Tonkatsu Aoki Ginza Store - Tokyo

The restaurant is quite small and crowded during lunch time, so prepare to wait. It is located on the B1 Floor. The building is right across the apple store; there was a small opening on the building and a stair to go down to B1 Floor. For the food, I ordered the lunch Pork Cutlet (tonkatsu) set, which was ¥ 1300. The pork cutlet was cooked perfectly: crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The restaurant provides a variety of complementary sauces for your liking. I recommend the mustard and sea salt to put on top of the cutlet.

Excellent tonkatsu, even though portions are ridiculously big at times (e.g. the rib rosu is in excess of 300g). The first bite is a 10/10, but unless you have a large appetite, it rarely ends with you feeling that it’s a 10/10, haha. Wish more places back home would cook pork pink in the center like they do here. Tonjiru is one of the better ones. Service was unaccommodating though. I came the second time with my grandparents, who couldn’t stand for long periods. The staff refused to let me hold the line, while my grandparents went to a nearby cafe to sit. Because of that, I’d recommend places that allow for reservations nowadays (Chawanbu, Keita, Narikura) instead.

Jan. 2023 We came here during weekday lunch time, waited for an hour, yet it was worth the wait! We ordered tonkatsu (200g), fried aji, and 5 breaded oysters. Tonkatsu was juicy, flavorful, probably the best kind that I've ever tried. Aji was huge, crunchy and didn't smell anything closer to that stingy fish smell. Oysters were great as well.

I thought this was an above average tonkatsu place, but there was about an hour wait at 1800 on Thursday, so plan accordingly. Additionally, the google maps directions is a little tricky. You'll want to go into the entrance of the shopping area a bit, and then you'll likely see a line formed on the stairs heading down to B1, not 1 like it says on Google Maps. They have English and Japanese menus, and had a few cuts of meat available, including some leaner cuts. There's a few additions you could get with your katsu, like an oyster, or I think a prawn, but it's pretty concise on it's offerings. First the katsu. Crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside. The batter has decent coverage, and it's clear they double fry. It's a touch more oily than some others I have had, and didn't have that S+ cracks like glass crisp that some places do. Still though, very solid. Cabbage: standard, although not a specific dressing to go with it. They had a soy slight vinegar sauce in a bottle, but it's not the creamy vinegar one I like. Nothing really to write home about Soup: A pork miso soup, using some trimmings from their pork, some onions and carrots. The broth was solid and they had a good amount of meat inside as well. Very nice. Rice: Standard Sauces Flavors: They had a tonkatsu sauce that was pretty decent, but nothing mind boggling. If you care for salt, they had three types, and a hot mustard. No sesame seeds, which I see as a negative. Price: 2900 yen for 300g of tonkatsu, refill of miso, and a large bottle of Asahi beer. A very good value! If it weren't for the hour+ wait to sit I would have this be a 5 star due to the favorable price, and the above average katsu. But some minor hits to there not being a dressing for the cabbage, no sesame seeds, and slight oil not as crisp leads this to a 4. A very solid place, especially if you can find a time when the line is short. Otherwise, if it's reaching the 1F level of the stairs in line length, this becomes not as great of a value.

We had very good tonkatsu for dinner after a queue of about 40-45 minutes (on a Thursday evening). The restaurant is in the basement so you'll have to walk down the stairs from ground level. The space is very limited so really only a few customers can eat simultaneously.