A note on the words: tonkatsu is a crumbed, deep-fried pork cutlet, and rosu is the loin. A teishoku is the set meal — the cutlet with rice, soup, shredded cabbage and pickles.
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Tonkatsu Iwai on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Drinkers, thank you for waiting. It is Hangover Meshi time.
Ugh — tonkatsu. I want tonkatsu.
I want a pork cutlet.
I had drunk a bit too much the other day and my stomach was in a state all morning, but once it recovered I wanted something fatty, and specifically I wanted tonkatsu — so I searched for somewhere good nearby. And there in Hamamatsucho was a place with a strangely high rating: Tonkatsu Iwai.
There were rumours they sell out quickly when busy, so this time I arrived a little after 17:30. Four groups ahead of me. Enormously popular.
And then, looking at the menu, I thought:
I want the limited thick-cut rosu katsu.
But 240g is an awful lot. Can I actually finish it? Really I had been thinking the 120g of the standard rosu katsu set would do, but when it says “the finest part of the loin” you start to waver. Right, let us eat it. A 160g thick-cut would have been ideal.
So, thick-cut ordered (they still had it), and a wait.
Ahh. A beer at this hour is unbeatable.
They fry it slowly at a low temperature, so it takes twenty or thirty minutes. It is a big piece, after all.
I could have had another beer, in hindsight.
After a while, the thick-cut rosu katsu set arrives.
That is enormous.
240g, roughly 4cm thick, fried over about twenty minutes. Presumably because of the long low-temperature fry, the crust is somehow paler than an ordinary tonkatsu.
The cut face keeps a faint pink. The first bite with salt, I think. A light dusting of moshio sea salt, and the coarse-breadcrumb crust breaks lightly. Behind it, moist, tender meat comes apart. The juices seep out as you chew, the fat is not heavy, and there is a clean sweetness that keeps you going. Perhaps the lack of any off-note in the fat comes from the breed — Roppaku Kurobuta.
On the table: moshio salt, sauce, tonkatsu soy, and pickled wasabi stem. After the salt, wasabi stem with the Kagoshima soy is the way to go. It is a little different from the sharp sting of wasabi paste — a stem laid on top and eaten with soy is clean and quite a new flavour. I had never eaten tonkatsu with wasabi before, but the fragrance and the heat cut straight through the fat and make it easy to eat.
Being able to follow the flavour of the meat itself, without leaning on sauce, is very much this shop’s character.
Having worked through all of that, sauce at the end. Whatever anyone says, I believe tonkatsu is at its best with tonkatsu sauce. Plenty of mustard, then straight into the sea of sauce. Bounce it once off the rice and in it goes. Rice immediately after.
Very good. This is the thing.
The shredded cabbage comes with a shiso dressing whose clean acidity resets the fat in your mouth, and your hand reaches for the next slice.
The tonjiru pork-and-vegetable soup is packed with ingredients, restrained in salt, and its sweetness stands out. Apparently you can have a refill for another 100 yen, but I was much too full.
Potato salad and pickles come alongside, which properly lifts the whole set.
240g really was a bit much as something to drink with. The wasabi stem and soy kept it clean, but the sheer quantity is what it is. Finished it, though it hurt a little.
Delicious. A special-occasion tonkatsu, fried properly and slowly at low temperature. It taught me that tonkatsu eaten clean with wasabi and soy is very good too. Not long after I started eating, a customer who came in was told “we’re finished for today” — so if you come late, it may not be only the thick-cut that runs out but the ordinary tonkatsu too. I would strongly recommend arriving right on opening.
May you meet something good to eat today too.
Tonkatsu Iwai (tonkatsu / Daimon Station, Hamamatsucho Station, Shibakoen Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.8
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
