Yabaton is a misokatsu (deep-fried pork tonkatsu with miso sauce) specialty chain based in Nagoya, Aichi prefecture. Here’s what Yabaton’s original location (Yabaton Yaba-cho Honten / Yabaton Yaba-cho Original store / 矢場とん 矢場町本店) looks like.
Yabaton looks like Disneyland on Sunday afternoon. Before a statue of sumo-wrestler-looking anthropomorphic pig was a five-story building of Yabaton wrapped around by hungry customers. I was one of them. A professional Japanese receptionist handed out menus so that none of us screw up their immaculate ordering system. I tried my best not to be a pig.
The statue of Yabaton’s mascot ‘Bu-chan (ぶーちゃん)’.
As soon as I sat at my table overlooking the kitchen, I ordered my misokatsu (deep-fried pork tonkatsu with miso sauce / 味噌カツ) and ebi fry (Japanese panko-fried shrimp / 海老フライ). Above my table were speakers playing Migos-ish hip-hop music. I savored it while appreciating the live cooking before me: three skilled Japanese chefs were executing endless slabs of pre-coated pork. Then the music did such a one-eighty to Part of Your World (from The Little Mermaid). That’s when my ebi fry hit the shore.
Ebi fry (海老フライ) with mayonnaise and Japanese Worcestershire sauce. 730 yen / $5.60.
Misokatsu plate (ロースとんかつ定食). 1310 yen / $10.
My misokatsu followed the ebi fry in a second. Both were phenomenal. The ebi fry was meaty which you can’t usually expect at chain restaurants. Misokatsu was a victory of engineering: sweet miso sauce was downright rich but light in texture so that it blends in harmony with the deep fried pork. And they only took a few songs to be cooked.
Yabaton Yaba-cho Honten (矢場とん 矢場町本店) | Menu | 3-6-18 Osu, Naka Ward, Nagoya, Aichi, 〒460-0011, Japan
☞ Find more Japanese food
☞ Find more yoshoku
