Matsumoto no Rairaiken

When I ate tonteki at Saru Shokudo in Osaka before, I vowed to myself, “Someday I’m going to try the real Yokkaichi tonteki!” I decided to try Yokkaichi’s specialty, tonteki, on a recent business trip to Mie Prefecture. The restaurant I chose for this purpose was called Matsumoto no Rairaiken. The Yokkaichi specialty tonteki originated from a restaurant called Rairaiken, which is now closed. The owner of Matsumoto no Rairaiken is the only survivor who trained at Rairaiken and went on to establish his own restaurant. In other words, this is the only restaurant left that is still in the tradition of the original tonteki.

So, on my way back from eating mapo doufu and tantanmen at Kumaneko Restaurant, I got off the Kintetsu train on the way and went to Matsumoto no Rairaiken near Ise-Matsumoto Station. This is a quiet area about 4 km away from downtown Yokkaichi, but there was a crowd in front of the restaurant that did not seem to fit such a place…

As one would expect from a popular restaurant representing the authentic Yokkaichi tonteki! On a certain day during lunch time, the line and wait time at Matsumoto no Rairaiken looked something like this…

I arrived at Matsumoto no Rairaiken at around 12:00 noon, and at this point, there were roughly 30 people waiting to enter the restaurant. As one would expect from a popular restaurant representing Yokkaichi, the home of tonteki. Most of the customers seemed to be locals, but they gathered at the restaurant one after another by car. It took about 40 minutes from the time I arrived until I entered the restaurant. Considering that there were less than 30 customers ahead of me, it was shorter than expected. According to the restaurant’s Tabelog, there are 46 seats in total, which is probably the main reason for the relatively high capacity.

However, there was one thing that I thought was a little unusual when I actually got in line. There is a name book in the restaurant, and if you write your name in the book, you will be asked to come to the table in order. But in fact, everyone is still standing in line after writing their names. I thought to myself, “After writing the names in the name book, don’t we need to wait in line anymore?” But perhaps this is one aspect of the seriousness of the people of Mie Prefecture. On the other hand, if a stranger like me wanders around without getting in line, I might be frowned upon by the customers in line, so I might need to be a little careful.

I was quite surprised by the amount of garlic… What was it like to actually try the signature dish, Large Tonteki, at Matsumoto no Rairaiken, a restaurant in the tradition of the original tonteki restaurants?

Let me introduce the signature dish I ordered at Matsumoto no Rairaiken that day, the Large Tontoki (priced at 1,900 yen including tax). This time, I had the option of adding “more garlic” to the Large Tenteki, and the price was an additional 200 yen, for a total of 2100 yen…

It took about 30 minutes from the time I ordered to the time I was served… The Large Tenteki with More Garlic was brought in front of me. My first impression when I saw this was, “Wow, that’s a lot of garlic…”. Just by a rough count, it looks as if there is a whole plant’s worth of garlic in there. I was quite nervous because of the amount of garlic. I’m really sorry to anyone who will be near me on the train on the way home…

That aside, don’t you think that 1,900 yen for Tonteki including tax is somewhat “expensive…”? But 250 grams of pork is used in this dish… If you compare it to the price range of pork cutlets, you may easily understand the value of this menu item. Also, you can get free refills of rice and pork miso soup, and if you use the web service coupon that you can print out on the restaurant’s website, you can get a 100 yen discount, so you can save even more money…

Now, let’s start eating… The main pork meat is about 2 to 3 cm thick. It looks quite meaty. It is not in a so-called “glove,” but cut in a way that makes it easy to eat from the start, so you can pick it up with chopsticks and bring it to your mouth. The meat is shoulder loin, the part with less fat, and it is cooked soft and fluffy. The thickness of this meat and its tenderness is a bit different from that of tonteki at other restaurants around the area.

The sauce on the pork is Worcester sauce-based and relatively lightly seasoned, and since there is so much garlic in it, it is quite savory. The slightly burnt aroma of the sauce and the smell of the garlic together hit my nose. To be honest, I could eat three bowls of rice just from this aroma. I am so glad that I could have another bowl of rice and pork miso soup…

I left the restaurant after thoroughly enjoying the signature dish of Matsumoto no Rairaiken, the Large Tonteki. In addition to the volume and tenderness of the pork, all the ingredients and lard used for this sauce are said to be the same as those used at the previous Rairaiken, so it may be safe to say that this Large Tonteki is almost as good as the original Tonteki. The only regret I have is that the restaurant seems to be really understaffed, and everything takes a long time, including serving the food. There are job postings all over the restaurant, and I wish they could do something about that in the future…

Examples of other set menus at Matsumoto no Rairaiken (prices include tax)

• Shio-Teki Set Meal (Salt Flavor) 1,470 yen
• Misoteki set meal (miso flavor) 1,470 yen
• Heruteki set meal (light sauce flavor) 1,470 yen
• Maruteki set meal (ginger flavored soy sauce) 1,470 yen
• Kimoyaki set meal (grilled pork liver) 1,250 yen

Large tontechi can be ordered from the online store… To get to Matsumoto no Rairaiken, a 4-minute walk from the nearest station, Ise-Matsumoto Station on the Kintetsu Yunoyama Line.

Matsumoto no Rairaiken also operates an online store, where you can order the Large Tonteki I ordered this time by mail order. The quick-frozen Large Tonteki costs 1,520 yen per serving (shipping not included). Since it is frozen, it has a long shelf life of 6 months. There are some inconveniences, such as the fact that credit card payment is not accepted and that only 40 pieces are sold per day, but this is the only place where you can enjoy a taste similar to that of the original tonteki, so if you are interested, please give it a try. You can also purchase frozen tonteki from a vending machine in the back of the restaurant, so if you can take some home, you can also use the vending machine.

Now, here are the details of the restaurant…