A note on the words: tonkatsu is a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet, here enjoyed as a drinking snack rather than a rice set meal. Ham katsu is a thick-sliced ham cutlet fried in coarse panko (fresh breadcrumbs) for a crunchy crust. Kinmiya is a classic brand of shochu (distilled Japanese spirit) paired here with soda and lemon. Yoshoku refers to Japanese-style Western cooking, which the predecessor restaurant specialized in. Yuzu-kosho is a spicy, fragrant paste made from chili peppers and yuzu citrus peel, used here to accent the thick-cut cutlet.
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Ponchi Ken on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
To all you tonkatsu lovers out there, thank you for waiting! It is time for Hangover Meshi!
In a back alley of Kanda-Ogawamachi, Ponchi Ken is a tonkatsu (pork cutlet) shop marked by its yellow sign. The shop opened in 2012 and apparently grew out of a yoshoku (Japanese-style Western food) restaurant in Akasaka. The noren curtain at the door bears the name Shunkotei, a yoshoku restaurant in Mejiro! I suppose it must be a sister shop. It is a famous spot repeatedly selected for the Michelin Bib Gourmand and listed among Tabelog’s Top 100 Tonkatsu shops.
But the awards are not what I want to push today, ha. The menu has ten snack dishes (otsumami) and six a-la-carte fried items, and Kinmiya shochu is 480 yen a glass. At lunch a queue is a given and you cannot make reservations, but at night seats are easier to get, making it a great spot to drink slowly with tonkatsu as your side dish!
Around 7:00 PM on a weekday, I was able to walk right in without a reservation (I wonder what it is usually like? Maybe I was lucky?). Going right inside and checking the menu…!
A tonkatsu shop that offers its cutlets a la carte, not just as rice set meals, really understands drinkers, ha.
Let’s drink with tonkatsu while ordering snacks!
Now, let’s start with a beer!
That moment of taking the first sip of beer is my favorite!
Taiyo (Sun) brand sauce on the table! Shunkotei in Mejiro had it too, come to think of it.
In cross-section, the ham is really thick. Taking a bite, the coarse fresh panko crust cracks with a crunch, and after that the ham’s saltiness spreads gently. Thanks to its thickness, a springy, plump bounce remains. This is how ham katsu should be! A squeeze of lemon cuts the richness of the fat, and the ham katsu is good even without sauce, but in the end it just has to be mustard and sauce. This combination is truly the best!!!
Unable to resist, I ordered a Kinmiya soda! It comes with lemon, which is so appreciated!!!
I thought, ‘I won’t be eating rice, so this is fine, right?’ and went ahead with the thick-cut toku, ha.
The thick cut apparently takes nearly 30 minutes to come out, with the frying time and the resting time being roughly half and half, they say. Thinking about that, drinking with ham katsu while waiting for the thick cut to fry might have been a great choice, ha. A tonkatsu that drinkers in particular should order.
The first bite plain. The coarse crust crumbles with a crunch, and a sweet aroma of fat rises from inside. For its thickness, it is surprisingly easy to bite through; it pushes back plumply, yet comes apart properly — proof of quality meat! The more you chew, the more the fat juices out, yet what remains afterward is lightness, not heaviness. Isn’t that wonderful!
There is plenty of room for flavor variations too. After that, with salt, then with yuzu-kosho. With salt alone, the umami of the meat comes through clearly and the deliciousness jumps up. Unable to resist, I ordered another Kinmiya.
Once I had tried each of those, the rest was with sauce!
This is my favorite! Plenty of mustard and sauce. On the table are tonkatsu sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Trying both while taking a gulp of Kinmiya — it is just too good!!!
Very satisfied! It was a great time.
Listen, with tonkatsu, you know — you should become someone who can drink with tonkatsu as the side dish.
It was a blissful tonkatsu drinking session that makes you want to say just that. Not a set meal: tonkatsu drinking. The toku takes time to come out, so I think it is best to order snacks first and wait unhurriedly with a drink! It is a bit pricey, but nothing remains except satisfaction, so I recommend it! A shop I would love to drop in on casually again.
May you encounter something delicious today as well!
Ponchi Ken (Tonkatsu / Ogawamachi Station, Shin-Ochanomizu Station, Awajicho Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.7
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
