Romankan, Takashimaya Singapore

I had noticed this tonkatsu place for a number of years now (Takashimaya Singapore #B2-04), and it seems to have survived for quite a while, long outlasting the fast okonomiyaki place next door that I used to frequent heavily. I'd never gotten around to trying this place out, but something always caught my eye about the sales pitch for the "Homemade Katsu-Sandwich" from Yokohama. Tonight, we happened to be in the neighborhood, and so I stopped to peek at the menu to see what was going on.

The strange thing is that most of the dishes on the menu turned out not to be sandwiches, but rather full-blown tonkatsu plates. Not that I'd mind tonkatsu, but this place was pitching itself as some katsu-sando place, and there wasn't even really anything on the menu for them aside for a couple items at the most. In fact, the sandwiches were already pre-made, sitting in plastic wrappers in a basket at the front counter. It seemed quick and easy enough, so I grabbed one for S$3 (US$1.75).

In many ways, I couldn't have expected much. A pre-made sandwich meant that it was sitting at room temperature (thus losing a lot of excitement for me), and it being Japanese, I expected some of that sweet mayo and such lurking inside. But I was really hoping that this thing was going to surprise me, perhaps with a whopping greasy punch or something. It didn't. It wasn't horrible, but there was just nothing astoundingly good about it to justify them boasting about their sandwich so much (and a bit strange that it was actually more of a half-sandwich with the single slice of bread folded onto itself).

I heard that Maisen in Tokyo sells great katsu-sando from its takeout counter, but I have no idea what that's like. Anyway, maybe one of these days I'll come back to Romankan and check out their normal tonkatsu dishes (and admittedly perhaps grab one of those sandwiches for lunch in the office the next day). But I won't make a huge effort to do so.