Tonkatsu Wakou

Met with my good friend’s parents during my trip to Japan, and we met at Hachiko’s statue in Shibuya. We decided on katsu and so we came here. The ambiance is nice, the food was good, but the service was subpar for Japan. I attached pictures of the set it came with, a nice variety of items from misoshiru, perfectly cooked rice (standard in Japan), oroshi, katsu. They have a delicious yuzu sauce, which just a few drops was all I needed to accentuate the flavors of the katsu; the oroshi also help cut the oiliness.
Service-​wise me they seemed less friendly than other Japanese places. But good overall.
Remember you get refills on cabbage and rice if you want!

As far as standard tonkastu places, Tonkatsu Wakou exceeds that. The katsu comes on the little metal mesh so that it stays crispy. They have all you can eat shredded cabbage, rice, and asari miso soup (with the little clams in it). And have a pretty decent selection of katsu types, including the standard pork stuff, but also things like chicken with cheese and shiso, or ebi (shrimp) fry. And all very reasonably priced. For a chain katsu place, this one does the trick… but it’s not as good as the hardcore traditional places.

The tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlet) here is incredibly light and crunchy! It’s breaded perfectly without any oily or greasy residue. They have an English menu and it’s near the Shibuya station so it can get touristy.
Pay in front when you are done with the bill/​order summary they place in the slot under your table.
Bathrooms are in the plaza outside of the shop. For ladies, it’s a squat toilet so use those leg muscles!

This place. Oh my god I would come back in a heartbeat. It’s situated in the mark city mall (?) at Shubuya station on the 4^th near a whole bunch of restaurants.
When I came to Japan, I knew I had to go to a katsu place to see the differences between katsu in America and Japan. Normally I’m turned off by tonkatsu because in the states everyone makes it really dry and unappetizing.
Not this place.
We walked into the restaurant and was seated immediately. English menus were provided as we didn’t speak and inkling of Japanese and the waiter probably figured out fast we were super touristy, not that I tried to stand out at all.
My travel companion ordered the pork cutlet dinner and I ordered the kurobata pork cutlet and they were both presented beautifully with miniature clam miso soup, rice, and salad. The katsu sauce and lemony soy sauce salad dressing is to the side.
First bite of the kurobata pork cutlet, and it was simply amazing. It was juicy and fatty and it melts in your mouth. The way they breaded the tonkatsu was also beautiful and crispy and crunchy. It was one of the best pieces of katsu that has ever entered in my mouth. The salad plus the dressing was good, and the soup was flavored really well.
The miniature clam miso soup was interesting, tasted great. But it was a bit difficult to get the clam meat out of the clams since it was so small.
I was also able to taste the regular tonkatsu cutlet and it was good, however not melt in your mouth kurobata pork cutlet good.
For 2 people it was about 3000 yen which is about 26 bucks USD. That price for 2 people is really good value.
I have been dreaming about this and craving this every day since I got home from Japan.
I miss you delicious tonkatsu.

This place is awesome! Great food, very friendly staff. English menu is available. Free refills are available of rice, shredded cabbage and miso soup. The miso soup has the added little surprise of tiny little clams in it, too. Overall, great!

There was a short wait for dinner on Sunday, but the wait was well worth it. Although the staff did not seem very happy, service was smooth and quick. Tea was brought out as soon as we were seated and our set meals followed shortly after. The tonkatsu pork fillet was so tender and melt-​in-​your-​mouth delicious. The shrimp katsu was so crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Don’t think you can go wrong with any of the combos. Our meals came out to JPY 4050, no more than 1600 per set. Prices are very reasonable, considering the quality and quantity of these plates would cost more than USD$ 30 in the states.
~English menu available!
~unlimited shredded cabbage and (tiniest ever) clam miso soup
~grab your bill and pay at the counter by the entrance
~Credit cards accepted (phew, since we were on our last yen and didn’t wanna withdraw more money the day before leaving)

Don’t be basic and confuse Katsu with Tempura — as I did. Fried food seemingly is universally recognized — but thankfully enough, the restaurant also had an English menu to help ordering easier.
I ordered the dish that had the shrimp katsu, pork katsu, and the chicken stuffed with cheese katsu — sounds like a lot of food? You bet! Apparently the meal had free refills on the salad and rice, which I definitely saw many people take advantage of this. Not me though, this was plenty of food — even for a hungry American.

Flakey pork cutlets. Sugoi Baby!
So good. Very difficult to find this place, but once we did the staff were great.
They helped us out picking a proper lunch feed for our hungry bellies.
Excellent.

Wako Tonkatsu was simply amazing. I am still thinking about the breaded crispiness of the meat
It is located inside Mark City Mall on the fourth level and looks very unassuming from the outside. The meals usually include shredded lettuce which I at first thought was a poor filler
However with the accompanying sauces and dressing, the coolness of the lettuce is the perfect accompaniment for the breaded Tonkatsu which is very difficult to describe and and give any justice to how good it was
The ambiance leaves something to be desired but the food more than makes up for it

After getting lost (yet again) looking for this restaurant, we finally found it in a what looked like an office building first floor. Is it the best Tonkatsu in town? I had nothing to compare it to. We crammed everything in just 6 days and with breakfast lunch and dinner. By everything I meant all the food we wanted to eat with an occasional snack in between lunch and dinner lol.
Back to the Tonkatsu. Meat was tender. Shredded cabbage are plentiful and if you want more, they’ll give you more with no extra charge. Sauce was good. Most comes in sets that include miso soup, rice, pickled vegetable and what (set with shrimp and kabocha) I ordered came with a chawanmushi.
Memorable? Yes, for the long blocks I had to walk.

One of the best places to try tonkatsu!
Wakō is a tonkatsu-​specialized restaurant chain. Their food is consistently good and for a reasonable price! A meal is always served with rice, cabbage and seafood miso soup, which you can order as much as you want. The main dish is either deep fried pork cutlet or seafood (shrimp, oyster) or both. Lunch is around 1.000¥ and dinner 1.500¥. You can also get amazingly cheap and delicious bentō from 620¥!

Supposedly one of the better Tonkatsu’s in Tokyo but honestly I can’t tell. Each places fry shrimp. Almost all places serve and fry pork. While it was very, very good, I’m sure it’s comparable to other Tonkatsu places. Really wished it came served with Curry like the Curry house.