Tonkatsu Kouraku is the place that comes up first when you search for Hamamatsu tonkatsu. I stumbled on it while walking past, and there was quite a queue.

This is the place

The line looked short, but it took about 30 minutes to get in.. Though given the way the place is set up, it couldn’t really be otherwise.

Red miso soup

Rice

Tsukemono

Menu

As you can see, the prices aren’t cheap. There are all sorts of fried things on offer, but tonkatsu first, and out of those I picked the most expensive and the cheapest options, matsu and ume.

Ume

For 2,000 yen the portion is about average. Go for the take and you seem to get a double helping of a similar cut. Taking a bite, maybe it’s the good pork they use, but it has the deep meaty flavour you’d expect from a first-rate tonkatsu shop.

Matsu

The matsu is a completely different cut (rib roast, I suppose you’d call it), and it feels like half of it is fat. You could see it as greasy and mushy, or you could call it the taste of the finest fat melting in your mouth. It was one of the better ones among all the high-end tonkatsu I’ve eaten.

Cross-section

You really have to see this impact in person. They coat an overwhelmingly thick cutlet in egg batter and fry it very slowly at a low temperature. Put that much time and care in and of course it ends up expensive and delicious.

This place isn’t really somewhere to argue about price or portion or taste, though. The atmosphere isn’t just retro, it felt like time-slipping back to the eighties. The owner, well past eighty, lighting the stove with a match, coring each piece of cabbage and carefully shredding it by hand, was a performance worthy of a living intangible cultural asset in itself. This person was probably cooking the very same tonkatsu the very same way forty years ago. Given the age of the owner and their spouse there’s no telling how much longer they’ll keep the place open, so I can’t say how glad I am that I got to eat here this time.

Good places to eat in this neighbourhood

The liquor shop in this neighbourhood

It looked like it had a certain aura about it, so I went in.

No way, they’ve got rare items like this..

They’ve got imo shochu too

All three of the 3M, no less..

Apparently it’s the finest liquor Tomino Hozan makes..

I was a bit tempted, but I’ll leave it for next time..

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