Tonki, in Meguro, has been running for over 80 years: it was founded in 1939. They specialize in one dish: tonkatsu (the Japanese pork cutlet). Both locals and tourists queue for their cutlet.
The visit
I went on a Saturday evening in late December. It was early, but there was a massive backlog of customers. Luckily I could seat inside.
They have seats for waiting customers behind the guests at the counter. As soon as I stepped inside, still standing, I was shown the menu, basically two options, hire-katsu (fillet, lean meat, 130 grams) and rohsu-katsu (loin, some fatty on meat, 160 grams). It was a flash. I chose the classic loin. The the waiting began. It took almost one hour before I was seated.
Meantime, observing the staff impeccably dressed in white frying and preparing side dishes in a fast and steady manner in the open kitchen helped to kill some time.
Finally I was seated and I got a tea and a wet towel.
The set included pickles, rice, miso soup, finely shredded cabbage, a slice of tomato, and mustard. Of course they also had their own tonkatsu sauce (the recipe is secret). It took another 15 minutes to get the set.
And now let’s get to the cutlet. Apparently they soak the pork meat in three layers of batter before adding the bread crumbs, then they fry for 20 minutes. The result was a thin but firm batter enclosing the meat perfectly cooked. The breaded casing did not adhere to the meat, so it was a bit annoying trying to combine the two elements while eating. I also found the cutlet a bit oily.
The check
The set cost 2,100 yen (around 19.5 USD). This was an old school tonkatsu. It was good but not great. For what it was, 2,100 yen was pricey, but you pay for the history surrounding the place. Honestly, I preferred the tonkatsu from Maisen and Butagumi: they have better meat (even aged) and the batter is crispier (and in the end their entry level set are only marginally more expensive than this). I did not regret going, but I would not particularly recommend it.
Where in Tokyo:
1-1-2 Shimo-Meguro, Meguro-ku.
In Japanese: 東京都目黒区下目黒1-1-2.