Toko

4.8 Average

Food  6      Ambience  6      Service  6      Value  1     

Paid $70 banquet per person and was still hungry. Food was alright, but not sure if it is worth to pay $70 pp for the amount of food. The place is a bit noisy and little dark, can't really have conversation with your friends unless sitting next to each other.

Definitely won't go back and recommended to anyone for the price of the food, rip off. Portions are so small and I do not understand why we paid the banquet Per Person but all the food are shared. The desserts at the end have to be shared also. What a disappointment!

Feb 05, 2012 

7.8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  8     

The food was fabulous. The wine list and cocktails great. It is a bit noisy and a little dark, but a fun vibe.

Nov 17, 2011 

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  9      Service  8      Value  8     

Cool Restaurant. Energetic, looks great, great music, great location. Food was terrific, wines and sakes were good, though a little pricey to access the good stuff. I'll be back.

Nov 16, 2011 

6.3 Average

Food  7      Ambience  6      Service  7      Value  5     

Good experience, very busy restaurant, had to wait a while for a table, was disappointed they didn't tell me about the bar next door! only realised on the way out, not sure if its worth a return, paid over $100 per person and was still hungry.

Oct 27, 2011 

7 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  7     

I came to Toko with a group of friends on Friday night. Arrived around 7.30pm and the place was full. The wait was 90mins, so put our names down and went for drink and waited for the restaurant to call us when a table was ready. All in all it was a great dining experience. The Soft Shell crab was a highlight and the Scallop signature sushi was amazing. This is a restaurant with a buzzy vibe, its a pretty loud venue and is not easy to have a conversation with the next person down the table. Would definitely return.

Oct 24, 2011 

7 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  6      Value  6     

Love, love, love the cocktails, great location, worth the wait, food is beautifully done, great spot, will be back for more, not child friendly, so only when the baby sitter is around, which is a shame. Fresh produce, staff is pretty friendly, sometimes bit hard to actually get someones attention, but once you do its all good, they are always helpful! Always hard to find parking so make sure you allow enough time to actaully try to park otherwise cab it!

Oct 19, 2011 

6.3 Average

Food  7      Ambience  8      Service  5      Value  5     

Nice place. Food just Ok and the right ambience. Too expensive for what it is.

Sep 20, 2011 

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  6     

Toko is definitely one of my favourite places to eat and that's not just because I love Japanese food. The food is the standout, just amazing, best sashimi in Sydney. I've been many times and have enjoyed all of the dishes I have tried. The spicy edamame are addictive. The portions are small and it is pricey but the service is great as is the atmosphere.

You can book for lunch but not being able to book for dinner just gives you time to enjoy the delicious cocktails next door at Tokonoma, and they transfer your bill to Toko when you get a seat.

Aug 18, 2011 

7 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  6      Value  7     

It'd been a long time since I ate robata-style food. The Japanese way of grilling meat and veggies is not entirely unique, but there is a kind of intimacy to it. In Japan, patrons normally huddle around the small hearth-like grill not unlike a u-shaped sushi bar, but the open flame and the robata chef create a kind of hominess.

Toko is not intimate. It's modern and almost unapologetically sterile, with handsome but simple furnishings and soft, dim lighting. The grill is not small at all and the bar around the grill takes up a considerable portion of the restaurant. Nevertheless, the warmth and hearth-like quality of the grill is maintained (albeit one does get a slight feeling of sitting at a nicely-appointed luncheon diner). A minimalistic sushi bar-out-of-place in a robata restaurant flanks the grilling area to one side.

The menu is extensive, so my friend and I could not cover all the choices in one go. We ended up picking two robata items and one main from the kitchen to share (we were not that hungry). Those included the grilled shiitake mushrooms, the pork belly and the beef cheeks with potato (the last from the kitchen). Not only did the menu boast a wide variety of items, but also had a number of specialty "winter" items as well. Sadly, we were not able to try these.

The food itself was flawless, wonderfully flavoured, and presented with the same understated grace that characterises Japanese cuisine. The beef cheek in particular was succulent and exceptionally good. There were occasional flavour combinations that were not traditional (e.g., chili spice in a red miso paste dipping sauce), but everything was well-balanced and brilliantly successful. The food, in sum, was excellent.

The only slightly disappointing part to the meal came with our decision to get dessert in this case the dessert platter for two. While the assembled choices were all well-made and perfectly palatable, there was nothing unusual about them: they were standard fare. My friend and I both agreed that it would have been better to have gotten one more robata dish instead.

A few odds and ends: the waitstaff is a bit frenetic. They are attentive, but slightly overworked, so you do occasionally have to flag them down. Toko is also apparently a place for couples to go: we saw one thirtysomething pair giving each other tonsil exams at the grill. Poor form on their part, but many moony-eyed couples peppered the restaurant.

Finally, one should say something about the price: Toko is not cheap. Our bill was over 100 dollars, and we did not eat that much food. While the dish sizes were small, consistent with robata cooking, the costs were not.

I liked Toko very much, but next time I go, it will probably be for a special occasion. Oh, and I'll remember to bring a date.

Aug 11, 2011 

7.5 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  9      Service  8      Value  6     

Great food and funky place but the food was just fancy japanese, very overpriced. I think you can get just as good sushi/sashimi at Makoto or at the more posh Azumas. Would go again with the girls but wouldn't bring the boy, he would walk out hungry, or poor.

Jul 21, 2011