Text by Bassey

This time it's a "ginger pork set meal."

If I limit myself to ginger pork, I'll miss out on some good restaurants, so I decided to include pork ginger as well.

This time we will introduce six restaurants: Aoki Shokudo Kamata East Exit Branch, Katsuretsu Yotsuya Takeda, Maruyama Shokudo, Danchu Shokudo, Yamadaya, and one more: Shogayaki Baka Akasaka Mitsuke.

"Aoki Shokudo Kamata East Exit Branch" is famous for its tonkatsu
　However, ginger pork is not to be underestimated.

Aoki is famous for its tonkatsu, and is rapidly expanding nationwide. The menu includes not only tonkatsu but also a variety of other fried foods, and some stores even serve shogayaki.

The Kamata East Exit store offers three types of pork: pork belly with ginger (1200 yen), pork shoulder with ginger (1300 yen), and pork rib with ginger (1500 yen). The cheaper option sells out first. When I arrived at 13:30 PM, only the pork rib was left.

As expected from a famous tonkatsu restaurant, they use Hayashi SPF pork. Healthy pork is used, with tender meat and sweet fat. Four large, slightly thick slices are placed on top of a mountain of cabbage. The portion is ample. The ginger is roughly chopped, and the sauce is sharp and spicy. The generous amount of sauce pooled under the cabbage is sure to capture the hearts of ginger pork lovers everywhere.

First, I tasted the pork alone. The meat was tender, the fat was sweet, and the ginger was delicious. This was good meat. Yes, this made me want to shovel in some rice.

Oh, when you order at this restaurant, you'll be asked if you want white rice or brown rice. Of course, it's white rice. As this is a famous tonkatsu restaurant, the white rice is shiny and of very high quality.

Next, wrap the cabbage, which has been soaked in plenty of sauce, in pork and take a big bite. Yes, this makes you even happier. But when it comes to adding a final flavor, mayonnaise is ideal. The sweet and spicy sauce and mayonnaise go perfectly together. So, wrap the cabbage covered in sauce and mayonnaise in pork and pop it into your mouth.

Hmm, this is paradise.

What makes you want to pat the staff on the shoulder and say, "You know what you're doing?" is that the mayonnaise is "all you can use" for 100 yen. You'll wonder what "all you can use" means, but they'll just hand you a whole tube of mayonnaise. That's impressive. But is there any other store like that?

It comes with a gorgeous white miso-based pork soup with plenty of ingredients. The pickled pork is also good. Next time, I'd like to try the "Ginger Pork Belly" or "Ginger Pork Shoulder Loin." There are only eight seats, so you may have to queue, so be careful about the time you visit.

Everything is delicious at "Katsuretsu Yotsuya Takeda"
On the way home, I was filled with a sense of euphoria

This is a store I absolutely love.

The main menu items are cutlets and fries, but there are always long lines all year round. Especially during oyster season, the lines are incredible. Depending on when you line up, you could be waiting for up to two hours. Everyone comes for the "butter-grilled oyster set meal."

Although everything is delicious, I usually order the "Salmon Butter Grilled Set Meal," but since that alone isn't enough, I usually add toppings like "fried oysters," "cream crab croquettes," and "fried shrimp." When I get really excited, I even order "a little curry."

Now, this restaurant only serves the ginger pork set meal in the summer, and the "pork ginger set meal" is available year-round. This one is also surprisingly delicious.

The meat used is "tender, aged, sticky pork loin," and the description reads, "Served with a sweet and spicy soy sauce with plenty of golden ginger from Kochi Prefecture."

Indeed, the lightly floured pork is about 1.5 cm thick, but very tender. The pork itself is sweet, and the thinly floured coating absorbs the sauce just right. Pork can get tough quickly if cooked too long, but this is just right. The chef's skills are undeniable.

What's more, the sauce contains plenty of ginger, but it's refreshing, slightly sweet, and has a wonderful balance of spiciness. I can't imagine how delicious it would be to use this sauce to make ginger pork with thinly sliced ​​pork.

Each dish is carefully prepared after an order is placed. The cabbage is not watery, and the rice is firm and shiny, making it very delicious. The wakame miso soup and the pickled seaweed on the table are also good.

In short, it can be said to be absolutely flawless.

It's impressive to see how the three chefs in the kitchen are able to take orders from the throngs of customers one after the other with such a good rhythm. Another thing that makes it so appealing is that the chef never yells at his colleagues or gets annoyed.

I always leave this restaurant with a deep sense of satisfaction. It's truly a valuable restaurant.

Ginger pork from "Maruyama Shokudo"
　The lineup is awesome

Kamata is also home to Aoki Shokudo, so it might be the holy land of ginger pork.

