Sanbanto @ SS2, PJ

We first tried Sanbanto SS2 a few years ago when porky restaurants were scarce and thought it a very good concept with good food to boot. We recently made another visit to its Bangsar outlet which is located in the row of shophouses behind TMC.

       

*squeal*

   

Shop Front

        

Interior

      

Menu

       

Anatomy of the pig

         

Tonkatsu (RM 21)

     
I had the deep fried bread pork cutlet which came with tonkatsu sauce, side salad and potato salad. It was actually not too bad as the meat was quite flavourful. The only downside is the panko coating is not super crispy and a wee tiny bit dry. The potato salad was creamy and crunchy with lots of cucumber and carrot strips.

      

Tonkatsu cross section

        

Classic Carbonara (RM 23)

         
The Classic Carbonara was good too with al-dente spaghetti coated in thick creamy carbonara. The plus point is that this is a non-halal place with real bacon topping the noodles.
               
Quite a nice cosy place for an average priced meal. However since the Bangsar outlet has shut down (yes, we are quite backed up on posts =.=), I'll provide the address of the SS2 branch.
         
         
PawPoints: 3 Paws
Pawket: Tomato
                     
       
Sanbanto

32 Jalan SS2/63

Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03 7876 1728
Tue - Sun: 11.30am - 3pm, 6pm - 10pm

Tonkatsu by Ma Maison @ Isetan Foodmarket, One Utama

Tonkatsu by Ma Maison has finally landed on our shores! <does a tonkatsu dance> Although it's been in business since early of this year, we only managed to sample it recently. It's conveniently located in 1 Utama near the cluster of restaurants within Isetan Foodmarket.

     

Logo

      

Condiments

   
As usual, they've got all the condiments to make your meal taste much better - sweet as well as spicy tonkatsu sauce, salt for purists, toasted sesame seeds, and tamari and sesame sauce to flavour the shredded cabbage. Both the spicy tonkatsu sauce and sesame sauce are a much welcomed addition from the usual condiments which are also found in Tonkatsu by Wa Kitchen.
      

Homemade Katsu Curry (RM 25.90)

   
The Homemade Katsu Curry set comes with the usual sides of shredded cabbage, pickles and tonjiru. I like how they serve the katsu and curry sauce separately so that the katsu remains crisp instead of soggy. The fragrant curry had plenty of bite sized chicken meat, onions, potatoes and carrots, and its consistency was just right. The katsu served is rosu katsu aka pork loin and the pork loin at Ma Maison is much better than the one at Tonkatsu by Wa Kitchen in my opinion. The ones at Ma Maison have a higher fats to lean meat ratio, rendering the katsu extremely moist and juicy <drool>
   
The red pepper pickles were new to me and they were quite sweet and went surprisingly well with the curry. The refillable shredded cabbage is supposed to be bland and healthy to counteract the cholesterol laden meal but we splashed liberal amounts of sesame sauce to make it much tastier (the tamari sauce had little effect as the taste was quite light).
 
The tonjiru had lots of ingredients like konnyaku, carrots, shiitake mushrooms and even bits of pork loin fats(!) 

     

Tonjiru

       

Rosu Katsu 

      

Wafu Negioroshi Rosu Katsu Set (RM 24.90)

     
The Wafu Negioroshi Rosu Katsu Set looked quite unique plus I thought the grated radish would help alleviate the heatiness of the dish. The set came with a special sauce plate, tonjiru, pickled radish, temari sauce, shredded cabbage and a huge mountain of grated radish and leeks on the katsu.
   
The negioroshi is meant to be added to the temari sauce which is a dipping sauce for the katsu. This unique addition lends a heavy and sharp zing to the katsu which is refreshing in a way but I think I prefer the spicy tonkatsu sauce sprinkled with ground sesame seeds. The white pickled radish was crunchy but tasteless and went better with the curry.
   

