Gyukatsu Motomura: Popular Beef cutlets in Akihabara and Tokyo
Gyukatsu Motomura has 12 locations across Tokyo and has gained a lot of popularity over the years as a go-to spot for deep fried beef cutlets. Their special feature is that they provide little hot cooking rocks/stations for you to cook each piece of cutlet to your own liking 😋.
This was one of our first dinners/meals during our 3 week trip to Japan and also my first time eating at a Gyukatsu Motomura – here was my experience at their Akihabara location!
Gyukatsu Motomura – Akihabara
〒101-0021 1-15-18 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Okuyama Building B1F
The vibe
The restaurant is located in a B1F – this means basement floor. Look out for a sign with the a photo of the beef cutlet as you may not recognize the name of the restaurant (it is in Japanese characters).
The line starts on the ground level with stairs going down to the B1F. We came on a weekend night at around 7pm and waited 45 minutes (it felt really long 😔). They have a one-way system where you enter the restaurant and exit via elevator so as you wait, you won’t see anyone leaving the restaurant.
Inside, it is small but every seat is filled up. We were seated in a strange shared-table arrangement where the table can openly fit 4 people, but they placed a fake wall/paper in the middle of the table so it can seat 2 separate parties of 2 people side-by-side. Ingenious, but also felt low budget 😅.
The menu is pretty simple and you are not allowed to share a big portion of a cutlet (everyone needs to order their own). I order the 1 cutlet with a highball for 2,630 yen and my husband orders their most popular serving size, the 1.5 cutlet with a highball for 3,300 yen.
Food and drinks review
The food came very quickly and our little cooking stations were pre-lit and ready to go once our food came in a tray.
The beef cutlet set I order comes with 1 beef cutlet. I noticed the entire cutlet is pre-sliced into thinner strips.
The set also comes with a bowl of barley rice, miso soup, a scoop of potato salad, cabbage slaw, some pickled veggies and a mochi dessert. There are also 3 different sauces – a shoyu sauce, wasabi and shoyu sauce and a horseradish sauce.
You can cook each slice of cutlet to your preference (more vs. less raw) and I have to say the first bite really surprised me 🤩! I am a big lover of deep fried cutlets, but I usually find myself enjoying pork or chicken cutlets more than beef cutlets.
The beef cutlet here was so tender, juicy and full of flavour 😍! The batter is also very light and not greasy. It was fun to cook each piece and did not feel like that much work. I found all 3 sauces to pair really well with the meat and so did all the sides to create a very well-balanced meal.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I really enjoyed my dinner at Gyukatsu Motomura. Our total bill came to $55 CAD, which is amazing because I am used to dinner being $50 CAD per person in Vancouver 😭.
I highly recommend you check out one of their many locations. Their menu is limited though so if you don’t want to/cannot eat beef cutlet, then I wouldn’t recommend for you to go. I also wouldn’t recommend if the wait is more than 45 minutes because honestly I am done with waiting 1 hour or more to pay and eat somewhere (the food better be free if it’s a 1 hour wait 💀). I don’t think any restaurant is worth a 1 hour wait.
More Japan food reviews coming your way so stay tuned!
Sincerely, Loewe