This restaurant is a heaven for set meals. There's a queue of working guys and uncles. 98% of the customers are men.

The basic menu consists of pork variations: pork cutlet, ginger pork, pork cutlet curry, and pork cutlet bowl, along with fried horse mackerel, fried shrimp, and fried scallops.

The goal is of course ginger pork, and there are five types to choose from: "Ginger Pork Belly Set Meal," "Ginger Pork Loin Set Meal," "Ginger Pork Rib Loin Set Meal," "Ginger Pork Pork Shoulder Loin Set Meal," and a new limited-time menu item, "Ginger Pork Mangalica Pork Set Meal." Incidentally, Mangalica pork is a national treasure of Hungary.

Many customers order the "Barashogayaki Set Meal" (300g). At 1700 yen, it's expensive for lunch. This writer also ordered it. 300g is quite a lot. The meat here is also Hayashi SPF pork, so the meat itself is delicious. The sauce is sweet and spicy, but with a strong spiciness.

As usual, there is a generous amount of sauce under the cabbage, so you dip the cabbage in the sauce, wrap it in pork, and eat it.

What makes this restaurant so exquisite is that it comes with a soft-boiled fried egg. You split the egg in half and wipe up the oozing yolk with pork. Wow. It has a wonderfully mellow flavor that's different from mayonnaise. A new world appears before your eyes, or rather, in your mouth.

This new world can be called bliss. It's a restaurant that makes you feel very happy. The sight of the middle-aged men shoveling their food into their mouths with single-minded concentration is also spectacular.

However, although the clams were rich and the miso soup was delicious, the rice tasted old and was a bit disappointing.

The pork at "dancyu Shokudo" is good though.
　There's a lot of room for improvement

This restaurant is produced by the magazine "dancyu," which I stopped buying after its famous editor-in-chief, Ueno, left. They serve set meals at lunchtime, and drinks and snacks at night. The queues at lunchtime are huge, so be prepared to wait after opening time.

The most popular dishes seem to be the fried chicken set meal, the ginger pork set meal, and the shumai set meal. Of course, the main attraction is the ginger pork.

"We use Takumi pork from Chiba Prefecture, which is known for the elegant sweetness of its fat. In our pursuit of a delicious taste that will leave you wanting more, we have created a sauce that contains several grated vegetables and fruits."...That's the selling point, so I was looking forward to it.

I arrived 15 minutes after opening and waited about 20 minutes. My order was already placed during that time, so my food arrived about 5 minutes after I sat down.

It looks very beautiful. There is a plate of ginger pork in the middle, a mound of cabbage, and macaroni salad on the side, which is nice. There are three small bowls, with lightly pickled vegetables, hijiki seaweed, and a little okaka sprinkling. The miso soup contains seaweed.

Well, to sum up, the pork ginger stir-fry is quite tasty. However, I can't praise it wholeheartedly. This is where my nagging like a mother-in-law begins (lol).

First of all, the sauce they are so proud of tasted a little bitter to me. It would be better if they added a little more sweetness. Maybe there is a problem with the ginger they use. Or maybe the fruit wasn't sweet enough due to the season.

The meat was nicely browned and tender. The fat was tasty, and it was good pork. However, the onions fried with it were not sweet at all. This was also a problem. Onions absolutely must be sweet. Perhaps they weren't fried for long enough. Wouldn't it be better to fry them separately from the meat and let them blend together?

Moreover, the shredded cabbage served on the plate was long and squiggly, making it difficult to eat. It didn't feel pleasant in the mouth. It didn't feel very fresh. I wondered if it wasn't hand-cut, but rather machine-cut by a professional. Or maybe it was cut with a rotating tool (sorry if it was hand-cut).

The miso soup was also a bit light, with no broth to it, so it wasn't that great. The rice was delicious, but the serving was stingy!

I kept complaining, but the ginger pork was pretty tasty, so I wish they would improve the essential parts - the cabbage, sauce and miso soup.

By the way, the fried chicken that I ordered as an option was also pretty ordinary. I would have liked it to have more garlic or sweeter.It's not quite there yet. I wish they'd take it a little more seriously.

Oh, the macaroni salad was delicious.

Yamadaya, famous for its pork soup
I was amazed and impressed by the amount of freedom!

It's one station away in Saitama Prefecture. It's a wonderful restaurant located just a one-minute walk from Narimasu Station on the Tobu Tojo Line, on the outskirts of Tokyo. I seem to remember it being featured in "dancyu."

The specialty of this restaurant is pork miso soup, but what's great about it is the freedom of the food. Each customer orders whatever they like, just as if they were at home. For example, this is what I saw on one day when I visited. As soon as the restaurant opened at 10:30, a group of middle-aged men and women came in. They always had to share a table.

