Ginza Bairin

First off, let me state that I've lived in Japan, so know a thing or two about Japanese food and Tonkatsu (one of our favorites).  We've been going to Tonkichi for years, which was originally recommended to me by a Japanese friend who visited Singapore often (the place is fab).

While inaugurating ION on opening day (as one does in Singapore), we decided to try out Ginza Bairin as the description sounded quite good.   Well it was awful.  Here's why (in no particular order):

1) There is no ambience at all to the restaurant.  A side-street coffee stall setup is not commensurate with the prices.   Wooden tables and chairs are more reminiscent of a school canteen than a Japanese restaurant.  I didn't notice a single Japanese bit of decoration in the place other than a hanging bit of cloth with Japanese on it.  The translation probably read "This is for tourists who can't read Japanese".  

2) They  don't serve green tea.  Really?!??   How weird is that. 

3) The menu is ok, but none of the usual goodies at a Tonkatsu restaurant, like potato salad, pickles, etc.   No combo deals of Ebi and Tonkatsu.  They also don't specify the type of Katsu - eg loin or fillet.   Not that I ever could figure out the difference, but they are usually offered to the guests.

4) Ok, now to the nitty gritty.  The food was awful.  We both ordered different dishes.  My wife ordered the standard Katsu set.  I ordered the Curry Katsu.   My curry came relatively quickly, while my wife waited quite a while for hers.  When it came, my dish was quite small for the price ($15).  The cutlet was only 5" or so wide (arouund 12cm for you metric folks), which is small by comparison to most other places.  My wife's was even smaller.  

The Tonkatsu dish my wife had came with a tablespoon's worth of shredded cabbage.  That is ridiculous.  First off, cabbage is cheap..   don't be stingy!  Secondly, there is no joy in having Tonkatsu without cabbage.  Next, they only gave her a teaspoon full of the tonkatsu BBQ sauce.  Ridiculous!  Lastly, both of our cutlets were more than 1/3 fat.  Disgusting.   

Here's where it gets interesting:  we asked supervisor if they could bring us another pork cutlet to make up for the fact that we had small cutlets that were full of inedible fat and gristle.  She didn't really get what we were saying, so we explained very carefully and showed her.  To her credit, she finally got the picture and then asked if we could give her our cutlets to show the chef.  I said she could have one strip, which would be sufficient and then would continue eating the meagre bits of meat while we ostensibly waited for our cutlet reinforcements.   Well, the supervisor insisted to take away my entire plate, and said she would replace it with another, better one with no fat.   I resisted as I was hungry and didn't want to wait for a new dish, but she insisted and whisked away my lunch before I could stop her.  

After waiting another 10 minutes (my wife had long since finished her small meal), the supervisor returned with a plate which contained two of what I can only describe as breaded pork hamburgers.   I asked where was my curry sauce, as that was what I originally ordered and what i really wanted (I love Japanese curry folks..).  She responded "this is the replacement for your meal.. this one doesnt' come with curry sauce".  Knowing where this was going by the look in her eyes (a bit vacant), I still pushed on and told her that I didn't ask for another dish, but just wanted more cutlet to make up a full meal since ours was so full of inedible gruel.   She didn't relent, and only kept stating that she replaced my meal with this one since I didn't like the first dish and that this dish didn't come with curry.  

Now, I know what you're thinking:  why didn't i just ask her for a side dish of curry?  Well, I did... repeatedly. But she said she couldn't... which really frustrated and angered us both.   Anyway, she finally relented and went to "ask the chef" (who was as Japanese as I am) and then returned with a small spoon-sized container of curry sauce.   I was so irritated that even if the new cutlet had been good (it was simply awful), I woudl not have been able to eat it.

So, suffice to say we do NOT recommend this place.