Katsu 勝つ Malasaña — Restaurant in Madrid

This restaurant focuses on tonkatsu sandwiches and Japanese-inspired snacks. The interior has a clean, minimalist design with white and wood elements. The staff are friendly and attentive, ensuring a pleasant dining experience.

I ordered a Katsu Sando and a Chikin Katsu Karē. The flavors were quite average, similar to what you’d find at many Japanese-style eateries run by Chinese owners. While the pork cutlet in the sandwich was decent, the tendons hadn’t been properly removed, making it tough to chew. Additionally, the center of the cutlet seemed undercooked due to its thickness. The curry dish was underwhelming, featuring only a basic curry sauce that was overly salty for my taste. The coating on the chicken cutlet was soft and greasy, lacking the crispiness I expected. With drinks, the total came to about 26 EUR.

This restaurant has been open for around three months. While the portions and prices are fair, the food quality and flavors didn’t stand out to me. The 30-minute wait for my meal, despite only two groups of customers being present, was also disappointing, though the staff’s friendliness helped offset this. It’s not a place I’d frequent often, given the similarities to chain Japanese style restaurants and the...

This place is incredibly over-hyped. For starters, the music is way too loud. We could barely hear each other to have a conversation. We ordered a starter and 2 dishes. We got the starter in a decent amount of time, and it was good, but the main dishes are where it goes South. My partner got his dish (chicken katsu curry), which they basically threw onto the table without looking at him. Mine did not come. A few minutes later a different server noticed I didn't have mine, and she asked me what I had. 10 minutes later I got mine, which was katsudon, their "speciality". I love Katsu, but this was the worst katsu I've ever had. I couldn't eat half of it because the cut of pork was so bad, it was mostly tendon. It was also bland, the only flavor came from the sauce (which was like a Japanese bbq sauce). The sauces are clearly all store-bought, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but for the price it costs, I expected way better. My partner said that his curry was fine, but it wasn't worth the price, either. We were disappointed because we were hoping to find a place to replace Curry Go, which closed.

Don't believe the social media hype...

As an East Asian living in Madrid, I was very excited to see there is finally a Katsu themed restaurant opening( since there aren’t a lot of options for Katsu yet in the city). I saw this Instagram reel promoting the restaurant with such hype and I was desperate to book a table. So now I can confirm that it is really just a hype.

The food is average. We ordered a tofu salad, Japanese beef croquettes, a chicken Katsu sandwich and a Katsudon. All hot dishes were served cold( nothing worse than a ice cold piece of Katsu). The meats are sadly dry and flavourless. The only flavours you will taste in your mouth are the sauces the drown the dishes in.

The service was not bad and the staff was overall nice and helpful. Though we definitely over ordered as we were told that we ordered too little food originally. We entered the restaurant feeling starved and ended up leaving overtly stuffed with leftovers on the table. So please do not trust them on how much you should order.

I simply do not recommend this...