Tonkatsu and I have a troubled history. Over a decade ago, I lived near a gleaming chain known for affordable, heaping bowls of rice crowned with pork that seemed radioactively juiced to oblivion, lacquered in a sticky brown syrup with the medicinal insistence of cough syrup. “Katsu” there was shorthand for leathery pork bound to what looked, and ate, like indestructible sandpaper, with an industrial-grade adhesive completing this unholy trinity. I remember these bowls fondly because they justified the long periods between food adventures, when I made it my mission to conquer London’s Michelin guide as affordably as possible (if only).

This memory largely kept me away from tonkatsu for years. Yes I had serviceable versions, but none that made me cross town. Not until my recent to Tokyo, when I finally understood what tonkatsu could be.

@narikura_minamiasagaya comes easily to mind not only because of its Tabelog eminence, but because the chef Seizo Mitani-san raises fried pork cutlet to the register of the most exacting tempura counters in the region.

Though the batter is almost beside the point — the prized breeds and different loin cuts are the focus — Mitani’s meticulous low-temperature frying yields an ultra-light, ultra-crisp crust around uniformly pink, juicy pork. The first bite barely behaves like fried food at all because the crust yields, then the pork floods in, warm and clean and improbably gentle. Any order permutation will work here. The fillets are tender, delivering equal pleasures alongside his signatures: a fatty-enough ribeye and his “Chateaubriand,” which needs nothing more than a dab of salt and sesame oil.

I’ll return to Narikura should reservations re-materialize. Otherwise, @tonkatsukeita is a worthy alternative, and a more accessible one. It offers a near-elemental showcase of Rokubaku Kurobuta pork, which the owner Keita Aoki-san sources directly from his family farm. The coating on this one is more assertively bound, but the pure, medium-rare cook is a revelation, as is that tall cabbage salad.

🙏 TK and Joe for the recommendations.

📍Tonkatsu Narikura
📍Tonkatsu Keita
🍽️ Feb ’26 Less