Eat until your heart is content! Their menu focuses on all things pig. They also have a good selection of wine. I ordered the Rioja and it went down smooth as silk. So good that I came back here twice!
Pork Liver Pate Smear
Pig’s Ear with Crispy Kale, Pickled Cherry Peppers & Fried Egg- The best pork ears I’ve ever had.
“JLT” Pork Jowl, Tomato, Frisee & Fried Duck Egg
Roasted Bone Marrow with Herbs
Turkey Leg Confit, Crispy Lentils, Treviso, Endive, & Agrodolce
Pork Tripe Ala Parmigiana with Pork Skin Breadcrumbs
Maisen Tonkatsu, owned by the Suntory group, is an upscale dining version of tonkatsu. Is it worth it? Yes! Never had I had pork so tender and juicy that it reminded of filet mignon. The pigs they use comes from different regions of Japan and are raised with special conditions i.e. being fed a special diet of green tea or yams or raised for seven years. The menu goes into detail about each pig. Be sure to ask for an English menu to truly know what you are selecting.
Above on the left is the Chamiton fillet with curry. It was the only curry option they had. They probably frown upon dousing the rich meat in curry but I was really craving curry that day. The Chamiton pig is raised with a diet of green tea. I wanted to try their specialty Kurobuta black pig so I ordered a small fillet on the side. It is juicer and meatier than the Chamiton. They also offer a special apple flavored sauce for the Kurobuta. If you want their Kurobuta meal set, go early as they only sell five sets a day. The Chamiton was about 1950 yen while the Kurobuta was about 3950 yen.
Like all good things in Japan, Maisen is a chain and can be found all around Tokyo even in the food halls in the basements of department stores.
This place is located in an alley, filled with restaurants, just off the main street. There are no English signs to indicate the name of the place. In fact, there are no English signs in general. Their short menu list, which consists of fried or steamed dumplings, a few veggie options and drinks, is posted on the wall in Japanese. They will kindly offer an English menu.
Cucumber in a special miso sauce-This was delicious! Perfect combination of refreshing and salty. I presume the special sauce to be a mixture of miso and mayo.
Fried pork dumplings- These came only in orders of 6. For ¥290, they were decent dumplings.
Fried pork and chive dumplings- I preferred these as they had more flavor to them due to the chives. This too came in an order of 6 for ¥290. Such a steal!
YUMTRAVELS 