe Curry 渡邊カリー梅田本店

**Close up on the crust**
Watanabe Curry 渡邊カリー梅田本店

Original Watanabe Curry + Gyukatsu (¥1300 + ¥1050)

Since we have ordered one tonkatsu dish, so also wanted to try the other meats thus trying the Original Watanabe Curry (Chicken) + Gyukatsu (Beef).

Chicken Curry (default curry): It is balance of sweet and spicy, quite unique compared to other curry restaurants. We feel it is ok for most people even those who can’t withstand spicy much to eat. It is not spicy for us, but then we love to eat spicy food.

Chicken Meat: We feel it’s of decent standard only, meat is a bit dry (as in no meat juice anymore), nothing outstanding.

Gyukatsu: It is cooked excellently with deep fried crust (crunchy), and meat is medium rare, juicy and tasty. Of course, it’s no A5 wagyu, but the meat is good enough especially how well cooked it is plus the crunchy batter.

Overall: Not saying the chicken is bad (it is really of decent standard), but in this restaurant with stars like the tonkatsu, gyukatsu, and black curry minced meat; the chicken just doesn’t live up to it’s other sibling (meats). In short, if we are just rating this dish of just the curry + gyukatsu (without the chicken component) it will be 3.75/5.

Rating: 3.5/5

**Black Curry + Gyukatsu**
Watanabe Curry 渡邊カリー梅田本店

**Close up on the Gyukatsu**
Watanabe Curry 渡邊カリー梅田本店

**Close up on the pork minced meat curry made up of squid ink**
Watanabe Curry 渡邊カリー梅田本店

April 2023 Update

Black Curry + Gyukatsu (¥1100 + ¥1050)

In our last visit (April 2023), we tried this combo of Black Curry + Gyukatsu that we wanted to try from previous visits.

I believe this is same Black Curry in Premium Pork Cutlet Curry but of course this is a dry dish, doesn’t come with any curry.

As usual you can choose the spiciness level for the curry, and also the amount of rice you want.

Spiciness Level Options: Normal or Spicy

Amount of Rice Options: Small, Medium, or Large

This is Poka dish, so she choose Spicy for the curry and Small amount for the rice.

Black Curry (pork minced meat curry): Seasoned well, spicy and very flavourful curry taste. The black colouring is made using squid ink as we can see from their description. The minced meat is stir fry (we believe) with good ratio of 50:50 lean and fat portion, and it also fully absorb the curry spices and flavour. Squeeze the lemon (juice) onto it also adds a hint of refreshing lemon taste to it.

When eat together with the rice, you can feel the herb-y taste and at the same time yet refreshing from the squeezed lemon juice + pickled vegetables.

Overall: Our 2nd most favourite dish of the restaurant, more like as a combo, so we can share half each of the Gyukatsu.

But for those who desires an actual curry broth, better to opt for the Premium Pork Cutlet Curry and add-on the Gyukatsu.

Rating: 3.75/5

**Counter Seats**
Watanabe Curry 渡邊カリー梅田本店

**We also bought back both of their pre-made curry back for cooking too!**
Watanabe Curry 渡邊カリー梅田本店

**Signatures on top of their door**
Watanabe Curry 渡邊カリー梅田本店

**Ground floor signboard and menu**
Watanabe Curry 渡邊カリー梅田本店

Overall

Definitely another restaurant we will revisit in future trip(s)! Already missing the curries, tonkatsu, gyukatsu, and the minced meat. Hope to try the lamb in the next trip too!

Also our recommendation to order if you have are dining in as 2 pax (and are spice lovers):

Premium Pork Cutlet Curry
Black Curry + Gyukatsu

So you will have the best of both worlds, as long you guys share a bit from both dishes. (We didn’t include the lamb into considering, because we have not tried it.)

But if you are dining solo, this will be a bit tough, either have to miss out something or just go all in (if you can finish so much protein):

Premium Pork Cutlet Curry (If you can’t eat that much)
Premium Pork Cutlet Curry + Gyukatsu (Go big or go home option)

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Address: 大阪府大阪市北区曽根崎新地 2-2-5 第3シンコウビル 3F

Opening Hours: 11.30am-2.30pm, 6pm-9pm Weekdays, 11.30am-4pm Sunday.

Payment Method: Cash and Cards

Website: http://www.watanabecurry.com/

Tabelog: https://tabelog.com/en/osaka/A2701/A270101/27091294/

(Last visited: April 2023)

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Watanabe Curry - Great Japanese curry with heavy (meat) hitters

Watanabe Curry 渡邊カリー 梅田本店