For dinner that day, I decided to settle for curry that I had left in the fridge overnight, as it was a bit troublesome. But that wasn’t enough to satisfy me, so I thought about buying some toppings to add to it. That’s where this place came in.
This is a chain of tandoori tostakos specializing in takeout, located in a shopping street extending in the direction of the JR crossing from the Keikyu Saseko Station. This city offers a wide variety of fried foods for takeout. However, due to a reason, I chose this store over others because the menchi katsu purchased from a franchise store in Umita Tokyu Plaza was extremely crispy and delicious.
I visited the restaurant before 6 p.m. and purchased two shrimp fries for Tsure for 320 yen, and two servings of pork cutlet for myself, each costing 195 yen.
I served the freshly cooked rice with homemade curry made from Esbee’s new product, "Red Can Curry Powder Lulu". I topped it with chicken cutlets and ate it like that. Surprisingly, it was quite delicious.
ヒレカツは、この間に食べたメンチカツほど衣がサクサクではありませんが、カレーと一緒に食べる分には気になりません。肉自体は十分に柔らかくて美味しいです。まさに日本のカツカレーの王道という感じで、非常に美味しくいただきました。
The egg fry curry with tofu was also very delicious. The combination of the red-can curry and these fried dishes seems to be becoming a regular dish at my home.
Recently, stores like Matsuya, Mos Burger, Origin, Hoto Motto, and Gankai-ya have become prominent in the commercial streets with the presence of major chains. However, this is one of the pioneers in chain expansion. There are over 120 tonkatsu chains in Tokyo that offer a dedicated sales area for takeout.
When a chain of tonkatsu restaurants similar to Matsuya opened nearby, there seemed to be a temporary decline in customer traffic. However, it seems that the situation has now returned to normal.
Today, I finished shopping in the morning and planned to watch the Japanese Derby on TV in the afternoon. It's not that I'm taking any special risks; I decided to order a katsudon to eat at home and take it with me when I leave.
This restaurant offers three types of katsu-don menu items: ross katsu-don, hiré katsu-don, and ebi-hiré-don. I chose the traditional ross katsu-don for 690 yen (tax included). As I observed, the ross katsu is picked up from the showcase and then prepared into katsu-don in the kitchen.
After waiting for about 3 minutes, I received the katsudon. I took it home before it got cold. When I opened the lid, the katsudon was simply prepared with eggs to seal it shut. There was no nori or other toppings like those from Matsuya’s restaurant. The tostakatsu was about 15mm thick, and its weight was around 120g.
After trying it, I found that the quality of the pork is quite good. It seems that they use better ingredients compared to chain restaurants nearby. The soy sauce used for cooking the meat is slightly thicker than my preference. Overall, it was a fairly delicious meal.
Well, the issue with the Japanese Derby was that, with the help of fast tracks where records were often broken, the 12th-ranked Rojer Balls won the race. But it can’t be said that he won by eating tonkatsu and riding a horse. Instead, it seems like Kentucky Derby, NHK Mile, and Oaks have already seen four consecutive losses.
