Porky's Kitchen in Urayasu — As Seen In Japan

Nov 1

Nov 1 Porky's Kitchen in Urayasu

Food, Restaurants, Tokyo, Travel to Japan

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Urayasu is an area of Chiba way, way, way down in Tokyo Bay, near Tokyo Disney. We don’t get down there too often, in fact never. There’s no reason to go down there unless you’re going to Disney, which we never do because I rarely feel like paying a small fortune to wait in line. But we had a little staycation at the Hyatt Regency Tokyo Bay last week, and spent some time in Urayasu away from our problems.

There aren’t a ton of decent restaurants around this area, but after a lot of wrangling on Google Maps, I thought I’d found one, and made a reservation. It was a casual French place with a memorable but potentially unfortunate name.

Porky’s authentic French ambiance

The name “Porky’s” can make one think of quite a few things. It might make you think this is a restaurant that serves pork. It might make you think of Porky Pig. Or it might make you think of a teen sex comedy from the 1980s. It probably doesn’t bring to mind high-end classic French cuisine. And yet.

Porky’s is a dinner-only restaurant that advertises small plates of French food, mostly pork. The decor inside pretty much nails the inexpensive French restaurant: wood, bare walls, bare lightbulbs, frenzied open kitchen; it’s almost as if you’re sitting in someone’s house in France. The place was packed on a Friday night, and it’s easy to see why when you check out the menu.

Porky’s has a huge menu of small plates, all of which are quite cheap. I can see this as a place where people meet up after work on a Friday night, and from the folks around us, that’s what it seemed to be, many groups of young women gossiping away.

Porky’s has a decent-sized staff, but it seemed a lot of them were new, or that there’s issues with them. We called our server over, and she struggled to enter our orders into the system on her phone. If they replaced this person with a QR code, we could have done this part ourselves.

It seems all the cooking, or at least most of it, is done by one woman, the proprietor. She was working like crazy, roasting pork and making pasta and checking reservations and minding the staff. There was one other woman helping her, two girls washing dishes, and two more serving tables, or rather just standing there. I remarked to Eriko that if we didn’t have our drinks yet, I didn’t see why a server was standing there doing nothing. Then the proprietor yelled at the server to bring us our drinks and stop just standing there. She knows what this place needs. And she looked a biiiiit like Beulah Balbricker, which could also explain the name.

Fig, prosciutto, & mozzarella, plus rillette baguettes

With so many choices, it was tough to narrow down what we wanted. We got five things, unsure of how big each plate would be. The first plate was brought very quickly, and was one that Eriko wanted to try: fig, prosciutto, and mozzarella with balsamic dressing. As Eriko remarked, there’s something about fruit and balsamic that goes great together. These little bites were fantastic. A tiny salad all in one bite, with sweet, salty, and a kick of vinegar. Could have eaten 40 of these.

Up next were the rillettes with baguette, which for some reason only cost 550 yen ($3.50). You get a TON of meat for that price. It’s absolutely packed in there, and it is delicious. I love rillettes, and these were some of the best I’ve ever had. They could charge three times as much, and no one would bat an eye.

After this, things slowed down. The overworked chef was struggling to keep up, and the staff wasn’t too helpful, bringing plates to tables that hadn’t ordered them and stuff like that. We waited patiently for the signature dish.

Porky’s signature roast pork and potatoes

The roast pork is the star of Porky’s, and after tasting it, it was easy to see why. We had ham and mustard all the time when I was a kid, and this reminded me of that, but way better. The mustard was light and the pork fatty and soft. There wasn’t much seasoning, but it didn’t need it. The potatoes were creamy, and I didn’t touch the sauerkraut because my body doesn’t handle fermented foods well.

Again: why was this so cheap? At 1,200 yen ($7.62), it’s priced like a small plate, but you’re getting three slices of pork and a serving of potatoes. This is a main. It should be $20. Crazy that they give you this much of such an amazing dish. We were so happy to be there, and we weren’t even done.

Chicken confit and potatoes at Porky’s Kitchen

For the uninitiated, “confit” is French for “bird they bring you at a restaurant.” The chef was really sweating at this point, and we saw some flames go up as she made this, which may explain the blacked bit on the edge. We honestly weren’t expecting much, just some burned chicken.

But my word. This chicken. The outside was crispy, the inside falling apart, juicy, absolutely delicious all around. There were potatoes again, a small salad, and a different kind of mustard (not my favorite; I don’t like the little ball kind).

Just like the pork, nothing was overly salty. I saw very little seasoning, yet it was bursting with flavor. This woman absolutely has the skills when it comes to French food. I don’t know if you know this, but we’ve been to France, and I can tell you, this chef’s food could definitely compete there.

Pork sausage with, you guessed it, potatoes

Our last dish was a sausage with the same mustard as the chicken and some more potatoes, which benefitted from the sausage juice. I am a Wisconsin boy, and therefore picky about my sausages. I want them burned on the outside, bursting with juice. This one was a bit undercooked for my standards, with the casing stringy as it was cut. Some people probably like sausage like that, but it wasn’t to my taste. That said, it was one of the better quality sausages I’ve ever had in Japan, so they’re not skimping on any ingredients, making the prices confusing as ever.

Verdict: is Porky’s Kitchen worth eating at on your Japanese vacation?

As we left, we were given our check. It was cash only, but the girl gave us incorrect change and had to ask the proprietor how to re-do our ticket. The staff really held this place back. But at 5,500 yen ($35) for five incredible dishes, it was a steal to eat here.

I’d like to Gordon Ramsay this place, if I may. Update the ordering system to a QR code, raise the prices, and light a fire under the asses of the staff to get them to move as fast as the chef, and this would be a 10/10.

I understand that they want to do small plates, but if that’s the case, then there’s no need to add sides to every plate. The menu didn’t tell us which sides came with which dish, so we ended up with three straight plates with mashed potatoes on them. I’d say provide less food, or charge more.

We did see some of the other dishes: the fries come with butter on top, which to my guessing would make them soggy, so we didn’t order them. I also saw the ribs, but they didn’t look as good as what we got. The pasta looked okay, but not incredible. I’d say go with the French classics here.

Honestly, if this lady wanted to, she could move to Tokyo, present this menu at five times the price, and have a fine dining establishment. As is, it’s a cheap night out in a casual setting with some of the best French food I’ve had outside of France.

Porky’s is a dinner-only restaurant, and from the amount of drinks I saw the servers bringing people, alcohol is a big part of their business. But their OJ wasn’t watered down, which is a major concern for us non-drinkers when visiting a restaurant in Japan.

If you’re visiting Urayasu, that must mean you’re there for Disney, probably with your family. I don’t know if this is a place to bring kids, but if they’re older, or you and your partner are on your own, you have to try this place. The food is incredible. The chef is a master. The prices are low. What more could you want?