Yabaton Yabacho Honten
restaurant
Original 1947 Yabaton: the founding shop for Nagoya-style miso katsu, with the dark hatcho miso sauce.
The original Yabaton, opened in 1947 just east of Osu, where the Nagoya-style miso katsu was invented. The dish is a thick pork cutlet served in a deep brown hatcho-miso sauce that's heavier and sweeter than the tonkatsu sauce used in Tokyo, and the Yabacho honten still uses the original recipe. The dining room is plainer than the chain's department-store branches, with cafeteria-style seating and a self-serve barley tea station. Lunch sets run 1,200 to 1,800 yen and include rice, miso soup, and a side of tsukemono. Lines form between 11:30 and 1:30 on weekends; come at 11 sharp or after 2 PM to walk in.
Order the waraji-katsu set if it's your first visit — two thinner cutlets share the sauce more evenly than the thicker single one. The tsukemono plate is refillable but you have to ask.
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