Mr. Tonkatsu: Now Open in Metro Vancouver

Mr. Tonkatsu is a chain restaurant from Toronto that serves up deep-fried pork cutlet served with rice, miso soup, and unlimited cabbage salad. Since there aren’t that many tonkatsu places in Vancouver, I was surprised Mr. Tonkatsu would open their first BC location in Surrey.

I came here during lunch while they were doing their soft opening to check out the space and their different tonkatsu dishes.

Interior

The space doesn’t have too much seating inside and the space seemed like it isn’t being utilized to it’s fullest. Perhaps this is just for the soft opening.

Menu

How to Eat Your Tonkatsu

There is a little sign that shows you how to best enjoy your tonkatsu. First, you grind the sesame seeds with a wooden stick until it’s crushed.

After that, you mix it with the special sauce and dunk your pieces of pork cutlet into it.

Katsu

You can choose your katsu with a few different varieties – pork tenderloin, chicken, pork loin with cheese, chicken with cheese, or tsuyuu (pork loin katsu in broth).

The most popular option is the pork loin with cheese. The pork itself is this and wrapped around a center of cheese, then the outside is crisp and fried till golden brown. It was delicious and paired well with the unlimited rice, miso soup and cabbage. The only critique that we had was the pork is very thin in comparison with the cheese. If you want something more meaty, just go with the tonkatsu without the cheese. There is also the option of adding extra piece of katsu too.

For the cabbage, make sure to add the dressing on top. They don’t really take initiative to fill up your rice, miso soup, or cabbage often, so you need to flag them down and ask for more if you need it.

Curry Katsu

It comes with curry, pickles, and unlimited rice, miso soup and cabbage. You can choose it with chicken, chicken with cheese, pork tenderloin, pork loin, pork loin with cheese, karaage, or shrimp.

I went with the curry katsu accompanied with the pork loin and cheese. It’s the same piece as the tonkatsu but with the added curry. The curry was a good flavour and there was a lot of sauce so the rice soaks up all the flavour.

Soy Garlic Chicken

At $18 a plate, you get a good amount of chicken with this order. Good to share among the table. I can’t remember how many pieces there were, but it was plenty for a group of 3.

The chicken isn’t as crispy because of the soy garlic sauce added after it’s been fried. It’s definitely more Korean than Japanese but then again, there is a sign outside that says ‘Korean’.

Final Thoughts

Overall, we through it was decent but wasn’t outstanding. A good addition to the neighbourhood as there isn’t any thing similar in Surrey. If you live in Metro Vancouver, now, you don’t have to travel all the way to Dowtown Vancouver to get tonkatsu.

Address:
10320 152 St A, Surrey, BC

Website:
http://www.mrtonkatsu.com/