Don-Don — Restaurant in Cary

As a long-time Japanese curry lover, I'm quite disappointed at Don Don's food quality/value and unfriendly customer service. Although Cary H-Mart's "food court" appears to have a great variety of Asian concessions, most of them are actually overrated, and this is clearly one of the overrated ones.

When I was about to order, I was the only customer in front and I saw employees noticed me but just ignored me until the lady cashier returned to the front of the concession to take my order. She didn't look welcoming. Ordered a Katsu Curry (Chicken instead of pork) with rice for $16+. My order was ready in less than 5 minutes, and when I went to pick it up, the guy employee in the front just looked at me without saying a word.

Don Don uses those boxed instant curry sauce that you can buy from the same H-Mart this food spot is in. My girl used the same kind of product before, and Don Don even displays the small boxes of packaged curry in its concession. The amounts of carrots and potatoes are minimal (I found them after digging beneath the sauce) but amount of onion is just fine. The chicken katsu is crispy, the rice is well-portioned, the warm sauce is what you'd expect from a packaged curry sauce - savory and mildly spicy (though there are spicier alternatives).

Although most casual customers will likely find the katsu curry's taste acceptable, warm, tasty, and spiced just right, the overall value here is lacking. For a $16+ price, we at least expect restaurant quality with more ingredients and maybe a small complimentary miso soup like what many curry places in Japan do. I don't mind the packaged curry sauce - just wish they can elevate it beyond what an average curry enjoyer can make with that at home.

As I said in my Love Bao review, the H-Mart "food court" area can get crowded, especially on weekends, but most of the time, we were able to find seats.

My food experience in Don Don reminded me of my first night in Japan (Shizuoka, to be precise), where we went to a small curry restaurant and tasted Japanese curry for the first time - it was a pleasant experience with complimentary green tea, warm customer service, and a satisfying curry meal that was worth it for an affordable price. Don Don is a misrepresentation of that and many great curry spots in Japan.

Overall...

edit been back still delicious katsu curry been craving katsu curry for far too long and finally found it here.

on our first visit this location on a weekend, this place was too busy that they had to stop taking orders for an hour

next time I came back on a weekday with more luck had a delicious katsu pork curry and ate every last drop

will definitely come back

for those who don't know this is inside hmart on the right side next to the other food venues.

update : tried to the takoyaki, was crunchy but had very little octopus......

It’s my favorite restaurant in the H Mart food court. They serve excellent comfort food: udon, katsu-don, tempura, curry, etc.

My personal favorite is the curry katsu pork, which is not only yummy in its own right, but is the closest thing to a good schnitzel I’ve been able to find consistently in the region.

My daughter, who is a picky eater, has learned to love plain udon with salt, and she’s discovered she likes tempura vegetables and shrimp too. It helped a lot to prepare for our...