Tonkatsu Agedoki, Suntec City

Another tonkatsu specialist (#03-310/311 Suntec City Tower 1, 3 Temasek Boulevard, tel : +65 6333 4386) has opened up and it's part of the the Eat at Seven cluster at Suntec. These guys are managed by the Kings Know inc. group which is responsible for Tempura Kohaku just next door. Apparently, both tonkatsu and tendon shops share the same kitchen.

There's the usual pedigree marketing. Nanatsuboshi rice from Hokkaido, pork from Nagano and yada yada. But along that way, they had neglected to mention that they also served a rather nice tonjiru. The broth, much sweeter than other tonjiru I've had was filled with bits cabbage, onions and sliced pork. This was unfortunately not refillable.

Cabbage was refillable. But the stewed seaweed that is served with the cabbage is not. So manage your seaweed portions, mix them up with some of the dry cabbage, add a few healthy squeezes of the goma dressing and toss before eating. You'll get yourself some amazing salad. You heard it here first.

The prawn wrapped in pork katsu was pretty good. Nice crisp on the exterior, tender thin sliced pork and crunchy prawn. All that's needed was a little bit of salt and perhaps some of the mustard that's provided on the side.

As you can see, the bandages of thin sliced pork went all the way to the tail. This was some tight wrapping accomplished there.

What Tonkatsu Agedoki offers that the other tonkatsu-ya doesn't is a spicy tonkatsu sauce. Haven't seen that anywhere else before. A drizzle of that plus another of the goma sauce on the rice is a much better use of the sauce than on the tonkatsu itself.

Getting cheese mille feuille katsu from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison

I had this impression that I've had the cheese mille feuille katsu from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison before. Since it's not in this blog, so it must not have happened before. 😂

Today's roasted barley tea was nice. Thick.

Exactly like how I imagined it would be with mozzarella cheese in the rolled up layers of thin sliced pork.

Nice cheese stretch which left behind a "cheese intestine".

Today's rice also looked better than the previous occasion. More multigrain-y.

It's a different from the rendition at Tonkichi because of the cheese even though both were mille feuille katsu. Pretty happy with it. 

Here's another way with the rice and the tonjiru. Am gonna stick with this for a bit.

Tonkatsu & Sake Bar Tonzaemon, Chijmes

Tonzaemon (Chijmes, 30 Victoria Street, #01-09, tel : +65 63385907) is a pretty new joint by Ma Maison, which seems to be making a bid for the tonkatsu market. They started branching the fried pork offshoot opening their first, followed by an outlet at Westgate. And now this. As the name of the place implies, it does tonkatsu and sake. And some other small bites on menu.

If the question at this point is if they're any good, I'd say that there's definitely room for improvement and they could certainly learn more about what they're trying to sell.

These are foie gras gyozas. They aren't entirely filled with the foie, but there's probably enough inside to flavour the pork stuffings. Very decent and if they're trying to achieve a balance of flavours between the liver and the pork, they've succeeded. It came with some balsamic vinegar concoction and a mixture of chilli oil and soy sauce on the side. Honestly, I don't know why anyone would use them because it would simply mask all the flavours that they're trying to create.

Their hire katsu stuffed with foie gras sounded promising. Truly. The pork was well fried to a good crisp, well drained and honestly, rather competently done. What unexpectedly didn't work out so well was the foie gras. In spite of the quantities that was used, the flavours were barely there. I mean, how can that be? In a similar ball game, there's definitely a better player. This didn't fail as a dish. It just didn't turn out quite like how I thought it should have. 

While it was nice to have a change of dips with their Japanese mayo and tonkatsu sauce mixture, it simply doesn't quite work out for this katsu. I want to taste foie gras when I eat this. Why else would I be ordering it?

And that's the rosu katsu with cuttlefish ink. The meat was a beautiful light pink shade of white, thick and tender. And no, the flavours of the ink didn't come through. What surprised me was that the flavour of the pork itself didn't quite come through as well. 

And rice with pickles and tonjiru. These are ordered and charged separately. Yes, the price tags of the katsu aren't large enough to cover these. So on hindsight, there are definitely more economical places to have tonkatsu in town. The older players here have been around for a while and are still around for a pretty good reason. The tonjiru here doesn't even contain the slightest morsel of pork. Two bowls of it and nada.

Definitely room for improvement methinks.

