Gyudon, a Japanese dish of rice topped with beef strips and onions simmered in sweet sauce, could be a counterpart of the Filipino tapsi—quick and easy to prepare but also filling and nutritious.

An early memory of eating gyudon was in the late 1980s at Yoshinoya across Dusit Thani in Makati. But for many years since, Yoshinoya—a Philippine franchise of the original Japanese fast food restaurant—was gone until it reopened sometime in the 2000s in the malls.

Recently there was a chance to sample another gyudon restaurant, Sukiya, reportedly no. 1 in Japan and which just opened its second branch at SM Manila after debuting at Glorietta.

The “100% High Quality US Beef” tag on the menu is true to its word, Sukiya Philippines operations head Noboru Nishino told ANCX. He also pointed out the restaurant serves Japanese rice that has short grains and is sticky when cooked.

What really makes gyudon yummy is the sweet sauce, but at Sukiya, the beef was noticeably tender and tasty as well.

Aside from the basic fare, there are several varieties of Sukiya’s gyudon—Melted Cheese; Soft-boiled Egg & Spring Onion; Stir-fried Mustard Leaves & Mentaiko (cod roe) Mayo; Kimchi; Spicy—plus a whole lot of other meat variants including Beef Yakiniku, Japanese Curry, Teriyaki Chicken Bowl, and Hokkaido Grilled Pork Bowl, which had a smoky flavor and came with a soft-boiled egg still in its shell.

“Go, break the shell,” Nishino said, assuring us the egg would come out perfectly soft-boiled—the white firm and the yolk runny. We cracked the egg on the side of the Hokkaido’s bowl—and true enough, out came soft-boiled egg, which is healthier than fried.

A cause for curiosity was the spicy Japanese Curry—fried chicken with rice, and generous curry sauce which is supposed to be Indian in origin. But history tells us that curry powder reached Japanese shores in the late 1860s and soon became part of Nippon dishes.

A month later we were back at Sukiya SM Manila to order the Teriyaki Chicken Bowl, which was served rather dry—it seemed like the sweet sauce was in short supply.

A repeat order of the Hokkaido Grilled Pork—which made up for the disappointment over the Teriyaki Chicken—kept us a bit anxious as we cracked the egg, which was served cold. Consistency won us over—there it was, perfect soft-boiled egg which we slowly laid on the steaming Japanese white rice.

The Kimchi Gyudon was enticing but we didn’t want to get too stuffed for comfort. Next time then.

The best part of dining at Sukiya is you won’t go broke. Most of the standard medium-size bowl dishes are priced at less than P200. There are bigger-size bowls for hearty appetites—but are still cheaper compared to other places serving similar fare. The lone veggie dish, stewed kangkong, sells for only P30.

No wonder Sukiya already has many Pinoy suki this early.