Dinner at Tonkatsu Narikura
Katsu is one of my favorite Japanese food genre. Naturally, I’d like try to taste the best if given the chance while I’m in Japan.
There’s Tonkatsu Narikura, the highest rated tonkatsu (pork cutlet) restaurant in all of Japan according to Tabelog, the #1 foodie guide in Japan.
How to Book a Reservation at Tonkatsu Narikura
I got a reservation through Omakase.in. Schedule typically opens up one week at 12:00PM JST before your desired date within the week, so I recommend try booking it at the time since you’ll be competing with a lot of people due to the reputation of this restaurant. When I did it, I had to refresh so many times because the site bottlenecked with all the attempts.
Solo reservations are tougher here since they’re only reserved for counter seats, and there are only 6 seats in the counter. Tables are only reserved for 2 people or more.
Reserving through Omakase require you to pay 390 yen extra that can’t be refunded no matter what. It’s still a pretty low price to pay for such a service.
When reserving, you need to select either 2-piece or 3-piece set. Some items are more premium than others and charge a small extra fee. More details and the prices are in Omakase’s page.
Personally, the 3-piece set was very filling, and I can’t see myself trying one more item. Though I’ve also had people that’s satisfied with the 2-piece set.
The Food
The meal takes around one hour to finish, and there were around 9 people in the restaurants total.
We start with an appetizer with a cracker with meat and vegetable toppings.
We’re then served the sides to accompany the katsu. Rice and miso soup are also served, but I didn’t take a picture of them. Extra rice bowls after the first one incur 200 yen extra per bowl.
The first serving comes with the Loin cutlet. The panko crusts are light both in color and texture. They do not feel overly greasy. Very juicy and tender!
The second cutlet is the chateaubriand. It’s more lean than the loin and still very amazing and tender. The pork juices were flowing!
The final cutlet is the most creative one called cheese mille feuille. There’s also the regular mille-feuille cutlet, but the one with cheese intrigued me.
They’re smaller than the other cutlets, but they were just as filling as the others thanks to the cheese. They’re served with sweet-chili sauce. Yum!
After that comes the dessert, which was banana bread with panko crust. Great!
Overall, the total price was 8400 yen, including an extra bowl of rice and surcharge on two premium items that come from the loin and cheese mille feuille cutlets.
Conclusion
I’d love to go back to Tonkatsu Narikura again! I had some of the best porks I’ve tasted in here, and I’m curious about the fattiest cutlet bara (that I was too intimidated to order for my first visit) and some of the seafood katsu options they also have. Thus, I’m warranted another visit when I go back to Japan again!