Shiokoji Tonkatsu Keisuke, Paya Lebar Square

Keisuke is mostly known for his ramen shops. That being said, there also seems to be some diversity in his newer businesses. I didn't see a tonkatsu shop (#01-02/03 Paya Labar Square, 60 Paya Lebar Road, tel : +65 6214 3345) coming though. Making not just a regular katsu but ones that are marinated in shiokoji for that extra flavour and fried in some state of the art fryer that results in a less oil absorption I heard. I can't verify nor pretend to understand much about the latter so let's just take this with a pinch of shiokoji.

I tried a few of their colas through the years. Have found them all to be a little disappointing except for the sakura flavour which I kinda liked. A little. This yuzu cola reminded me of Chinese preserved plums. Not that it's bad. Not that it's yuzu flavour either.

Oooo....what have we here? O-o

A breaded fried egg with golden orange molten yolk. Drizzle a little shoyu and it's good with the rice.

I thought rare salmon katsu was a good idea. The fish was light and went down easily. Might have been a better idea if they could use a cut that had a little bit more fat but I suppose that could be a lot more effort than what they're charging right now.

The rare maguro katsu was lacklustre. Some slices were just a little mushy. Not much flavour from the tuna so you could knock yourself out with the variety of sauces they have over there and not worry about missing out on what ever is "intrinsic". Tartar sauce is good by the way and so is the sweet miso.

What I personally found most impressive was the shiokoji marinated pork. This was their 200g rosu. The katsu was chunky, tender and moist. Outstanding flavour from the meat. I'd come back just for this alone.

Tonkatsu by Ma Maison, Tiong Bahru Plaza

Tonkatsu by Ma Maison has opened at Tiong Bahru Plaza (#01-109 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road, tel : +65 6252 1512). Menu's smaller than the one at Mandarin Gallery but if it's just the regular tonkatsu that one is looking for, the range is pretty much there.

Standards are undoubtedly there. Look at how moist the rosu katsus were beneath the golden brown panko crust.

There's ham katsu with cheese. Tasted like how I thought it with a bonus cheese pull from the mozzarella inside.

Rice is served in small pots unlike their other shops which generally comes in bowls. Couldn't help but feel that the multigrain rice was less multigrain-y than we remember it.

Tonkatsu by Ma Maison, Chijmes

Years ago, this spot (#01-09 Chijme, 30 Victoria Street, tel : +65 6338 5907) used to be Tonkatsu & Sake Bar Tonzaemon, also by Ma Maison. I remember them because they used to have fancy tonkatsu on the menu - like hire katsu stuffed with foie gras and rosu katsu in squid ink panko. I guess that concept didn't work out for long before it got converted to their Tonkatsu shop which I'm gathering has been pretty well received over the years.

We came here for their autumn-y shio konbu mushroom kurobuta rosu katu and chestnut mille feuille. Whaaaatt?!

Rosu's topped with mushrooms - possibly prepared with salted kelp (hence shio konbu) and layered over grated daikon that's on top of the fried pork. That chestnut mille feuille was stuffed with a chestnut. Not so much flavour coming from the chestnut which I had expected to be more fragrant or perhaps sweet. Still pretty good katsu though. 

I can't help but wonder if their multi grained rice is in truly better than the regular white rice in any way.

Tonkatsu by Ma Maison without tonkatsu on a Ladies Night

So Tonkatsu by Ma Maison has Ladies Night on Wednesdays which gets 20% off the bill.

I remember not being impressed by their ebi katsu in the past but this was not bad. Looked/tasted like a mixture of prawns and prawn paste.

Good quality oysters in their kaki fry with a pleasant oyster-ly flavour. Actually, I expected no less from them. Nicely done with a good crunch on the crispy panko encasing the shellfish which was hot and juicy.

 

Braised pork set from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison

I was lured into Tonkatsu by Ma Maison at Tiong Bahru Plaza by the picture on their menu ☝🏼.

The actual braised pork didn't look quite like the one on their ad. I was imagining sometime like kakuni or the rafute from Nirai Kanai.

Meat's relatively tender. Some cuts more than the others though as a whole, they weren't as much as I hoped they would be. Broth wasn't the sweet dark soy sauce/sake/mirin type. There's something in the flavour that was familiar which I couldn't put a finger to and that bugged me. I suspect it's ginger but I'm not sure. 🤔

Pork's pretty good with some mustard.