Excepting the conference banquet, the extent of my dining this 11 day trip was all casual, and centred on just a few cuisine types: tonkatsu, beef bowls, and ramen. Ramen across the restaurants I tried were all minimally at least decent, and surprisingly, some of the ramen restaurants in Singapore are where their Japanese counterparts are at too, as far as my taste buds can tell. The Singapore restaurants include our favourite family ramen place – Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King Matsuri at Parkway Parade. Good tonkatsu in Singapore is harder to find, but our current favourite is Gochi-So Shokudo at Seletar Mall.
The wife has very fond memories of a katsu restaurant in Kyoto Station that we went to during our 2010 Japan trip, and that dining experience is blogged here. I’m a huge fan of tonkatsu – basically deep fried breaded pork cutlets and was continually trying different restaurants’ take of this Japanese dish during this 11 day trip. No, this was not the only thing I exclusively dined on, but the restaurant that I thought whipped up the best version of it this trip is Saboten, reportedly one of the largest Katsu restaurant chains in Japan, and with quality to match too. I visited the chain twice: once in Canal City, and another at Kitte Hakata mall and had the same item: Kenbiton Pork Loin Cutlet 150g (¥1,490/SGD19 including tax).
Just to get a couple more things out of the way; the dining places in the places I saw were invariably offering Japanese cuisine, with a few of the obvious western fast food places, e.g. McDonald’s, or fusion types like Saizeriya. In the Tenjin area, I walked past a single a restaurant serving non-Japanese fare, specifically Indian food; and that’s it. This is one of those things I really appreciate about dining in South-East Asia – it’s a melting pot of cuisines. A typical dining hall will see Malay, Indian, Chinese, Western, Japanese, and possibly also Thai and Vietnamese cuisines. There were also no street food to speak of, aside from the Freedom Night Market I visited on Day 01 evening. If you want freshly cooked food in sit-down fashion, in Japan, it’s a restaurant. Lastly, the Japanese are fully capable of ruining their own famous recipes. I had a truly awful tonkatsu meal at a restaurant while at Miyajima Island. The pork cutlet had a bland taste, and was not in any way succulent and that it’d been cooked for far too long. And it was badly overpriced at ¥1,500/SGD19. But I was hungry, it was raining, and this was the one restaurant I could find that had seats.
The Kitte Hakata Saboten outlet beside Hakata Station, Fukuoka.Prices for the katsu sets, taken at the Canal City, Fukuoka outlet. Many restaurants will have English menus, or translated labels beside the items on the Japanese menu, so check if they’ve got one such.Kenbiton Pork Loin Cutlet 150g. This item is sufficient fo hearty eaters, so if you’re feast on smaller portions, then the lighter cuts might be more appropriate. Either way, you get free flow rice and also salad too. You get a heap of salad so usually the first serving will be sufficient!Pork Cutlet sets are also commonly found on other restaurant menus. This above was at a restaurant at JR Hiroshima Station, and includes other items – including a Soba noodles side. The set cost ¥1,200/SGD15. It’s not anywhere near Saboten’s quality though.Kagoshima Black Pork Curry cutlet, ¥1,180/SGD15 including tax, at JR Hakata City. Taste is about comparable to SIngapore’s Monster Curry.Other Black Pig pork items on the restaurant’s menu.A Western meal @ Apetito Café in Tenjin, Fukuoka, ¥1,180/SGD15 including tax. This meal has everything: soup, different carbon, protein, and veggies.Ichiran, the famed Ramen chain restaurant. This outlet was at Canal City, Fukuoka, and there was a queue when I arrived for a late lunch. The restaurant has an interesting concept: aside from seat booth compartments for privacy, the food is brought delivered to you via shutters. Super cool!My Ichiran ramen set cost ¥1,350/SGD17 with tax, and that included the ramen, additional 100g noodles, and a drink. Coincidentally, Ichiran is also going to be available in Singapore soon, though seasonal apparently only.Dosanko Ramen Ekimae in Tokuyama. The chain serves Hokkaido-styled ramen.A large and heaty bowl of ramen at just ¥700/SGD9.This ramen place in Fukuoka was fun to find: I was looking for cheap ramen just to see how much taste difference there is. This is Hakata Zen Ramen in Tenjin, Fukuoka.The little restaurant is along a side-alley that’s right beside a Starbucks outlet.These are very affordably priced ramen bowls @ Hakata Zen Ramen!Couldn’t read Japanese to find out what this one is about at Hakata Zen Ramen. But it cost ¥480/SGD6, and my guess is that it’s the tonkatsu ramen with additional pork slices.Kurashiki Ramen Masuya in Kurashiki, which was a little hard to find – Google Maps was a little off, but you just need to look for the above restaurant front. I had the Kurashiki Nobishi Ramen (¥750/SGD9.60) and it was good, but I was stopped from taking pictures of the ramen.Moving away from those sumptuous noodle bowls: other fare included beef bowls. This one is at Yoshinoya very near Tokuyama Station, and cost ¥690/SGD9.萩野屋 restaurant that’s just outside Dazaifu Station. Serves casual meals, including noodles and beef bowls.萩野屋’s beef bowl at ¥750/SGD9.60.Conference food! Their bento sets are like a work of art.This is considered casual lunch for the Japanese.Our event’s banquet dinner was at 遠石会館,. Dinner was a multi-item course: Suo conger eel with tomato Ponzu sauce, Shunan octopus with grapes, seasonal assorted appetizer, assorted sashimi, shrimp & Tokuyama blowfish tempura with Kadaif, Seasonal vegetables with dashi-based sauce, Aged pork covered with pak leaves, sushi combo, and dessert.Starbucks was everywhere at town and city centers. There were a lot of them clustered around the large train stations!Whole levels of dining but all Japanese cuisine. This one is at Kitte Hakata.
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