It’s easy to walk past the entrance to Porker the new tonkatsu (Japanese cutlet bar) on Wellington Street and if you enjoy and appreciate pork and sake that’d be a mistake. The nondescript stairs wind down to a small friendly room adorned with playing card wallpaper – porker/poker – and some fine food.
As with beef, the Japanese will claim you’ve never had pork until you’ve eaten Japanese pork. There are designer pork farms across several prefectures which produce amazingly tender juicy pork weaved with tasty fat. Porker uses Sangenton 30 day aged pork from the Kagoshima prefecture shipped vacuum sealed, so never frozen, to preserve the flavour.
The menu features a range of teishoku (set meals) available throughout the day and a selection of appetisers and a la carte dishes which are only available in the evening. The signature dish is the Porker set ($200) which combines two of the restaurants best sellers deep fried breaded aged pork sirloin (120g) and tenderloin (50g) served with Japanese rice, soup, pickles and cabbage.
Even though it’s been deep fried, there’s almost no oil residue or oily taste and the breadcrumbs are lovely and crispy, the thick cut pork remains juicy and moist throughout. The sirloin has tasty fatty edge and good flavour. The tenderloin, served light pink is juicy, soo soft and tender that it’s melt in the mouth delicious.
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Porker-Central-30-August-2017/i-rpbPKs7
The Minced Meat Cutlet with tomato sauce ($80) features minced pork with melted cheese in the center, breaded and deep fried and then served with a tangy tomato sauce which has just the right sharpness to cut through the oils. Delicious.
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Porker-Central-30-August-2017/i-FLhMGN9
I’m not a great fan of eating pork entrails, the taste and texture just never really does it for me. But there’s pork entrails and Japanese pork entrails… The Pork Giblets Stew ($70) has a miso base with the entrails stewed until soft and tender. It’s full of flavour and offers a nice contrast to all the fried offerings.
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Porker-Central-30-August-2017/i-HLCvsSr
Unexpectedly the Tenderloin Cutlet Sandwich (2pc, $70) is a little disappointing – that sounds a bit harsh and perhaps it is – the thick cut tenderloin was a little dry and for a sandwich the portion size isn’t visually impressive. Perhaps we had expectations for this dish, whereas for the others we didn’t. It still tastes pretty good though, although overshadowed by the other dishes. It’s offered as a 4pc take out option at lunch time ($140) and you’d want four pieces to feel full.
There’s a single page playing card drinks menu with a range of sake, wine and shochu chosen to pair well with the food offerings. Currently Porker has no desert menu.
We haven’t extensively sampled tonkatsu style restaurants around town, so can’t offer a comparison against other offerings. Porker offers good sized portions of very tasty and well cooked pork which won’t leave you feeling hungry at for what in Central are reasonable prices. It’s simple food, done well.
Porker is the sister restaurant to the Japanese beef centric 298 Nikuya Room (Central) and 298 Nikuya Kitchen (TST).
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Porker-Central-30-August-2017/i-c4X5MVj
Porker
55 Wellington Street, Central. Tel: 6706 5298
Opening hours: Noon-2:30pm, 6-11pm
10% Service charge
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Porker-Central-30-August-2017/i-BRhQbSL