Katsukura Shinjuku Takashimaya

Throw away your GPS or google maps cuz you’ll be walking around aimlessly taking left lefts and right rights only to lead you further away and going back to square one again.
To find this place just get directions to the
Takashimaya building or Tokyu hands department store and take the elevator to the 14^th floor. There you will see it near the elevator right by the public washrooms to the right.
This place is has amazing katsu! So fresh and delightful with every bite. I ordered the leaner cut of pork tenderloin set lunch. It came with a side of cabbage which you can ask for more if you wish. The salad dressing is provided in a small pot already on the table, along with the different sauces for your katsu. They give u a bowl with fresh sesame seeds which you need to grind yourself and then add the sauces. They also will give you a bowl of rice and a refillable miso soup if you desire more.
The service was delightful and the staff are very attentive and courteous. Overall the experience was superb!

The best tonkatsu I’ve ever had the pleasure to ingest. Upon being seated, you are given a mortar and pestle from which to get your sesame grind on! After that you can personalize your sauce from sweet and spicy jars. If you want to get crazy, throw some ponzu in there from the other jar. Nobody’s going to judge. We also got the delightful crab croquettes that melted like cotton candy in our mouths. The pork and veggie appetizers were also nothing to sneeze at. It was so nice, we came back twice. Plus, free refills on cabbage, rice, and soup. These are my people!

One of the best Tonkatsu in town, Katsukura is now a chain, but it keeps the quality and service that they used to have many years ago when they started. Highly recommended, they offer a vast variety of pork types (Berkshire and Kinki being the best choices) and lots of other dishes. Prepare to wait for a seat!

The menu is centered around Katsu sets, so there isn’t a lot of variety but if you’re looking for katsu this is a great place to go. My husband and I got the katsu and croquette set. He got the potato and I got the crab croquette. They were a bit too creamy and we both wished we just ordered larger katsus instead.
They have 3 different katsu sizes — 90,120, and 180. The 90 is rather small but the meals are served with unlimited rice, salad, and soup. They also give you sesame seeds to crush and mix your own katsu sauce.

With husband in tow, we visited at about 3pm on a Monday and the restaurant was empty aside from two tables. We were seated in the back of the restaurant with the other diners, which sort of bummed me out because I, of course, brought my own fork because I’m chopstick incompetent. I will learn how to use them one of these days but until then, I’ll stick to my BYOF concept (which is working out splendidly in Japan, by the way).
Hint: Research beforehand which exit to take from Shinjuku station to save yourself a lot of frustration and Google mapping. It’s only a five-​minute walk from the station, however, could easily take you upwards of 30 minutes if you exit the wrong exit (we may have done this).
Another hint: The server will ask you what sides you want with your meal. Your options are pickles (pickled vegetables) or tofu.
The tonkatsu comes in two styles. Others have mentioned that is comes in a fillet and sirloin but this information does not line up with the descriptions on the English menu. Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely two styles but they are not named as such. I assume the style with the longer name is the sirloin because it’s a leaner cut of meat, therefore more expensive but the hell if I know. Order it. It’s delicious.
In addition to the two styles are three different weights, something like 90g, 120g, and 180g. I ordered the medium and my husband ordered the large. The portion size for me was ‘right,’ however, I was famished and should have ordered the large. And also because it was DELICIOUS.
With the tonkatsu came cabbage, barley rice, miso soup, sesame seeds in a bowl (WT_​?) with a crusher, and an infinite number of dishes. More dishes than a toddler could count, that’s for sure. Along with the plates and bowls and wooden sesame seed crusher, were the multiple tubs of sauces on the table. I was overwhelmed by tableware. And sauces. At least I had my trusty fork.
First, crush your sesame seeds in their bowl to your liking. I crushed about half because I had no idea what my liking was or even is. These crushed sesame seeds will be used to mix in with your desired table sauce (s). After you are done crushing, set your wooden crusher in the bamboo tray thing-​a-​ma-​jig.
You should probably print this review RIGHT NOW and bring it with you to the restaurant because things are about to become overcomplicated.
The table sauces are as follows:
–The small tub is mustard. I saw a dude put it on his pork. I think mustard and pork sounds disgusting but to each their own.
–The lighter yellowish/​brownish sauce in the big tub is for the cabbage. My advice here is to start off light because one drop too much and you’ll have cabbage soup.
–The thick dark brown sauce in the second big tub is for your pork. It tastes like a mix of Worcestershire and BBQ. I was tempted to walk out of the restaurant with this tub in my hands, which probably would have been frowned upon, especially in a city where people don’t even lock their bikes because there’s virtually no theft. Like anywhere.
–The sauce in the third tub is a sweet sauce for your pork. I didn’t try it because I enjoyed the Worcestershire/​BBQ so much that I decided there was no sauce in this world that tasted better, sorry sweet sauce.
Back to your sesame seed bowl… Pour your table sauce into this bowl and mix it with the sesame seeds. Don’t be an uneducated tourist like I was and pour the sauce into the small chopstick holder plate (?). (We all know I wasn’t using my chopsticks anyway, so I made good use of the holder plate.) Dip your pork into your sesame/​sauce mix. Welcome to heaven, friends.
Rice. OK. A rice bowl (s) is going to accompany your rice. Although the fact that the actual rice and the bowls for the rice were delivered to our table together, I still spatula’d the rice onto my plate with the pork. I don’t know why I did this. I was very hungry at the time which clouds judgment.
Miso soup. No spoon. Just drink it out of the cup.
Last, there are free refills on rice and cabbage, just ask.
Last, last, when finished, take your tab to the cash register at the entrance of the restaurant. Credit cards are accepted and the restaurant is 100% non-​smoking (YAY!).

This restaurant is on the 14^th floor of the Shinjuku Takashimaya Times Square building, not too long a walk from Shinjuku station. They had an English menu available and our server spoke a little English too. We were seated at a counter spot, which I normally don’t prefer, but this one was right at the window to the kitchen so we got to watch all the food being prepared and served! It was really cool.
My husband got their tonkatsu (loin) while I got a fried shrimp set. I liked that they gave you sesame seeds in a mortar with a pestle to grind yourself and then pour sauce on it for your meal. They had several kinds of sauces, and I probably used them for the wrong things, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself anyway.
One thing that stumped us was when our server asked us what side we wanted with our meal sets. She gave us two choices but we could only really understand one of them: tofu. Normally I really don’t like tofu, but I figured I’d get it anyway since I couldn’t understand the second choice well enough to even ask for it. Turns out the tofu was delicious! It came in a broth and was sweet.
I would definitely come to Katsukura again. My shrimp was fresh, tender and flavorful and my husband liked his pork a lot. The service was great, the sides were fantastic and the atmosphere was really cool.