Tonkatsu Ganko Nara

The food is good, service is decent.

Their menu has English on it and our server spoke English. The menu could be structured better as it was a little confusing because as you flip the pages the pictures repeat and look the same. The first set of pages is their Kurobuta pork, pricier but finer, then followed by pages of their regular pork. You can get pork loin or the leaner pork fillet. They also serve 100, 150, and 200g portions. We struggled a little figuring this all out. When I looked over I saw the server watching us and waiting. I don't go anywhere assuming staff speaks English, so I always try and figure things out on my own. It turns out the server spoke English well and I think they could have offered to explain the menu to us instead of watching us struggle.

We were seated at the front counter that faces the window into the kitchen where you can watch them make the meals. I enjoyed watching them prepare. We were not asked whether we wanted to sit at the counter or at table.

The place could be a little cleaner, there was a tiny bug in the window of the kitchen but these kinds of things don't really bother me. I go to hole in the wall and mom and pop places often enough.

My partner ordered the curry option and I had the egg on top option, both Kurobuta pork loin. The curry came with cabbage but no soup and my set came with soup but no cabbage. It was unclear on the menu how the set worked with these dishes. We shared our soup and cabbage since the menu said free refill.

The tonkatsu was good but not excellent (two bites were all fat, could have been juicier), I've had quite a bit of tonkatsu in my life though. The miso soup was excellent. It had little mushrooms in it and no junks of tofu (was broken down) and I love that. If you order egg on top make sure you eat it quickly to preserve the tonkatsu crunch as the eggs are quite soft/creamy.

Now knowing that our server spoke English and didn't check in on us once we started eating to see if everything was okay makes me a little disappointed.

We were fortunate to have arrived at a time when there was no line.

Overall I would recommend this place if your cool with a more casual experience, there isn't much of a wait, and you aren't a tonkatsu obsessed person like myself.