Saku: Japanese pork cutlets in Vancouver

Saku is a tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) restaurant downtown. They have 2 locations – one on Robson street and another on Broadway. Both locations are in Vancouver. This review is based on their Robson location.

Boasting authentic Japanese cutlets with real Japanese staff, Saku is notorious for having long wait times. I have been here only two times and both times I have had to wait close to 2 hours to get a table.

Interior

Saku’s space has kind of a retro vibe to it – orange accents and yellow patterned wallpaper. It is clean and minimalist.

The space is definitely small, which is a contributing factor to why you have to wait so long to be seated. In total, they can seat about 20 people inside.

They also have a little patio outside for sitting that can seat about another 8 people. The first time I came here, they gave us a large table on the patio. Sadly, their heater ran out of coal and we had to request to be moved inside. If we didn’t ask, they probably would have left us out in the cold.

Food

Of course, the signature item on this menu is tonkatsu. They have different cuts of meat for different price points, and they also serve the deep fried cutlets in different ways like via udon or curry.

Rosu katsu ($17)

The rosu katsu is deep fried breaded pork loin, the standard cut for tonkatsu. The total is 170g of meat. All of the tonkatsu sets come with unlimited rice, shredded cabbage and miso soup.

They deep fry it in a beautiful way. The texture is light and crispy and does not taste oily. It is authentic and very similar to the tonkatsu we had in Japan.

The set may seem small, but it is very filling and I actually have a hard time finishing my cabbage, rice and miso soup to get a refill.

Hire katsu ($18)

Similar to the rosu katsu, this is the same set with simply a different cut of meat. Here they use pork fillet instead of pork loin and the set comes with 2 pieces instead of just 1. The total here is 150g of meat.

If I am to describe the difference between these two, I would say that the fillet tastes a bit more fatty and less lean than the pork loin.

Curry katsu ($18)

This is the same rosu katsu but covered in a Japanese curry sauce on top of rice. You can add an aditional hire or rosu cutlet for $1 or shrimp for $1.50.

The curry sauce is sweet, as with most Japanese curries. It helps soften the feeling of too much “deep fried-ness”, if that is ever a thing in your mind.

They actually put less rice in this set than you’d expect. Only half the bowl has rice, the other half is just the curry sauce.

Cheese katsu ($18)

For cheese lovers! This is deep fried breaded aged mozzarella wrapped with thinly sliced pork. You can see from each piece that there is cheese oozing out of every bite.

This set still has 170g of meat even though it doesn’t seem like it.

Side: Jumbo ebi ($3.50)

My boyfriend adds on an extra side of a jumbo ebi (shrimp). It certainly is jumbo… look at the size compared to my hand!

The deep fried shrimp is delicious and well worth the extra $3 if you can finish your set to begin with.

Final thoughts

I really like the quality of tonkatsu Saku is serving and this is evident in the long wait times people choose to endure. All of the cutlets are fried well to the same standard and it really does feel like an authentic Japanese restaurant.

Prices are above average for your standard tonkatsu, but I think it’s definitely worth a try if you are in the downtown area.

What I do not think is worth it though, is the 2 hour wait that comes along with it. 🙃 Maybe if you are spending time downtown already and don’t mind walking around, the wait time is not so unbearable. But in the wintertime or if it is raining, I don’t think the taste and price are worth it to stand outside in the cold snow or rain for 2 hours. Especially since you are on Robson and there is a plethora of other yummy restaurants in the vicinity. I am not sure if there’s any restaurant that is worth that kind of a wait.

Sincerely, Loewe