Introducing a little restaurant in Hong Kong which is value for money as well as being a place that my hard-to-please dad actually approved of. Located in the heart of Causeway Bay, Saboten is easily missable but the basement restaurant's poster of some deep fried Tonkatsu (Japanese pork cutlet) caught mine and my aunt's eye when I was working in HK and we ventured there for lunch one afternoon. Saboten is a huge Japanese chain specialising in Japanese cutlet with one restaurant in Hong Kong. It has pretty decent reviews over on Open Rice (Similar to Trip Advisor) and when I returned in the Summer, I took my parents and my sisters there too!
To accompany your food you can make your own tonkatsu dipping sauce which involves grinding your own sesame seeds and adding some of their house tonkatsu sauce (almost like a thick Worcestershire sauce). Grinding the black and white sesame seeds releases the oil which is lovely and fragrant.
On the menu, there are quite a number of variations of deep fried pork goodness including pork tenderloin stuffed with cheese and ham and asparagus as well as the original tonkatsu. We opted for a couple of the set menus as they come with unlimited salad (cabbage), pickles and miso soup.
The cabbage salad is actually pretty tasty. As simple as it sounds, the shredded cabbage drizzled with the light sesame sauce and grapefruit vinegar dressing is completely moreish. The light and crunchy texture of the salad really complimented the deep fried pork dishes.
As there were quite a few of us, we were able to order lots off the menu which always makes me happy! So what can you see? We ordered an egg dish - presented in a shallow bowl in the centre which I probably wouldn't order again as we chose to have the egg semi cooked. This is how you're meant to have it but the slippery texture wasn't that appealing to me. Other things ordered were stuffed pork tenderloins, seafood set which included Ebi Fry (prawns) and an curry dish.
I really like the fun/novelty element when it comes to the sesame seed grinding as everyone gets involved. It's hardly the healthiest meal but the Tonkatsu was perfectly cooked and not too fatty. The stuffed tenderloins were fun to eat but certainly not a must have as we all agreed it was all about the Tonkatsu. Yum. Now the big question - can anyone tell me where in the UK I can find good Tonkatsu?!