I had planned to visit another tonkatsu restaurant - Narikura - on this trip as many had claimed it has the best tonkatsu - until I found out that it moved further outside Tokyo just a few days back. Thus I decided to pay a visit to Tonkatsu Marugo instead. Incidentally, this is also on the Michelin Bib Gourmand list.

Queues already formed at 11ish (restaurant opens at 1130). Anyway, guests were quickly seated but I had to wait 10-15 min further as they were preparing to seat a party of 5 just in front of me (although when I went in, there were 3 empty counter seats). I guess they really respect the first come first served rule.

I ordered the special rosu katsu with rice set. I've always wondered about the hire vs rosu argument - I always like a bit of fat and love the rosu cut. The majority seems to think that hire is better? Thus, the special hire costs 2100 yen and special rosu costs 1850 yen. Rice set with soup and appetiser costs an additional 450.

When the food came, I thought it was a very good cut, it was nearly half lean meat and half slightly fatter cut. Together with the crunchy (but not hard) bread crumbs, the taste was certainly better than average tonkatsu. The tonkatsu sauce that you can help yourself to is good too and complements the meat really well (and I don't say this often as I feel that most of the sauces I've tasted are sourish and overpower the meat taste, which shouldn't be).

I realised, to have the opportunity to sit in a good well-run establishment where the chefs prepare your food in front of you - and this is top grade food that you don't get everyday - really it's a privilege. Plus, the price is reasonable - I actually don't consider this expensive if you compare it to other chain outlets like Wako etc where they are almost the same prices (p.s. the original place I wanted to go to would cost double: now that's expensive and hopefully the taste is heavenly to justify the price).

All in all, I would give this 4.5 stars... just does not hit the 5 for me. But it's a good place, worth the queue - come for the special hire or rosu, I hear even the prawns are good too (and huge, like bananas 😂).