Tonkichi, Suntec City

Signing up as a Pokka member does make monetary sense - for a $30 annual fee, you get an immediate 10% discount on whatever you're purchasing + $40 vouchers for any Pokka food outlet. Little did we know that Rive Gauche (cake), Tonkichi (japanese), and Domani (italian) were all owned by Pokka @.@ The latter two gets additional discounts on some wednesdays.

So thusly armed with a 20% GSS discount and $40 vouchers, we sauntered into Tonkichi for some amazing Tonkatsu (or so we read).

We didn't think we'd use up $40 of vouchers on Tonkatsu, but damn these Tonkatsu sets are expensive!! After much deliberating we placed our order. First to arrive was this thingamajig ...

... which we later found out was a norm at Tonkatsu places. Grind the seeds in the mortar and pestle for the nice roasty aroma, then introduce the element of Tonkatsu sauce for ze dippin.

I had the Kurobuta Kata Rosu Set - deep fried black pig shoulder loin ($32.90). Seriously, $33 pre-tax-and-service-charge for tonktasu?!?!?!?!?! Well ... the cabbage rice and miso soup are free flow, but still ... anyway. A rather generous and thick portion of tonkatsu came seated on a metal grill (presumably to drain the oil?), huge clump of cabbage, tomatoes, some mustard, pickles, miso soup and rice. Took a bit of the tonkatsu and ...

... well it was simply put, bloody fantastic. The crumbly exterior wasn't too oily, thick or jelat, and was surprisingly light and very crispy. The pork was a thick cut, and my kurobuta slightly chewy and flavourful. And the layer of fat under the skin ... melts in your mouth for that fatty bacon sensation. Yum! And I learnt that mixing the mustard into the sesame / tonkatsu sauce makes it LEAGUES better.

Curious about the "layered " variety, I chose the Kasane Katsu ($26.90). I really liked the texture - slightly less dense, and doesn't feel like you're eating waay too much pork, especially when it's already battered and deep fried. Although I must say the crumbed bits were very nicely done! Didn't feel there was too much of it to render the pork loin irrelevant, and wasn't too oily to make one feel like this - D:

Personally I felt the shirobuta (white pork) was a little bland compared to the kurobuta, though the kasane was very very very soft to the bite whereas the kurobuta was more chewy (closer to well cooked beef). Regardless, dipping the kasane into the sauce made it AWESOME - I preferred white pork.

Just a little side-by-side comparison of the pork diversity.

Relevant:

While the yummy pork may be a star attraction here, I do feel Tonkichi is one of those 'package' places - meaning you get amazing food AND warm service. Waiters were genuinely pleased to serve (either that or they're too new in their job to be truly jaded, lol) - one dude kindly explained how to crush the sesame seeds and even offered suggestions how this can be mixed into the sauce.

I thought the spicy tomato salad dressing was imba too. But ... was the service great? Yes. Was the food great? Yes. Would I pay $30 for a Tonkatsu set? Probably not.

HGW Link : http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/tonkichi_suntec/
Rating (out of 4) :