Japanese food is surely one of the most popular foreign cuisine in Malaysia, from the early days with only sushi & sashimi, to the craze surrounding teppanyaki, ramen, yakitori, izakaya style restaurants, and more.
Well, today we’re going to talk about yet another branch of Japanese cuisine that is seeing a bit of a revival after coming into Malaysia a little over a decade ago – tonkatsu, or breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet.
Tonkatsu Maisen @ Sunway Pyramid
My first tonkatsu experience was Tonkatsu by Wa Kitchen @ Pavilion back in 2011, already over a decade ago. One of the latest to the scene is Tonkatsu MAiSEN, located at the giant mall that is Sunway Pyramid.
MAiSEN has been in operation for over 6 decades in Japan and claim to have the most tender pork cutlet that can be cut even using chopstick. Well, color me intrigued.
tenderloin, L size
Pork loin is what’s commonly used for tonkatsu, but at MAiSEN, you can also order the more premium tenderloin cut instead. Supposedly 9% of pork meat is loin, but only 1% consists of the more sought after tenderloin (like beef, I guess).
We ordered 2 sets of L size tenderloin pork cutlet (RM 41 each). It came with the usual suspects of shredded cabbage, a bowl of rice, miso soup, and 150 gram of tenderloin. There’s also two choices of sauce to go with, but no fresh sesame grinder like you’d find at Ma Maison.
with tonkatsu sauce, and the price for two portions
We thought that the meat was tender, and indeed quite delicious. However, I did find myself missing that slab of pure pork fat that I’ve grown to really enjoy over a typical loin cut.
Additionally, 150 gram did seemed to be quite a small portion especially if it’s already L size. For comparison, Ma Maison’s normal portion is 160 gram while their jumbo comes in at a satisfying 250 gram, while being quite a bit cheaper than MAiSEN.
Overall, we were slightly underwhelmed with the offering here. While perfectly enjoyable, better value can be found at other tonkatsu places at this time. However, if you want to have pure tenderloin tonkatsu, I don’t know anywhere else that offers it except here.
Address:
MAiSEN Tonkatsu
LG1.45, Lower Ground One, Sunway Pyramid Mall,
3, Jalan PJS 11/15, Bandar Sunway,
47500 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.07208, 101.60539
Tel: 012-347 2473
My friend also told me about her underwhelming experience at Maisen recently too…. I think I just stick to Ma Maison. đŸ˜›
Choi Yen: haha won’t be a bad strategy, but ok to try and see if you identify with it or not lor.
Your baby eating what you’re all eating yet?
suituapui: not just yet! Still a few more months to go before we can do that. đŸ™‚
Fireworks review overdue ah uncle
kekeke: too dangerous!
lol your kids generation will use drones instead of real fireworks when they permanently ban them. Better show him that homemade pipe version before it’s too late
kekeke: I’ll leave that to you and your kids
lol when I was 10, my homemade version almost took off my right hand, but a few secondary burns only lahh, I survived. Gotta live a little bro. Best times of my life.
kekeke: I salute you. haha.
shrinkflation
kekeke: this economy…
soon, ma maison will shrink too
kekeke: pray nottttt
inevitable bro
kekeke: such is life.