Katsuyama — Restaurant in Palm Desert

1st things first WILDLY OVERPRICED... Lets move on though... Clearly these other reviews are nothing more than emotional based... so yeah the prices are are completely unrealistic but does that mean the food is bad? Well... mildly. Here we go;

PORK katsu: the fry itself is actually done great! Not too burnt, not too light, very authentic Japanese katsu shell! That's where the positives end. The pork was fairly dry... not completely dry but way more dry than katsu should be. I can tell the pork they're using is high quality, which is a plus. If they figure out how to retain moisture in the pork this would definitely be getting a better rating.

CHICKEN katsu: this was better than the pork. The chicken was moist and made in the same consistent fashion as the pork. I suggest you pass on the pork and go with the chicken.

MANDU/Gyoza: These were sadly... pathetic. The description on the menu sounded great, describing that they're pan stir fried... these tasted like frozen items and were overall generic and very disappointing.

Katsu SAUCE: I can't tell if this is bottled or made in house, it's too late to ask and I'll sadly not be returning but I'd be curious to know because it tastes very authentic and as expected after seeing their processed images of their food and pf course the pricing. Nothing special but thankfully not bad like chain katsu places.

RICE: Their rice is decent. If you like Japanese food, you know how critical rice is, especially in sushi dishes (which this place offers) and the rice isn't bad, but it absolutely isn't at the level of quality and preparedness that accurately aligns with the prices they're charging.

OVERALL: I'd avoid this place sadly... I REALLY wanted to like it and I mean REALLY REALLY wanted to like it. But the mediocre pork and rice is a big turn off... if they were charging about $18 for the chicken katsu I could justify coming back to have that again and perhaps try their sushi (only after finding out where they get their fish and how often) but until then, I won't be missing the food, the atmosphere (super generic atmosphere) and especially won't be missing paying 25 for half a portion of pork katsu and 24 for chicken.

See my photos for validation and judge for yourself before you read these reviews that some seem to be friends and family and others are nothing more than emotional based and not factual food quality based. It's worth mentioning that it's highly suspicious that one of the comments actually mentions the fact that some of the reviews might even seem to be friends and family... in psychology, we know what that means... and can confirm people give good ratings based off of nothing more than feelings over actual good food.

In closing: I will miss having the opportunity to chat to the guy who just got back from japan and the Thai girl who work there. They were very pleasant and I would rate their personalities high but I ordered to go so I can't judge the actual service beyond some pleasantries and the offering of water while I waited for my meal.

Lower your prices if you can, if so, I'll give it a try again, if not, best of luck to you. Nows the time to capitalize on all the kids and young adults who don't value the dollar and spend their money on overpriced bubble tea and food for instant gratification all while complaining about not having anything.. maybe you'll do good for a while but sadly, I doubt this place lasts... time will tell and I am happy to check their prices...

The place looks beautiful and the service is pretty good. Too bad the food was not really worth the price… I’ve eaten at a lot of Katsu places both here in the US and overseas, and I was not impressed with this. Let me explain…

I ordered the Don Katsu set ($24) and good that it was a set. Here’s what I think about each item on the set.

Miso soup - it’s good but unusual to have chicken in there. 4/5 Cabbage and sesame sauce - I like this one the most. 5/5 Rice - it’s like half a cup… I like my rice it should be more 3/5 Sauces - this was a bit disappointing, the katsu sauce tasted like A1 steak sauce, and the Japanese mayo tastes like kewpie from the bottle. 3/5

And the main part, the pork cutlet… it was thick, but really dry and not tender. The breading is also falling off like it was not made properly. Katsu breading should stick to the meat even when dipped into the sauce. This one had all the breading fall off so I was basically eating just dry meat + fallen breading on the side. It’s doesnt taste umami too, it’s not bland but it’s not flavorful.

This is a long review but I love my katsu, so I was really really disappointed...

First of all, food is quite mediocre and tasted terrible. It is significantly overpriced and not even better at all than much cheaper bento sold in Japanese grocery stores.

As also mentioned in other reviews, the service is very poor, and their team is poorly managed with poor communication. A waitress opened up the waitlist and a few folks signed up at the waitlist. After we waited for some time, a manager-looking man came out, saying that there were a group of 25 people coming and most of the tables could not be made available to us. They should had made it clear before they opened up the waitlist. The man later seated a party who came at a later time without honoring the waitlist, as he did not communicate with the waitress who initiated the waitlist. Moreover, even though some tables later became available to us, the servers kept slowly setting up tables for the 25 people group who would not come shortly, while keeping us waiting in the resturant for additional ~20 minutes and not seating us. They are so unprofessional and do not know how to prioritize items properly and communicate...