MANILA -- It’s time to eat more gyudon as Japan’s Sukiya finally opened its first store in the Philippines in Makati's Glorietta 2 on Wednesday.

With over 2,000 restaurants in Japan alone and about 2,500 in total worldwide, Sukiya is known for its tasty gyudon. But if you’ve ever visited Japan, you’d know that the restaurant is also known as one of the most value-for-money eats — whether it's for a filling set menu with miso soup and the works or a basic bowl of rice and just curry sauce.

Manila’s Sukiya follows the same value-for-money philosophy with a small-sized gyudon starting at only P125 and the regular or standard-sized medium starting at P139.

Bowls have four portion sizes — small, medium, large and X-large. The menu comes with details of beef and rice quantities in relation to the medium or standard size. The medium was filling enough for a hungry diner, but if you’d like to get the more out of your Sukiya experience, a suggestion would be to order the small size and order some of their other bowl-options.

And there are other dishes in Sukiya other than gyudon. In fact, there are 14 pages in the Sukiya menu and in it are Japanese favorites from beef yakiniku, Japanese curry, Hokkaido pork bowls, flame-grilled yakitori, yakisoba, combination bowls, unagi bowls, side dishes, and even dessert.

Each bowl also has an option to become a set as a value price combo. Add-on dishes for combos include either veggies, fries, miso soup, chicken karaage, a drink, or desert — or a combination of one or two of those items. There’s even a recommended side dish for each type of bowl.

Curious? Here’s an exclusive sneak peek to some of the bowls available at Sukiya Glorietta!

1. Beef Gyudon

Sukiya's signature dish since it opened in 1982! Thinly sliced beef that’s sweet and salty, thanks to its signature shoyu (soy based sauce and broth) together with rice for a marriage made in heaven. Just like in Japan, you can add condiments to make this dish sing — this author particularly likes adding a lot of pickled ginger and a splash or two of Japanese soy sauce! In Manila though, as a nod to the Filipinos’ love for balancing salty with sweet, a calamansi soy sauce is also available table side. And yes, it changes everything!

2. Melted Cheese Gyudon

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If you love cheese on rice then this bowl is one of the many options that you can have topped with cheese.

3. Hokkaido Grilled Pork Bowl

This author will admit that I’ve only always ordered gyudon in my visits to Sukiya in Japan and have never even thought of ordering anything else. I’m glad that I did go to the Manila preview and have since found my new favorite — the Hokkaido Grilled Pork Bowl. Pork belly slices (sliced about twice thicker than the gyudon) with nice grill marks and basted with caramelized-umami rich sauce is a great alternative to the gyudon bowl – and was made for a splash or two of calamansi soy!

4. Beef Yakiniku Bowl

If you’re looking for a thicker cut of beef, it’s the yakiniku bowl that you’re supposed to order. Grilled instead of simmered, it’s a lot sweeter than the gyudon and still pairs perfectly divine with their fluffy-perfectly-cooked-in-their-state-of-the-art rice cooker rice.

Kiddie meals are also available.

Sukiya can be found at the 2nd level of Glorietta 2 in Makati.