Wafu Negioroshi Rosu Katsu

      

Salty, Spicy, Bitter

   
All sets comes with refillable cabbage, rice and soup. For our review on other sets, check out this earlier post which was for the Singapore outlet. I think at this price, dining at Ma Maison is very worth it and we are already planning our next visit =)

     

    

PawPoints: 5 Paws
Pawket: Tomato
        

Tonkatsu by Ma Maison

Eat Paradise, Isetan
2nd Floor, 1 Utama Shopping Centre
Tel: 03 7727 3337
Daily: 11am - 9.30pm

Tonkatsu by Ma Maison @ Mandarin Gallery, Singapore

Ma Maison is a Yoshoku place which serves Japanese-influenced Western dishes. This branch of Ma Maison however specialises in tonkatsu only so I'm pretty sure you can expect the best. After all, it's located within Mandarin Gallery which seemed to me like a Singapore Starhill.

    

Piggy chef

     

Unique open air dining

      
It is not a very large shop and with its immense popularity among the locals, it's best to come during non-peak hours (however, don't go at 3pm like us as the shop is closed in the afternoon) as they do not accept reservations.

    

Piggy decor

     

Part of the menu

     
Apart from the common pig, they also serve kurobuta aka black pig bred in Kagoshima. Expensive yo!

     

Range of sauces

      
At Ma Maison, there are many sauces to choose from. The tall bottles with the red cap and white cap are soy sauce and sesame dressing respectively. In the cute and fat little teapots are tonkatsu sauce, the variation clearly written on the sides of the pot and the lid. The blue pot consists of sweet tonkatsu sauce, similar to what is provided in Tonkatsu by Wa Kitchen in KL whereas the red pot consists of spicy tonkatsu sauce. There is also a sesame seed dispenser.
     

Sesame seeds

     
As only a sesame seed dispenser is provided, the sesame seeds were not as fragrant as those in Tonkatsu by Wa Kitchen which were grinded to release its flavour.

    

Sesame seeds + Sweet tonkatsu sauce

        

Mameton Set (SGD 25.80)

       
The full works of the Mameton Set - the assorted katsu and shredded cabbage in the middle and (clockwise from top left) tonjiru aka pork miso soup, somen in dashi broth, oroshi aka grated radish, tartare sauce, rice and pickled cabbage. The rice and shredded cabbage are both refillable.

     

Ebi Furai, Rosu Katsu, Hire Katsu

     
See the golden panko coating? There is even a dollop of Thousand Island sauce on the side and a wedge of lemon.
    
Both the hire katsu (pork fillet cutlet) and the rosu katsu (pork loin cutlet) were juicy and the deep-fried panko coating extremely crispy. You can even see each tiny piece of golden breadcrumb clearly. It's like in shows where you take a bite and it goes CRACKLE! The ebi furai was also very fresh, crispy coating and bouncy meat. They were so good they can be eaten on their own without any sauce. It certainly beats Tonkatsu by Wa Kitchen's tonkatsu anytime with its much juicier meat and much crispier skin =D But don't fret, Tonkatsu by Wa Kitchen is not too far behind and is certainly at this point in time, the best tonkatsu outlet in Malaysia =)
    
The spicy tonkatsu sauce was a surprise winner with a pleasant kick. The flavours were also more dimensional compared to the sweet tonkatsu sauce, and unlike any other sauce found in KL. JS was super addicted to the tonkatsu sauce =P However he did note that Tonkatsu by Wa Kitchen's tonkatsu sauce and sesame seed dip was much more fragrant due to the grinded sesame seeds. I, on the other hand, favoured the tartare sauce over the tonkatsu sauce. Somehow deep-fried stuff goes well with tartare sauce =P
    
The sesame dressing was good against the mound of otherwise bland, raw cabbage strips.
   
The oroshi (grated radish) provided some cooling relief against the heatiness of the katsu. Too bad it was not refillable =( The pickled cabbage was average.

    

Somen in Dashi

      
This was a nice surprise in the bento set =) Fine somen noodles in a warm dashi broth sprinkled with finely sliced leeks. Somehow Japanese leeks don't taste the same as Chinese leeks so that's good for me =P The light, slurp-inducing somen noodles were a nice refreshing change from the usual ramen, udon and soba and the broth was very warm and comforting.
    

Tonjiru

     
As usual, the tonjiru was laden with many ingredients such as lots of daikon pieces, pork and spring onions. It was good but similar to the raves I wrote for Tonkatsu by Wa Kitchen (hehe sorry I'm lazy ^_^).

    

Dessert

     
Another surprise for us! They also served a complimentary dessert in the form of a lightly scented konnyaku jelly. I can't quite place the scent but it was very pleasant.
   
