January 3, 2026, around lunchtime.
Because it was the New Year holiday, fewer restaurants were open than we expected. After driving around central Fujiyoshida two or three times, we finally chose a tonkatsu restaurant — not the kind of meal I usually go out of my way to eat while traveling.
That restaurant was Tonkatsu Genroku (とんかつ元禄). I walked in without much expectation, which made the meal that followed even more memorable.
The rice surprised me first
The first thing that stood out was not the pork cutlet but the rice.
It was light rather than wet, with distinct grains and a texture that made me keep reaching for another bite. I do not usually remember the rice at a tonkatsu restaurant this clearly, but here it became part of what made the meal work.
The tonkatsu itself was satisfying too. The coating was crisp, while the pork inside stayed moist and tender. Nothing about the plate needed to be elaborate; it was simply a basic meal done well at exactly the moment we needed one.
The unusually firm udon was the real surprise
The udon served with the set was the unexpected detail.
The broth tasted miso-forward and comforting, while the noodles were much firmer than the udon I was used to. Instead of a soft noodle that slipped down easily, these had a dense bite that demanded real chewing.
I was told that this kind of firmness was associated with the local style. The official Fujiyoshida tourism guide describes the city’s Yoshida udon (吉田のうどん) as having exceptionally firm, chewy noodles, commonly paired with a broth blending soy sauce and miso.
I could not confirm that the side bowl served at Genroku was officially listed on the menu as “Yoshida udon,” so I would not label it that definitively. Still, its firm texture was a memorable introduction to the kind of noodle Fujiyoshida is known for.
An unplanned New Year lunch that stayed with me
This was not a restaurant we had researched or saved before the trip.
We found it only because so many other places were closed and we had spent time circling the city looking for lunch. That made the experience feel even more like a detour: a simple meal we did not plan for, but one that ended up earning its own place in the trip.
PRACTICAL INFO
- Place: Tonkatsu Genroku (とんかつ元禄)
- Visited: Lunchtime on January 3, 2026
- Address: 7-3-2 Kamiyoshida, Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi 403-0005, Japan
- Food: Tonkatsu · steak · hamburg steak
- Hours: As checked in 2026-09, the official Fujiyoshida Tourist Guide lists 11:00–21:00 with last order at 20:00. Other current restaurant listings show day-specific breaks or closures, so recheck the official website before visiting.
- Parking: We used the parking area across the road during our visit. Current restaurant listings also note parking both in front of the restaurant and across the street.
- Udon: The side bowl during our visit had a miso-forward broth and unusually firm noodles. I could not confirm an official “Yoshida udon” menu label for that bowl.
