Tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet) is inexpensive comfort food in Japan. This restaurant, on the top floor of Isetan department store at Kyoto Station, has both a display case of popular dishes and an English-language menu to help you choose your meal. And set meals are the way to go, with combinations that might give you tonkatsu plus crab cream croquette or prawn cutlet, plus barley rice, miso soup, cabbage, and pickled vegetables (like most tonkatsu restaurants, you get free refills of rice, cabbage, soup, and vegetables). At your table will be a mortar and pestle for sesame seeds that you can grind up and add to your tonkatsu sauce. But what really sets this place apart from tonkatsu restaurants across Japan is that because it's in Kyoto, it also offers yuba (thin sheets of soy bean curd), such as the yuba-rolled seasonal vegetable cutlet, making it good also for vegetarians. Other restaurants in "The Cube," Isetan's dedicated restaurant floor, offer tempura, soba, sushi, and Italian and Chinese food.
Kyoto
Travel Guide
Kyoto› Restaurant
Katsukura
Isetan department store, 11th floor, JR Kyoto Station, Karasuma-Shiokoji Sagaru, Shimogyo-ku
Our Rating
Neighborhood
JR Kyoto Station, in Isetan department store
Hours
Daily 11am–9:30pm
Transportation
Station: Kyoto Station
Phone
075/365-8666
Prices
Set meals ¥1,140–¥1,980, set lunch ¥1,480
Cuisine Type
Tonkatsu
Web site
Katsukura

Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.