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Aizu Sauce Katsudon

sauce katsudonAizu-Wakamatsulocal foodTaishocutlet

Fukushima · Aizu-Wakamatsu

37.4882°N, 139.9456°E

A katsudon almost everywhere in Japan means pork cutlet simmered with onion and egg. In Aizu it does not. Here the cutlet is fried, dipped whole in a sweet-sharp Worcestershire-style sauce and laid on rice over a bed of shredded raw cabbage, with no egg at all. It goes back to the Taisho period, when a Western-style restaurant in the town worked out the format, and Aizu is now counted as one of the three homes of the dish alongside Fukui and Komagane.

What is striking locally is the size. A standard bowl carries a cutlet that overhangs the rim, and the shops that sell it are old, small and idiosyncratic: several open only until the day's supply is gone, some close at one in the afternoon, and the rest days are scattered across the week rather than clustered on Mondays.

Essential Information

Opening Hours

Varies by shop | Several sell out before early afternoon

Closed: Varies by shop — rest days are scattered across the week

Entrance Fee

¥1,000–1,800 per bowl

Best Season

Year-round

Visit Duration

45–60 minutes

Getting There

Access Information

Served across Aizu-Wakamatsu. Long-established shops include Tontei at 1-11 Tenneijicho, open 9:00 AM until sold out around 1:00 PM and closed Mondays and Tuesdays; Tonkatsu Banban at 2-1-32 Higashi-Sengoku, founded 1947, open 11:00 AM – 2:30 PM and 5:00 PM – 8:30 PM, closed Wednesdays; Shirokujaku Shokudo at 10-37 Miyamachi, open from 11:00 AM until sold out, closed Mondays and Fridays with irregular additional days; and Oshokujidokoro Murai at 107-1 Nakanoyashiki, Monden-machi, open 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM until sold out, closed Thursdays and the last Sunday. Confirm before travelling.

Insider Guide

Premium

**Several shops sell out before early afternoon.** Tontei closes around one, and others stop when the day's cutlets are gone. Lunch here means arriving before noon, not at one. **Rest days are scattered.** Mondays and Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Mondays and Fridays, Thursdays — the shops do not coordinate. Check the specific one you want rather than assuming. **No egg, and that is deliberate.** Sauce-dipped cutlet on shredded cabbage on rice. Asking for the simmered egg version marks the bowl as something else entirely. **The portions are large.** A standard bowl usually carries a cutlet wider than the bowl. Ordering the smaller size is not a defeat. **One of three homes for the dish.** Aizu, Fukui and Komagane each claim it. The Aizu version is the one with cabbage under the cutlet.

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