Yoshinoya, Matsuya, and Sukiya battle it out with each other plus a dark horse contender as we go looking for the tastiest pork miso soup.

Japan’s most famous soup is, of course, miso soup, or misoshiru, as it’s called in Japanese. But if we’re talking about Japan’s best-loved soup, especially at this time of year, that title might just go to tonjiru.

As you might have picked up on if you’re a foodie, ton means “pork” in Japanese, and it’s where we get terms like tonkatsu (pork cutlet). Tonjiru is itself a variant of miso soup, but whereas ordinary miso soup is almost entirely broth, tonjiru is much heartier, almost like a stew, and always contains strips of pork along with a variety of vegetables. Tonjiru’s popularity spikes in the winter, when it serves as a way to simultaneously please your taste buds, satisfy your hunger, and warm your body, and it doesn’t hurt that tonjiru is also a pretty affordable dish, readily available at many casual Japanese restaurants, including Japan’s big three gyudon (beef bowl) chains: Yoshinoya, Matsuya, and Sukiya.

With a cold snap hitting the Tokyo area, we sent our Japanese-language reporter P.K. Sanjun out to see how the big three gyudon chain’s tonjiru compare to each other, and since we managed to squeeze a little bit of extra research funds out of our boss, he also hit up Katsuya, a popular chain of pork cutlet restaurants, on his search for the best pork miso soup.

● Yoshinoya

First up is Yoshinoya’s tonjiru, and right off the bat, P.K. thought he may have found perfection. Yoshinoya charges 217 yen (US$1.45) for its tonjiru, putting it in the middle of the group price-wise, but it’s the heartiest of the bunch, with healthy portions of pork, carrot, hakusai (napa cabbage), negi (green onion) and daikon radish, which are the base ingredients you’ll almost always find in tonjiru. Yoshinoya also adds a lot of renkon (lotus root), gobo (burdock root) and taro, so there’s a lot of variety here. It’ not just the ingredient list and portions that are big, though, but the flavor too. P.K. could tell that everything had been given a lengthy, leisurely simmering in the broth, with delicious miso flavor permeating everything to its core.

● Sukiya

Sukiya’s tonjiru (240 yen), with hakusai, carrot, negi, konnyaku (yam gelatin), and tofu, feels like the philosophical opposite to Yoshinoya’s. Whereas Yoshinoya is all about big and bold miso flavor, Sukiya takes a more reserved approach. Obviously you still taste miso with every sip or bite, but to P.K.’s palate the effect felt more like if you cooked vegetables in their own pot first, then added them afterwards to a bowl of miso broth. Again, this doesn’t mean Sukiya’s tonjiru is bad, especially when you consider that the seasoning of Sukiya’s beef bowls is slightly stronger than Yoshinoya’s, so a less intense tonjiru might actually be the superior soup to pair with them, and ultimately P.K. would call this tonjiru’s flavor “fresh,” not bland.

● Matsuya

Matsuya’s tonjiru (240 yen) lands somewhere in between the intensity of Yoshinoya’s and the subtlety of Sukiya’s. To P.K., it seems like a tonjiru that most people will like and no one will hate, something nice and tasty but which he wouldn’t feel compelled to order every time he eats at Matsuya. This one does have the most tofu of the group, though, so if you’ve got a soft spot for those soft soup-soaked cubes, this may the one that’s best for you, and you get carrots, renkon, negi, and taro too.

● Katsuya

Katsuya’s tonjiru (200 yen), with hakusai, carrot, negi, and taro, tastes a lot like Yoshinoya’s, and since P.K. likes his tonjiru with heavy miso flavor, Katsuya and Yoshinoya were now locked in a battle over his personal pick for the best of the bunch. So which would he choose? It’s actually a little complicated.

In terms of flavor alone, he gives the edge to Yoshinoya. However, if he’s getting tonjiru as a side dish, Katsuya’s might be the best. Why? Because in addition to its standard-size 200-yen tonjiru, Katsuya also offers a small tonjiru for just 165 yen. In other words, not only can P.K. always find room in his budget for Katsuya’s tonjiru, he can always find space for it in his stomach too, even if he’s ordering a hefty main dish as part of the same meal. So we guess you could say that P.K. always wants to eat Yoshinoya’s tonjiru, but also that he wants to eat Katsuya’s tonjiru every time he goes there.

As is so often the case with food, though, the best choice for you will come down to your specific preferences as an individual tonjiru consumer, but hopefully these notes can be your guide to personal pork miso soup perfection.

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