One of the best things about living in West Los Angeles was being able to find some great Japanese restaurants without ever having to venture east of the 405. Granted, a quick trip down to Olympic and Sawtelle would still bring you dangerously close to this country’s traffic epicenter (the 405-10 interchange ranks as the nation’s fifth-worst bottleneck, while the 405-101 interchange, located just eight miles to the north, ranks as the country’s absolute worst).

Now that I live in wine country — far removed from the evil grasp of the 405 — the nightmare of Los Angeles freeway traffic seems rather distant. But I remember that it did certainly feel like a luxury at the time, being able to take side-streets somewhere, without ever having to cross underneath a major freeway. Given my meager post-collegiate budget, I would often visit Hurry Curry in Sawtelle Center, which offered a delicious, yet eminently affordable version of tonkatsu, or pork cutlet.

Having learned about Muracci’s Japanese Curry in a recent edition of 7×7 San Francisco (in which the dish was named as one of the top 100 things you need to try before you die), it ultimately renewed a latent craving; although I’ve had a fair amount of Indian curry in the last several months, I had been neglecting the Japanese version wholeheartedly, and for no good reason.

Stylistically, Japanese curry is a bit of a departure from its Indian counterpart, the latter being a touch less sweet and slightly more pungent. Despite any similarities between the sauces, the tonkatsu itself, which is pounded tender, breaded in panko, and then pan-fried to golden brown, is uniquely Japanese (although I’ve always considered tonkatsu to somehow be the Asian equivalent of schnitzel). By defintion, tonkatsu is bound to be great all by itself, but as a vehicle for a rich, brown curry sauce, it can achieve even greater heights (to comapre, consider what white gravy can do for chicken-fried steak).

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Muracci’s is a tiny mom-and-pop operation, discretely tucked away in the Financial District, only open Monday through Friday, and only open during lunchtime hours. That being said, the lunch lines at Muracci’s can often stretch out to the sidewalk, although I went there at three o-clock and had the entire place to myself. Given its hours of operation, Muracci’s might not always embody the idea of convenience, but in terms of their katsu curry, it could easily hold its own on Olympic and Sawtelle.