Famous Tonkatsu Restaurant in Tokyo, “Ginza Bairin Main Store”

Last update : 21 Feb 2019

Written by Kenji Nishiyama - Ginza de Lunch

“Ginza Bairin” is a famous tonkatsu restaurant that was founded in 1927. One of the reasons for its popularity is that its founder, a former pharmacist, developed the original chuno sauce (the sauce used on pork katsu).
I’ve been a big fan of this restaurant for many years now. This time, I’ll be introducing my recommended dishes that I enjoyed on this particular visit.

Presently, there are locations in Ginza, Haneda Airport, near Akihabara station, and even overseas.

Here the lunch and dinner menus are the same.

Special Katsudon - 2,000 yen

I ordered their special katsudon, one of their most popular dishes!

The bowl is topped with 80g of top-quality pork tenderloin and an over-easy egg.

Since the egg is cooked over-easy the yolk is still runny; it looks so good!
The slightly sweet tare sauce had plenty of dashi flavor and was soaked up into the fried coating; yum!

Gin Katsu Set – 2,300 yen

The set meals come with free refills on rice!

I dip my tonkatsu into the special sauce and enjoy it that way.
The exterior is deliciously crispy, while the meat is nice and tender.
If you want to enjoy the crispy exterior of the tonkatsu, I recommend this set over the katsudon!

Bairin Set – 1,800 yen

My main is their menchi-katsu and ebi-fry.

Menchi-katsu is a Japanese-original dish made by mixing ground pork or beef, minced onion, salt, pepper, and other seasonings, then coating in flour, egg, and panko before frying.

I adore the menchi-katsu here as much as I love the tonkatsu.
It’s softer than the tonkatsu, making it easier to eat, so I’d recommend it for the elderly and younger children.

Hire-Katsu Sandwich

The ever-popular “katsu sandwich” that’s eaten across Japan today is another dish developed by Bairin.

The hire-katsu sandwich is also a super-popular dish to get as takeout.
If you order it for eat-in, it comes with a side salad.

The katsu is extremely tender, and it goes very well with the bread.
It’s so delicious with the special sauce soaked in!

It’s such a comforting flavor. I highly recommend visiting here for anything tonkatsu!

※While the building Ginza Bairin Main Store is located in is renovated, a temporary location will be open starting from January 20th, 2019.