Kenny Rosales
A lunch bento box with Philadelphia roll, salmon teriyaki with steamed veggies, and tempura is satisfying and not too much of a splurge.
The chair with a phone number advertising “chairs for sale” doesn’t look so out of place in front of the repurposed-house-turned-restaurant that is now home to Tokyo Sushi on Willy Street. It makes it look rather endearingly like there’s a yard sale. The front porch beckons with a warm invitation to come in, doff coat and hat, and make yourself at home.
Inside, large white booths and dark wood-paneled walls add to the coziness and privacy. Frames of miniature kabuki masks are hung about and parasols cover the overhead lights. The two-story house has an upstairs that’s still a bit unfinished but has some good seating spots for larger groups.
And it’s easy to make oneself at home with drinks, appetizers and a sushi bar at the ready. The five-piece sushi appetizer is a good welcome at a mere $6.50 for chef’s choice nigiri, or fish on rice. I got the blue fin tuna, albacore tuna, salmon, white king salmon and a prawn. The white king had a softer texture of the two salmon, and both kinds of tuna were in buttery confluence with the molded balls of rice.
Another appetizer, the yummy garlic broccoli, was a strong follow-up to the sushi. Steamed yet still firm in a puddle of sweet and garlicky sauce, it didn’t last long. Neither did the shumai, steamed bite-sized dumplings made from shrimp and pork wrapped in a wonton. They’re moist, savory and springy, perfect for a salty dip in some soy sauce.
The seaweed salad brings crunch and sweet richness from the bright green wakame seaweed. Sprinkled with sesame seeds on a bed of finely sliced cucumber (similar to what you’d find in a sushi roll), this salad is very satisfying, even in small amounts.
The extensive menu can make it difficult to decide among the many rolls, but the Amazon roll on the specials board caught my eye. Tempura shrimp, crab (imitation), avocado and cucumber make up the interior and thin slices of raw tuna are laid atop the roll along with a drizzle of “special sauce” and a sprinkle of tobiko, or flying fish roe. The salty/sweet tobiko sets off the soft, even texture of the tuna, giving it some “pop,” and I’m always a sucker for “special sauce,” which is usually a blend of some sort of red pepper sauce and mayo.
But the basic rolls shine over the more ambitious ones. The salmon skin roll, drizzled with sweet teriyaki, intermingles chewy, crunchy, savory roasted salmon skin with rice to create what’s probably my favorite sushi texture. Honorable mention goes to the vegetable rainbow roll, which surprised me with a piece of stiff pickled burdock amid the carrots, cucumbers and avocado.
The firehouse roll is a basic California roll (crab, avocado and cucumber) with layers of lox-style smoked salmon and broiled eel on the outside. There were too few pieces of eel, and the smoked salmon overpowered the flavor of everything else.
The crunchy scallop roll utilizes lots of that spicy mayo I’m so in love with. The scallop lends its sweetness but is a bit masked by all the sauce. Crunch comes from tempura crumbs on the exterior.
For a place that puts the tempura crunch in so many rolls, the veggie tempura plate was a little disappointing. Instead of the delicate batter encrusting a forest of vegetables, it was a clearcut of potato, sweet potato, one lonely stalk of asparagus and two huge crowns of broccoli.
Donburi, yaki udon, soba, hibachi and teriyaki dishes round out the menu.
Tokyo Sushi’s lunch bento offers good variety and is not too much of a splurge. In the teriyaki salmon bento, a modest salmon filet is coated in teriyaki and arrives atop a bed of perfectly sautéed vegetables. The pork katsu bento is a crispy medallion of deep-fried pork sliced over a bed of lettuce, served with a light sweet ketchup for dipping. Both are served with miso soup, gyoza, a California roll and rice.
While I worry that the menu might be too extensive to be consistent on all fronts, there’s plenty to like. The cozy and casual atmosphere is great for groups and families as well as solo diners or couples who want to belly up to the sushi bar without leaving the neighborhood.
Tokyo Sushi
1133 Williamson St.; 608-405-5826; 11 am-2:30 pm and 4-9:30 pm Tues.-Thurs.,
11 am-10 pm Fri.-Sat., 11 am-9:30 pm Sun.; $4-$27
