A space for further travel

Tonkatsu Tonki, ?1-1-2 Shimomeguro, Meguro 153-0064, Tokyo
Tonki is not the kind of outfit you would find out about unless you had inside knowledge: a five-minute walk from Meguro’s subway station, it’s tucked up an unexciting alleyway. Being away from the footfall doesn’t seem to be injurious to the restaurant because its main clientele are local salary men and women, eating out on their way home from work. This isn’t the kind of local you get in Britain i.e. a pub that’s cliquey, unwelcoming, and a little bit shabby. You’ll be warmly greeted at the door, efficiently seated – if it’s dinnertime perhaps initially on benches along the walls to queue – and asked the most important question of your night: loin or chop? This joint does one dish but does it superbly: tonkatsu, breaded, deep-fried pork. It does it so well that it lets you see the chefs at work: from your perch at the expansive, 3-sided counter, you won’t get bored while waiting for your food (which won’t be long) as you watch them, busy at their separate stations. One chef dips a cut into beaten egg, another coats it in crumbs, another yet plunges it into one of several immense vats of hot fat, stirring them occasionally with a giant wooden utensil: ‘oar’ would be the English term that captures it most closely. Meanwhile, the sous-chefs pat rice into dishes and cut cabbage into ribbons with automaton-like productivity: you get bottomless portions of the brassica, raw. Tonkatsu dedicatees believe that it aids the metabolism. Frankly, my stomach was perfectly up to the tender portions of loin, helpfully (given the fact that you’ll most likely be working with chopsticks) and immaculately sliced into bite-sized medallions. I’m a fan of the schnitzel but, like most Japanese equivalents to European dishes, the cooking method produced something simultaneously more tender, crisper and lighter feeling (definitely a good thing on a humid July evening), as though it had but kissed the oil. It may help that unlike British pub grub, it’s served with famously digestible rice rather than a portion of chips or mash. The Tonki chefs’ techniques rendered this potentially mundane meat and two veg, not to mention its somber location, into something out of the ordinary. Go at dinnertime to experience the satisfying atmosphere provided by the collective unwinding of Tokyoite professionals. To better my experience, take a friend, order and taste both cuts, then argue about whether you want to stick or swap your plate.