The lady across from me had a big mug of beer, squid sashimi, and pickled Chinese cabbage for breakfast. After she finished her beer, she shouted, "I'll have the fried shrimp set meal, half the rice, and no miso soup!" (lol). The man at the next table also ordered squid sashimi, stewed pork cutlet, and oolong tea. Halfway through, he started drinking sake. Is this what you want so early in the morning?

Or, "I'd like the teriyaki silver cod set with a small amount of rice, natto and chilled tofu. Oh, and change the miso soup for pork soup." There was also a female student quietly eating the "grilled salted mackerel set" by herself. Seriously, there were just a lot of random orders flying around. The kitchen really does a good job.

So I decided to order the ginger pork set meal with a fried egg, pickled Chinese cabbage, and dried daikon radish.

Now, as for the ginger pork, it had the lightest amount of ginger among the six restaurants introduced this time. The pork was loin, but it was pretty average, so it wasn't particularly delicious. The macaroni salad on the side was nice.

As expected, the pork soup is delicious. It's filled with daikon radish, carrots, burdock, konjac, and pork belly, and is slightly sweet thanks to the white miso used. The dried daikon strips and pickled Chinese cabbage are also delicious. In short, the ginger pork is average, but from the perspective of a set meal restaurant, it's a very sophisticated restaurant that you'll want to return to again and again. The low prices of this out-of-the-way place are also reasonable.

"Shogayaki Baka Akasaka Mitsuke store"
　The "ginger religion" is interesting

Finally, I'd like to introduce an interesting restaurant, although the ginger pork itself isn't particularly tasty.

What's interesting is that they are so "ginger crazy" that it has even reached the level of "ginger religion." After all, the "Kin no Kame Akasaka Mitsuke Main Store" is located on the second floor, and this is a ginger sauna!

I haven't experienced that yet, but there is a ginger-infused water bath, and you can eat a ginger pork set meal inside the sauna. In short, it's a sauna that's all about ginger.

As for the "Shogayaki Baka," perhaps they're trying to brainwash customers (lol), as there are a whole row of ginger benefits listed on the wall.

"Ginger is a healthy ingredient that contains nearly 400 natural ingredients."

"Ginger is low in calories and also has the effect of suppressing the absorption of sugar and fat."

"Ginger has health benefits both when eaten raw and when cooked."

"The compound found in large amounts in fresh ginger is gingerol."

"Gingerol promotes blood circulation and is expected to boost metabolism."

...and more.

I ordered the most popular "BaKa Shogayaki Set Meal," but they also have other dishes like the "Five Times More Ginger! Shogayaki Set Meal," which is like something out of Ramen Jiro. They also have "BaKa Delicious! Ginger Curry" and "Taiwan Lu Rou Style Shogayaki Set Meal." The key ginger used is "Iro Shoga" from Mibu Farm in Kochi Prefecture. The pork used in the shogayaki is "Barley-Finished Sangen Pork."

As for the actual taste, the pork is rather dry. The onions are rubbed and melt into the sauce. The pork is marinated in the sauce before grilling, so the sauce doesn't overflow. On the other hand, as it is a "ginger cult," the amount of ginger clinging to the dish is the most. Fresh ginger is also served on the side.

There's not much sauce. I think it would be much better if it was "soapy." That's where it could be improved.

The pork soup is packed with vegetables and has a rich, delicious flavor. The reason it's so strong is because it's ginger miso soup. It's unusual in that it contains Chinese cabbage and deep-fried tofu in addition to daikon radish, carrots, burdock, and minced pork. The barley rice is also a nice touch.

The best part is that you can pour as much mayonnaise as you like onto the mountain of shredded cabbage. After all, it would be the best if you wrapped mayonnaise-covered cabbage in shogayaki pork. I like how they understand that. Tartar sauce is also served on the side, but mayonnaise is far more delicious.

They offer a free bowl of rice and unlimited ginger miso soup, which is very generous. Just what you'd expect from the "Ginger Cult" (lol). The clientele is overwhelmingly made up of young men. It's a strange place indeed.

Author profile

Bassey is a foodie who has been eating around for over 40 years. In addition to Japan, he regularly goes to Hong Kong to eat Chinese food at his own expense, and also travels to Taiwan, Singapore, Bangkok, and Seoul for delicious food. During his time as the editor-in-chief of a travel magazine, he visited many Michelin-rated restaurants around the world, especially in Europe, and later on in the World's Best 50 restaurants. We want everyone who loves food to try ``Crab Miso Bean Paste Noodles'' from ``Tenkorou'' (Hong Kong). Actually, I like the Chinese food at this restaurant the best in the world. Another example of the best Western food is "El Seger de Can Roca" from Girona, Spain, which was ranked number one on the World's Best 50 list. Ah, I want to go there again.