Tonkatsu koko made yaru ka

Tonkatsu koko made yaru ka (とんかつ ここまでやるか)

⭐⭐⭐⭐

🐷 Tonkatsu / 📍 Gaienmae

📓 Visits: 3

The third restaurant from Malca's Tsukasa Kitano (the second was Mochio) and the newest quality tonkatsu restaurant in Tokyo.

The restaurant is located in the former premises of Tempura Motoyoshi.  Motoyoshi-san relocated to Ebisu in 2022.  The Gaienmae restaurant was run by Motoyoshi-san's sous chef, Hiroki Matoba.  But, along with Tempura Motoyoshi Imo in Ebisu, the restaurant closed at the end of 2023.  Matoba-san is set to open a tempura restaurant in Kanazawa in 2024.

There was no English menu.  At lunch there are typically two choices of rosu katsu teishoku and one or two choices of hire.  At dinner there are no sets available so you have to pay for the katsu of your choice.  This might be 200 yen cheaper than the lunch set but cabbage is charged at 300 yen (unlimited refills) and rice and miso soup at 400 yen (unlimited refills again).  It seems like they are also going to offer a reservation-only omakase course in the evenings for JPY 11,000 comprising a variety of fried items but details on that are a bit sketchy for now.  A half portion of hire is available a lunch without the cabbage, rice and miso soup but at half the price of the set it's not really economical.

On my first visit there were two kinds of rosu priced at JPY 2,800 and JPY 4,500 and one kind of hire priced at JPY 4,800.  I'm not really a rosu person but 4,800 is more than I want to spend on a first visit to a tonkatsu restaurant so I chose the cheapest rosu at JPY 2,800 which, looking at a series of menus, seems to be the minimum price for a meal here.

I prefer a pork with a deeper flavour and the fat (though delicious) was quite salty but the meat was very moist and didn't need any additional seasoning.  The panko was the thin type, very moreish and not oily.  The katsu is first fried at low temperature in a back kitchen and then fried for one minute at high temperature behind the counter to crisp up the panko.  Because most of the frying is done in the back there's very little smell of oil in the restaurant.

On my second visit a hire katsu was available at JPY 3,200 so I chose that.

You might be alarmed seeing blood in pork but it's safe to eat rare pork in Japan.  This was one of the best hire katsu's I'd ever had.

I also added the menchi katsu.  This was a blend of Kobe beef and pork but contained an unwelcome and unadvertised addition of cheese.  Not really satisfying, not worth 700 yen and definitely not worth 900 yen as it was on my visit.

On my third visit I chose the sakana fry teishoku.  This comprised aji fry, sawara fry, madai and shirako.  The seafood was good quality and frying in clean and quality oil certainly helps.  But unfortunately set came with madai instead of ebi fry, it felt a bit small and definitely not as satisfying as the tonkatsu.

So the pork is great but lots of tonkatsu restaurants have great pork but many fail when it comes to the cabbage, rice and miso soup, and some will even charge you for refills.  Here, everything has been perfect.  I usually don't request extra rice but it's so good here I've eaten up to four bowls on one visit.  The tonkatsu sauce and goma is the best I know of: umami, acidity, sweetness, it had everything.  And (why has no-one thought of this before?) they serve it hot!  When the cabbage is freshly cut it's the sweetest I've ever had: I can demolish a whole bowl with no dressing.  Instead of an actual dressing they serve tosa-zu and recommend you add a little salt: this was eye-wideningly good.  On one visit the first bowl of cabbage was not up to the usual standard: it was as if it had been cut some time ago and wilted.  Since they're paying such close attention to everything I'd like them to pay attention to this too.  Finally, the akadashi is excellent and, along with wasabi and shoyu they serve a thick, mildly-spicy red mojo sauce made with paprika and cumin that went surprisingly well.

On two visits, one on a Saturday, I arrived just at opening time and was first to enter with no-one behind me.  On another visit I arrived later into service and had to wait ten minutes to be seated.  I'd expected the restaurant to be much much busier but as I type this, Tabelog says it took 115 future reservations for this restaurant today and recent reviews say "it's always full".  So maybe business has picked up?

I'm mainly a skeptic when it comes to expensive tonkatsu.  Looking at the top five tonkatsu restaurants in Tokyo, Narikura I think is too expensive, has poor hospitality and heavy batter.  Katsu Prepork wasn't perfect.  Sharikimon Chanwabu is very good but is very expensive now, especially since the curry sauce is no longer included in the set.  Keita I'm yet to visit.  Tonta is my pick of the current top five: the best panko, excellent pork, nice staff, best value.  The trouble is you'll definitely have to queue for 30-40 minutes, maybe longer.

What did an Italian chef bring to a tonkatsu restaurant?  Well nothing Italian.  But what Kitano-san did bring (it's not him frying here) was a level of refinement I haven't experienced in a tonkatsu restaurant in a long time.  What did an Italian chef bring to a tonkatsu restaurant?  Well nothing Italian.  But what Kitano-san did bring (it's not him frying here) was a level of refinement I haven't experienced in a tonkatsu restaurant in a long time.  Katsuzen is the only tonkatsu restaurant to have ever been awarded a Michelin Star, which it held through the 2011-2018 Tokyo Guides (the restaurant closed in January 2020).  Malca was disappointingly not awarded a Star in the 2024 Guide but was included as a "selected" restaurant.  It's now more difficult (some would argue rightly so) to get a Star in Tokyo and with all the ramen restaurants being demoted from 1-Star to Bib Gourmand who knows what Michelin will do for 2025 but I think koko made yaru ka has the potential to get a star and I'd be delighted if it did.   Stick to the rosu or hire for the best tonkatsu in Tokyo.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1306/A130603/13294363/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.3

📱 Booking: Bookings by Tabelog, TableCheck or phone. All my visits were walk-in.

📍 Location: B1F, 3-2-4 Minami-Aoyama.

5 minutes from Gaienmae station, Exit 1b.  B1F multi-tenant building.  Behind Ski Shop Jiro on Gaien Nishi Dori.
Map data ©2021 Google

📶 Free WiFi? ✅ Yes (slightly poor phone reception)

📅 Visit May 2024

Sakana fry teishoku

💴 Damage: 3,800
⏱️ Time taken: 35m

📅 Visit April 2024

Kobe Premium hire katsu teishoku 3,200
Kobe gyu and Meigaraton menchi katsu 900

💴 Damage: 4,100
⏱️ Time taken: 1h (incl. 10-15 mins queuing)

📅 Visit March 2024

Niigata Koshinokogane toku-jo rosu katsu teishoku

💴 Damage: 2,800
⏱️ Time taken: 40m