Where Should I Eat Tonkatsu in Tokyo?

Maisen's Aoyama main shop, three minutes from Omotesando Station's A2 exit, is the easy first tonkatsu. Its dining room is the old Jingu-yu bathhouse, and the high coffered ceiling and separate men's and women's entrances are still there. On weekdays from 11:00 to 15:00, the loin set and the bite-size fillet set are ¥1,280 each until they sell out, with free refills of rice, cabbage and miso soup. On the main menu, a 100g loin set of Maisen's own Amai-Yuwaku pork is ¥3,500. Prices include tax.

Tarekatsu in Shibuya, three minutes on foot from JR Shibuya Station, is the cheap and fast pick. It serves katsudon the Niigata way: thin cutlets dipped in sweet soy sauce and laid on rice, with no egg, cabbage or seaweed. The weekday lunch set, served until 17:00, is ¥990 for three cutlets with miso soup, pickles and raw vegetables. The plain katsudon is ¥1,100, and the vegetable fillet bowl, the shop's most popular, is ¥1,280. There are 12 counter seats on the first floor of The Renga Building.

Tonkatsu Nagi, about eight minutes on foot from JR Shibuya Station, is a quiet wood-finished room for a proper sit-down cutlet. It fries Iwachu pork from Iwate slowly at a low temperature, and sets come with rice cooked in a hagama pot, red miso soup, a seasonal side and house green-chili miso, with free cabbage refills. The 120g fillet set is ¥2,800, and the loin-and-fillet set, its most popular, is ¥3,500, tax included. It's closed Mondays and Tuesdays and takes bookings, with priority for guests who book.

KATSU PRETTY PORK, on the second floor of the G3 Building in Kabukicho, lets you order tonkatsu by breed and stays open until 23:00 with no regular closing day. Fillet starts at ¥3,600 for two pieces, and loin runs from ¥4,050 for 14-day-aged Iwachu pork or Towada Garlic Pork to ¥7,500 for Amagi black pork. Every set comes with pot-cooked rice, clam soup, pickles, cabbage and nori, and you finish by pouring kombu dashi over the last of the rice. It's near Shinjuku and Seibu-Shinjuku stations, and dinner seating starts at 17:00, 18:00, 19:30 or 20:30.

Ginza Tonkatsu Aoki's 4-chome shop, two minutes from Ginza Station, is the mid-priced Ginza seat. A 200g loin of Hayashi SPF pork is ¥2,200 and a 300g special loin is ¥3,500; rice and miso soup are ¥500 extra, and included at weekday lunch. It has 19 seats, including an 8-seat counter where you watch the frying, plus an English menu and no regular closing day. It's on the fifth floor at 4-3-2 Ginza, and it isn't the separate Aoki in Ginza 8-chome.

Ginza Katsukami, on the fifth floor of the Ginza Miyako Building at 5-6-10 Ginza, calls itself Japan's first course-only tonkatsu restaurant. Lunch courses are ¥5,500, or ¥6,500 with a king crab croquette, tax included. Dinner courses run ¥8,700–¥23,000 plus a 5% service charge, with wines picked by its sommelier. It doesn't pound its pork, and there's a mill of Himalayan rock salt at your seat. Lunch starts at 11:30 and dinner seatings are at 18:00 and 20:00, every day except over New Year. Book on TableCheck.

Tonkatsu Narikura is the one to plan around. It moved from Takadanobaba to a house on a quiet residential street in Suginami, where owner Mitani Narizo fries cutlets so pale they look unfried at an open counter. It takes reservations only, through OMAKASE, linked from its website. The tonkatsu set, three cuts (loin, chateaubriand and mille-feuille) plus two other fried items, is listed at ¥8,800 and ¥9,900 per person, tax included. Closing days are irregular.

Agefuku, at 2-15-13 Nishi-Gotanda, is the walk-in pick: it takes no reservations and lists no regular closing day. Its head chef learned to judge and butcher meat at the wholesaler Yazawa Meat, which picks the brand pork, and the cutlets are cooked slowly at a low temperature; try the house ginger sauce. A 150g loin set is ¥2,900 and a 100g fillet set is ¥2,500, tax included, with pork miso soup, rice, pickles and cabbage, and rice refills. A waiting group is seated once everyone has arrived.