Tonkatsu Shimuzu (Tokyo)

Tonkatsu (breaded, deep-fried pork) is one of my favourite Japanese dishes! However on trips to Japan pre-kids, my memories of tonkatsu usually involved crushing a whole lot of sesame seeds to add on top of the sauce that you dip the tonkatsu in, so I wasn't sure how well this would go with one of my children being allergic to sesame.

We found this little "hole in the wall" restaurant, Tonkatsu Shimuzu on Aoyama-dori Avenue (or "Kita Aoyama" - one of the main roads in the Omotesando area of Tokyo), not too far from Kinokuniya supermarket. To my relief, it wasn't one of the restaurants where everyone is simultaneously grinding sesame seeds and there is sesame in the air. But there were sesame seeds in the sauce (and the sauce was in pots on the table). I figured that sesame within the sauce was better than having loose sesame seeds everywhere, so we used the allergy cards and the chef came out to speak to us to ensure everything was clear (lovely customer service!)

And luckily, my child that is allergic to sesame is not a fan of sauce whatsoever, whereas my child that can tolerate sesame loves sauce, so I sat them on opposite ends of the table (and let the one that could tolerate sesame, have a little sauce with his, and then just wiped his mouth before letting him loose to hang around with his brother).
My child that can tolerate sesame (then 3 years old) had also recently outgrown his wheat allergy, and to some extent his egg allergy (he could have well-cooked egg in not too large a dose), so he was able to have the tonkatsu just fine.
I haven't tagged this restaurant as "sesame-free" however we managed to get around it by communicating with the chefs, and my sesame-allergic child made do without the sauce. They served the pork (dipped in egg and wheat), with plain rice, and shredded cabbage, and also a miso soup. The miso soup has soy and shellfish (and who knows what else) in it, so if your littles ones are allergic to this, best to give it a miss. The chef tried to communicate to me what was in it, but in the end I just kept it to the side and drank it right at the end once the kids were done eating their meal (I didn't want to try it on them if I wasn't clear on what was in it).
Note that the sauce is called "vegetable" sauce, and has a sweet taste a bit like barbecue sauce. If I make tonkatsu at home, I buy the "Bull-dog" brand available from Japanese and Korean food stores.


とんかつ志味津 表参道店
東京都港区北青山3丁目10-8 北条ビル B1F

Tonkatsu Shimuzu

B1F Houjou Bldg, 10-8, 3chome, Kita Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
https://jp.openrice.com/en/tokyo/r-tonkatsu-shimizu-omotesando-store-omotesando-tonkatsu-r8377