Katsudon Hozenji Yokochou

Good: The service was very quick.
The shop is small and cute.
The pork was nicely cooked.
Meh: Service was just alright. Felt like my presence was a bit of an imposition.
I love salt but the sauce katsu was far too salty. Even the rice and cabbage didn’t soften it.
Bad: The oil was dark and needed to be changed.

This is a great small local shop for katsudon (deep fried breaded pork cutlet over rice) in the Osaka/​Dotonbori area. They offer several varieties of katsudon. We got the egg katsudon and curry katsudon. We both liked the egg katsudon the best. The shop is very small with a single counter where you can see the chef prepare you meal. It is cozy, filled with locals and was a great way to end our trip to Japan, sitting in a small shop, eating like the locals. There is an English menu here with pictures. We realized after ordering that some of the locals were adding cheese on their katsudons. We sort of missed out on this opportunity, but we really enjoyed our dishes nonetheless. Since it’s a small shop, you are expected to be on your way after you finish your food. The tonkatsu is breaded much thinner here than the dedicated tonkatsu shops that primarily serve tonkatsu which typically have a thicker panko-​based crust.
The egg katsudon is essentially tonkatsu (deep fried breaded pork cutlet) with egg, scallions and a dashi-​based sauce/​soup on top. The sauce makes the crisp tonkatsu less crisp, but this is the way that it is served. This was served in a small metal skillet and the rice was served separately in another bowl. The dashi-​based sauce/​soup is savory and a bit sweet. It really accompanies the rice well, making you eat more of the rice. If you have had oyakodon (chicken and egg over rice) before, you will find this sauce readily familiar. My wife and I loved the sauce. She normally orders oyakodon, but she really enjoyed the egg katsudon here.
The curry katsudon was tonkatsu served over rice with a curry sauce on top. It was good but not as good as the egg katsudon because of the sauce. The curry sauce is different than the curry that you find at other restaurants that primarily serve curry. There is a hint of Japanese worcestershire sauce in the curry sauce here. This was a little unexpected since I was expecting the typical Japanese curry that is served everywhere in Japan. The hint of Japanese worcestershire sauce, however, does not come as a surprise since tonkatsu restaurants typically served their deep fried pork cutlets with a Japanese worcestershire sauce (which is sweeter and less astringent than the western counterpart). We would get the egg katsudon again but would probably not order the curry katsudon here again.

Amazing Hole-​in-​the-​wall Katsudon place in Dontonburi. One of the best katsudon places i’ve had in Japan. Down one of the side alleyways of dontonburi, which surprisingly has very little good places to just get katsudons. No English menu, but plenty of pictures for foreigners to order from. Orders come in single servings of Katsu (first price you see) and double serving (second more expensive price you see).