Do make a trip to Tonkatsu by Ma Maison if you're in Singapore. It does not disappoint! =)

   

PawPoints: 5 Paws

   
Tonkatsu by Ma Maison
Somerset MRT
#02-35/36, Mandarin Gallery
333 Orchard Road
Singapore
Tel: +65 6733 4541
Daily: 11am - 3pm, 5pm - 10pm

Tonkatsu by Wa Kitchen @ Pavillion, KL

After hearing about the one and only tonkatsu (deep fried breaded pork cutlet) place in KL, we headed over to Pavillion that very weekend.
   

Shop Front

 

Hot Green and Brown Tea (RM 3)

  
The ocha cups here are so dainty, much better quality than the standard thick-rimmed cups we've been getting at other Japanese restaurants. The cup on the left is perfect with a thin rim whereas the cup on the right looks like it was shaped by an inexperienced potter who accidentally squeezed too hard whilst the cup was spinning on the pottery wheel =P
   

Table setup

 

Toasted sesame seeds and tonkatsu sauce

  

Toasted sesame seeds waiting to be ground

   
The toasted sesame seeds are ground with a miniature wooden pestle in a special ceramic saucer with rough edges on the inside. The tantalising smell of freshly ground sesame seeds immediately wafted over as the waitress showed us how it was done.
  

Tonkatsu sauce

  
The next step was to pour the tonkatsu sauce over the ground sesame seeds...

 

Tonkatsu dipping sauce

  
...mix it and tada! special dipping sauce for the tonkatsu =D

 

Hire Katsu + Rosu Katsu Zen (RM 28)

  
What's the point of going to a tonkatsu place if you don't order the pork fillet cutlet (Hire Katsu) or pork loin cutlet (Rosu Katsu)? The pork cutlets are served with shredded cabbage, a wedge of lemon for the tangy flavour and a dollop of yellow wasabi for that extra kick. The set also comes with pickled vegetables, hiyayakko (cold Japanese tofu), rice and tonjiru (pork miso soup).
  

• The deep fried pork cutlets were very crispy thanks to the panko coating. It can be eaten on its own as it is subtly flavoured, or dipped in the tonkatsu-sesame seed sauce. The rounded ones are the fillet whereas the oblong ones are the loin cutlets which were juicier and more tender.
• The shredded cabbage is refillable and is rather bland on its own. This can be rectified by a liberal splashing of light and slightly tangy salad dressing in the tall glass bottle.
• I thought the yellow blob next to the lemon slice was mustard but it was a deceiving wasabi disguised in its cousin's yellow colour >.>
• The hiyayakko was very refreshing and provided a cooling effect to the heatiness of the deep fried tonkatsu. I wish it was refillable =(
• Pickled vegetables were quite bland. Only the slightest hint of salt was detected but it was like eating blanched vegetables squeezed to a crisp texture. Not very memorable.
• Rice with dotted black sesame seeds is refillable <yay!> - good for guys who have a bigger appetite.
• The tonjiru is very different from the usual miso soup as there was almost no hint of miso - the only thing which gave it away was the cloudy broth when stirred. For light eaters, this alone might be enough as there were a lot of ingredients in the soup. Plenty of pork, diced carrots, diced shiitake mushrooms, konnyaku slices and small daikon pieces. Very flavourful and slightly sweet (from the meat) broth.

   

The many ingredients in the tonjiru

Would you look at the amount of stuff in this porky soup?

  

Buta Shogayaki Zen (RM 26)

   
The Buta Shogayaki Zen was a surprise winner =) I was a little surprised when JS ordered this as it was quite a simple dish to make - sauteed pork belly with ginger sauce.
 
The dish was surprisingly light and not oily (unlike the one I had at Gin Ryu Tei at Midvalley =.=). The pork belly was very tender and the onions were so well cooked that they seemed like part of the pork belly to me =P The gingery taste was not very strong so it's good for those who do not like ginger. The mayonnaise was very compatible with the dish and added to the smoothness of the tender pork belly.
 
This set also comes with refillable cabbage shreds, hiyayakko, pickled vegetables, refillable rice and tonjiru. A must-try, I would say.
  

PawPoints: 5 Paws
Pawket: Tomato

Tonkatsu by Wa Kitchen

Lot 6.12, Level 6
Pavillion
Tel: 2144 2292