I am not so much an Orchard Road shopper as i am always faced with budget constraint and feels much at home at places like Swanson, hawker centres etc.
However, someone in my family recently won a few hundred dollars worth of vouchers at Mandarin Gallery shopping mall and the person had kindly invited the whole bunch of us to lunch at Tonkatsu (by Ma Maison)!
This definitely appealed to me as a pork lover and if any of you still remembers, i am sticky when it comes to the Japanese style deep fried breaded pork cutlet and at that time, only the ones from Saboten had the ability to entice my taste buds.
Instructions on how to enjoy your tonkatsu - sometimes, such nuggets of helpful information can truly enhance the dining experience but impatience gets to me most of the times, especially when it comes to food.
Two types of tonkatsu sauce dip were available; brown one had a spicier tinge whereas blue one was more the normal sweet kind i personally prefer.
3-compartment bowl as per instruction - you can choose to fill up all three although i am quite anal on just having the sweet tonkatsu sauce; why waste the condiments right?
Cold Tofu
A necessary order whenever Jovyn is with us, it was silky soft albeit with a sauce that was too weak to make an impression. Honestly, the ready-made one that my colleague bought from NTUC tasted better with generous kecap manis.
Grilled Mentaiko
I have always wanted to try this after reading how terrific it was from a famous blogger! Guess it's not everyone's cup of tea; just like my love for stinky tofu isn't commonly felt by many. To cut the story short, it was spicy and salty with a strange overwhelming flavour. Weird shape too.
Jumbo Kurobuta Rosu Katsu
This was missing one or two pieces as one greedy individual couldn't resist the temptation; it was close to 1.30pm and i specifically skipped breakfast to enjoy the free feast.
Let's start on the miso soup and the pickles; on pickles, i prefer the conventional yellowish ones which were crunchier and had a balanced sweet-salty bite.
Miso soup was good enough for me to empty it without a single drop left; it also came with ingredients that differed from those that came as a complimentary with your sets. By the way, the miso soup, cabbage and rice are refillable; those particular with healthier rice can choose to have the multi-grain rice instead of good old plain rice.
On the black pork (250 grams), it was as good as the ones from Saboten; as tender and as juicy as the above photograph shows, with the glistening layer of fats that made ingesting it so gratifying!
Negi Miso Rosu Katsu (Nagoya)
No idea on the difference except that this katsu was supposed to be made in the Nagoya style. I bet the greenery on the dish kind of attracted the vegetarian in me.
The pork loin was just that slightly less tender and less juicy although i am way more thrilled by the appetising sauce; it's kind of like sour plum yet good enough for me to drench the meat heavily in it!
Desserts
Complimentary desserts - don't you just love restaurants that go out to please their customers; i was really quite surprised when this was served. By the way, it wasn't an empty bowl.
It was jelly but as expected from Japanese cuisine, it wasn't excessively sweet and extravagant. There was also this subtle flower fragrance that made you want to slow down your pace to appreciate the dessert.
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Location
333 Orchard Road,
#02-35/36, Mandarin Gallery
Operating Hours
Mondays to Fridays - 11am to 3pm
Mondays to Fridays - 5pm to 10pm
Saturdays and Sundays - 11am to 10pm
Price
Cold Tofu - S$5.80
Grilled Mentaiko - S$10.80
Jumbo Kurobuta Rosu Katsu - S$43.80
Negi Miso Rosu Katsu (Nagoya) - S$25.30
(Subject to GST and Service Charge)
Additional Information
Special menu as appended above.
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