Nomotoya

This was the best pork cutlet I have ever had! It was better than the tonkatsu restaurant in Shinjuku that had been recommended in my guidebook nd better than any Japanese restaurant I have been to in the uS. This is a small restaurant (20 seats, including 5 at the counter) on the second floor. I...t is a little hard to find since the sign is in Japanese with no Romaji, and the sign did not match the Kanji I found on the internet. They specialize in tonkatsu. The only menu is in Japanese. I was offered small (200g), medium (300g), and large (400g) teishoku meals that included rice, tofu, salad, soup, and the panko-coated cutlet. The rice, tofu, and salad were pretty standard. Unlike most Japanese soups which are thin and watery, this was loaded with pork and cabbage in a pork broth. The tonkatsu was juicy and tender and cooked to perfection. Instead of the brown tonkatsu sauce, they offered wasabi and soyu. The price was moderately high, with the medium-sized dinner costing 2300 yen (it may be cheaper at lunchtime). By comparison, a 200g cutlet only was 430 yen at a small restaurant inside the Kanazwa train station (but it was only OK and not nearly as good as Nomoto-ya). Also, some of the other people in our tour group were deterred by the “cash only, no credit cards” sign on the front door. They target a Japanese clientele, but the waitress/hostess was helpful and seemed to have a good command of English.

Visited October 2019