Albert T.
Yelp
I visited Hurry Curry of Tokyo as my 6th Japanese curry restaurant in January (and 7th overall), in an attempt to find the best tonkatsu curry in Seattle. This was on a Thursday for lunch, and as far as I could tell, this place seems to be pretty empty most of the time, with people typically opting to get takeout. At least, I was the only person eating in the entire time I was there. The restaurant is basically counter service, so orders are taken at the front counter and the chef brings food out to the table, but everything else is done by the customer, including self service utensils, drinks, and bussing the table after the meal.
Tonkatsu Curry, Medium Spicy, White Rice ($17) - The order first starts with a small bowl of salad, topped with a tangy and salty soy-sesame vinaigrette. A good way to start off the meal.
On the main plate, there's a decent sized piece of tonkatsu, pounded flat before being breaded and fried. Unfortunately, like most places around here, it's fried for too long, resulting in a dry and tough texture on the interior. The breading, which seems to be a mix of panko and breadcrumbs, is crisp, but detaches a bit from the meat, indicating possibly excess moisture before the fry. The pork is very lean, with no fat to help add moisture and slick mouthfeel. I don't think they season either the breading or the pork at all, resulting in tonkatsu that's rather flavorless and underseasoned.
I like how they serve the curry in a separate bowl so it doesn't render the katsu soggy. Unfortunately the curry just... isn't very good. It's very thick and concentrated in taste, making it exceptionally salty. Instead of being gravy-like in consistency, it's similar a gel, only very slowly conforming in shape to the container. I feel like it's over-reduced, resulting in a flavor that's far too concentrated. Japanese curry is one of my favorite dishes so I didn't think that would be possible. I feel like the dish could be vastly improved by watering the curry down a little, which is something I don't recall ever saying before. On a positive note, the curry does seem to be made in house. I ordered it medium spicy, which adds just a pinch of spice, not enough to cover up any of the curry flavor, but causing just a slight bit of heat in the mouth.
The rice is short grain with decent mouthfeel. It's the only one of the seven katsu curry places that I feel doesn't use enough water during the cooking process. While the grains can be individually felt, overall the rice is a bit dried out and on the firmer side. Unfortunately, there isn't nearly enough curry served in the small bowl for the amount of rice (and meat) they give, which doesn't help things.
At first, I thought I was going to give the overall dish a 4, but as I ate more and more, I liked it less and less. The curry is too salty and everything is missing so much moisture that it becomes a bit of a pain to eat towards the end. I had to drink an entire cup of water (and these are large water cups, probably 34oz+) to help temper down the salt and dryness.
For a place that specializes in curry and used to boast four locations in Washington and California, I left a bit disappointed.
Note: Hurry Curry charges a 5% service charge on all orders.
Bathrooms - Two unisex rooms that require a code