"Kyoto Katsugyu" Takebashi Palaceside Building opens Monday, November 30, on B1 on the east side of Palaceside Building, in the space where Subway used to be.
It is one of the main brands of Grip Inc., headquartered in Kyoto, which also runs "Vege Teji-ya," "Gotcheese Beef," and "Kyoto Katsugyu." This month marks the brand's first push into Tokyo — three stores at once in Chiyoda Ward: Ogawamachi, Yodobashi AKIBA, and here. Impressive. The Ogawamachi store, which opened early on the 17th, was featured on several commercial TV wide shows, with footage of lines forming.
The attention reflects a mini-boom in beef cutlet right now. Beef cutlet, long a signature of Kansai culture, has been drawing notice in Tokyo too; online you can find articles like "Beef cutlet is too good! Recommended popular beef cutlet shops in Tokyo." Those were written before Katsugyu entered Tokyo, but it will surely be talked about everywhere from now on.
The question is what kind of place it is. Billed as "Kyoto-born, Japanese-style beef cutlet," it uses only carefully selected cuts to bring out the beef's natural flavor. A fine, thin coating is applied and the meat is fried quickly at high temperature —
that "short time" is the key: inside, thick steak-like meat stays medium rare with a clear red center; outside, crisp. Melting fat is best cut with wasabi — the Katsugyu way. Of course, if wasabi is not your thing, you can choose sansho salt, beef cutlet sauce, Japanese curry broth, ground sesame with Worcestershire, and more＝photo from the website.
I have not eaten beef cutlet often, but I would love to try this.