Tucked away in the corner on the lobby floor of the Charn Issara building is a Japanese restaurant that serves up a delicious array of authentic Japanese dishes. Forget about Fuji, the Giant Chain Japanese/Thai Restaurant located at every Shopping Center in Bangkok, this place completely blows it out of the water. For a price, of course. This review is for Misato at Charn Issara Building which is about 5 minutes walk from Saladaeng BTS in Silom.
Entrance to the Restaurant
From the outside, Misato looks like any other Japanese Restaurant that is about to go out of business, but once you step inside it is obvious that its large clientèle of Japanese/Western patrons won't let this shop close down. Luckily for me, I arrived when the store opened for dinner (6PM) and managed to get a table, by the time I had finished there was already a queue of people waiting to be seated.
Our orders today included Salmon Onigiri, which was one of the best I have tasted in Thailand. The Seaweed exterior was crisp, the rice was fragrant and a nice texture and every bite was filled with the pieces of salmon meat that made up the filling for this light bento box snack.
Salmon Onigiri
Next up was the Gyoza or sticky/pan fried dumplings, which was a bit dissapointing. I would not reccomend ordering this. There was only a little filling and it tasted average.
Gyoza
If you come here, you definitely have to try their Tonkatsu (Crispy Fried Breaded Pork). The servings are large and will definitely fill you up. The meat is juicy as well as crispy and worth the price you pay. For most of the dishes you have a choice between the Medium (150G) or Large (200G). An additional 70 Baht makes your order a set with rice and soup.
Tonkatsu (Large) Set
Menu Page for their Tonkatsu (Fried Pork Cutlet)
We also sampled the Katsu Curry. The portion was large as well and if your a fan of this dish, imagine the Tonkatsu described above swimming in potato, carrots and other vegetables curry. You can also pick if you want it to be spicy or mild depending on your own tastes. If you happen to be free for lunch, the restaurant also offers up Set Lunches at competitive prices.
Katsu Curry
Having filled ourselves once again with worthy eats, we randomly picked out a dessert from Misato's menu and were in for a treat.
Our Aloe Vera Dessert
What we were expecting was a scoop of ice cream and some red bean paste, but instead we were given a scoop of green tea ice cream, red bean paste, Mojis, Sweet Strawberries, a Slice of Melon and a Royce-Tasting piece of chocolate to top it off.
Overall this restaurant was a pleasant experience. It is a good break from all the fast-food, cheap and "Thaionized" Japanese cuisines that we get in Bangkok. There is a lot of talk online of where you can get the best Tonkatsu in Bangkok. Saboten? Katsu King? I have tried a handful of the contenders, and would say Misato is up there on the list. Be sure to try the Salmon Onigiri and Aloe Vera Dessert as well as the Tonkatsu if you pop in for a visit, just don't pay too much attention to the service here, that's one part that they have A LOT to improve on =)
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Misato Japanese Restaurant (4/5) BBB
02-237-2266
Charn Issara Tower 1 Ground Floor
Rama IV Road, Bang Rak, Bangkok Thailand 10500
