Shitamiya Honten

Sauce katsudon (breaded pork cutlet on rice with sauce) is a specialty dish of Kiryu. The plain and simple rice bowl forsakes some of the common accompaniments like egg and cabbage to focus on the sweet sauce smothered on and absorbed by the breaded pork cutlets. However, from its simple appearance, it is hard to imagine the depth of flavor in the dish that leaves people wanting more. This local dish is famous throughout Japan and is loved by townsfolk and tourists alike. Shitamiya Honten is a well-established restaurant with a history of over 80 years that is known as the originator sauce katsudon.

Pork cutlets are used as the meat. The cutlets are breaded with specially ordered panko, and fried carefully at length using cooking oil composed of lard and salad oil. These cutlets are soft enough that you can cut them with your chopsticks. Fill your cheeks with one bite of the cutlets with a crispy outside, and the umami taste and sweetness of the juicy meat will spread through your mouth, and make you feel satisfied from the bottom of your stomach.

The secret recipe sauce, notable for its refined taste, somehow manages to be just the right consistency—not too thick, not too thin—and finds the perfect balance of sweet and savory in its flavors. The shop was previously a wholesaler of eels, and the sauce appears to have its roots in the sauce commonly used with eel. It seems that when the shop passed to its second generation owner, they turned it into a restaurant and came up with the idea of mixing the sauce usually used to season breaded cutlets and the sauce usually used with eel to create an original katsudon sauce.

The menu starts with the standard four-piece and six-piece cutlet sets and goes up to the massive mega-portion eight-piece set. The “Ladies set'' offers a three-piece cutlet rice bowl with desert, and the “Child’s set” comes with pudding and juice. Whether you are coming as a family or a couple, the varied line-up offers a whole host of options to meet your needs. All dishes come with miso soup, salad, and pickled vegetables.

The restaurant is popular, with lines always forming at lunchtime and on weekends. Enjoy the deep rich flavors you can only get at this restaurant which is originator of this sauce katsudon.