A yoshoku/tonkatsu place located next to Tokyo dome and kourakuen amusement park. Very spacious with forest-ish wooden decor(in a theme park sort of way).
Pickles. A massive bowl of salad. Other than the yuzu and soy sauce dressing on the table, there are three types of salad dressing(menu) you can request for free: sesame seed and miso, grated vegetables, sour plum shiso and mayonnaise. I like sesame seed one the most.
黒毛和牛ハンバーグ定食、￥２１００。
“Black-haired” wagyu hamburger steak set, 2100yen. Also came with beansprout. The waiter rolled out the huge hotplate on a wagon, poured the demi-glace sauce and cut the hamburger in front of you. Rice is mixed with green shiso(aojiso). Salad, rice and miso soup are all refillable.
３種盛り定食、￥１５００。
Wagyu hamburger, crab cream croquette and fried prawn.
特製カツカレー、￥１５００。牛ステーキ定食、￥１６００。
Special katsu(cutlet) curry. Curry sauce is a bit salty but the pork loin katsu is nice.
Beef steak is soft and tender, very good!
てごねかつ定食、￥１２６０。替わりかつ丼、￥１５００。
Minced pork katsu is delicious!
Donburi with pork katsu, tororo(grated yam), pickled veggy. All the ingredients are seasoned so the salt content sort of adds up and overall a bit salty.
海老カツ丼、￥１２００。豚ハンバーグ定食、￥１３００。
Donburi with prawn katsu, veggy and half-cooked egg. The prawn katsu is very good.
Pork hambuger(with grated radish topping) actually tastes better than the more expensive beef hamburger.
石鍋焼きかつ丼（ロース）、￥１５００。盛り合わせフライ定食（串かつ、カニコロッケ）、￥１５００。
Donburi with pork katsu in a hot stone pot. The staff pours the soup to the katsu(also udon at the bottom) and you add the raw egg and seaweed yourself. Choose it only if you like katsu soaked in soup…
Assorted fry: Kushi-katsu(kushi means skewer) with pumpkin, shishitou pepper, onion and pork. Crab cream croquette.
Overall the food is good. Service very friendly. Opens on Sunday and holidays. Only thing is there is no non-smoking seats. The sister restaurant Katsu Kichi next door is non-smoking at lunch time and the menu is similar.
菩提樹 (Bodaiju)
Add: 1-14-3, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku
Tel: 03-3818-1020
穴子フライ、￥３６７５。カツレツ、￥２６２５。
Took a friend to try this super expensive but also super delicious tonkatsu place. Had the standard “Katsu-retsu”. Also tried the “Anago Fry” for the first time - 3675yen is crazy(rice and miso soup not included) but they give you two big pieces and damn they just taste so good that you don’t regret paying(though I didn’t have to pay at the end hohoho).
(20 Sep 2007)
Yoshoku restaurant established since 1905. I was a bit dazed when I saw the menu…a salad is 1050yen, deep-fried seafood is 3000~4000yen, cow tongue stew is 4200yen…good thing my target was katsu-retsu(i.e. tonkatsu) which is an affordable(relatively speaking) 2625yen. Rice and soup and pickles are an additional 525yen. Seriously, it never cease to amaze me how yoshoku sometimes can be so expensive and yet many people are so willing to pay. I mean you can have a full course French lunch with that amount of money. Anyway, the cutlet turned out to be quite delicious. ^^;;; Coating is thick but crispy. Apparently thick and floury coating is the traditional style for deep-fried things in Japan. I guess people in the past didn’t worry so much about calories. The pork is fried twice, first very slowly in low heat oil, and then a quick finish in very hot oil. It did take a long time for it to come. The pork is a thick huge piece, has very little fat, soft and tender, feels a bit sandy in the mouth and not the juicy kind but I like it a lot. Didn’t feel ill afterwards but apparently it is fried in lard….There is only a bottle of sauce on the table which I reckon is for the cutlet but I prefer eating it just with salt and mustard. Oh, I sat in the counter(only 4 seats) on the first floor and there was only a salaryman eating alone. He was drinking wine and eating a plate of something, and I overheard his bill was over 13,000yen…^^;; I found an English review here.
Couldn’t resist and went back to try “Ebi korokke”, i.e. Prawn croquette. With rice and miso soup, it is 3150yen also. Very expensive…but it is so delicious! Inside the perfectly-fried crust are corn cream and big chunks of prawns. Only two croquettes but they are quite big. Though I think the pork cutlet is of better value. I want to try other things in the menu….but the price is just too high!!
Menu(J) 1, 2.
ぽん多本家 (Ponta Honke)
Add: 3-23-3 Ueno, Taito-ku
Tel: 03-3831-2351
とんかつ定食、￥７００。
Tonkatsu lunch. The pork is thick and juicy. THe coating is not too thick. Very cheap for the quality. No wonder there is always a queue at lunch time. Customers are all guys. Counter seats only. Kinda scary that there is no conversation inside at all - the master makes the tonkatsu quickly and quietly, while the customers eat quickly and quietly….^^;;
ヒレカツ。Pork cutlet lunch. Quite famous place, very packed with businessmen and elderly…I must have been an unlikely customer cos the chef kept staring at me even before I started taking out my camera(^^;). I knew this place is not cheap but I expected they have cheaper lunch sets…unfortunately they don’t. The standard price is 2900yen(ouch…). And the pork was quite hard and not very juicy….hmm. The chef seems to know everybody, saying “Oh long time no see” to an ojisan, and “Is your mother genki?” to the young salaryman sitting next to me. ^^;;
蓬莱屋
棒ヒレかつ膳、１８００円。Oh very good!!! I went at 5pm with a friend for an early dinner and to our surprise, a queue formed immediately after the restaurant opened at 5 sharp….we had no idea this place is so popular.
平田牧場
黒豚おろしとんかつ、１２６０円。Good!
まい泉
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