Address: 16 Regent Street, London SW1Y 4PT

Telephone: 020 3405 1222

Website: www.tokurestaurant.co.uk

Date of visit: 9 January 2012

Costs: Around £20 per head

Wines and beer: Several Japanese beers (500ml Asahi  £5.50) and sake (big range and prices). Wines available but they are nearly all down market screw tops.

Likes and dislikes: Clinical, efficient service. Service charge appeared as another food/drink item on the bill. Items are coded so you have no clue what you ordered unless you read the original slip or have a good memory.

Cuisine: Japanese

Summary:

This is a new restaurant opened since Japan Centre moved from The Piccadilly to Lower Regent Street. The “cafe” still operates in the Japan Centre.

The place is packed with Formica (or MDF) tables and chairs like an Ikea showroom. Tables are laid for 4s or 6s. Most of the customers are non Japanese.

I have always wanted to try this place – been opened for a year – as Japan Centre (Acton) wholesales sushi grade fish. I assume that the place will be good for sushi and sashimi.

The menu offers the usual range of noodles and bento rice boxes. You can actually order tapas style at around £8 per dish.

I opted for the sushi set as the people at the other end of my table (for 6) were eating sushi.

The sushi set (£21 – including a nice bowl of miso soup) was an enormous plate of various types of sushi, easily enough for 2 people if you have a normal appetite. Except for the maki rolls, nothing was repeated. You get 6 types of fish (including grilled eel and prawn) on rice (normal sushi) and a whole selection of rolled sushi – chopped egg, fish etc.

The fishes were fine but the rice can be improved – it was a bit soggy and had no taste. Sushi is a great art – takes  years of training in Japan – and is not something anyone can master in a few months. The rice is probably the most difficult part to get right, you are talking about the state of the rice, how vinegary the rice is, the display and the state of the fish. Its not something that Yo Sushi chefs can master and that is why they mainly serve up “maki” or chopped fish rolls. The rice here is above Yo Sushi grade but still poor. The wasabi was also poor – probably came ready mixed and out of a tube.

Looking around, I see that the sushi chef was oriental – was he Japanese? The ramen chef was European – probably Eastern European and most of the serving staff were Chinese.

For £21, you can’t complain as you will probably get half the quantity in a proper Japanese in Soho with a Japanese chef. I recalled that I ate at Sushi Yamada (New York) several years ago. I got about a third of what I got here for $120. I was still hungry when I left but I decided that if I re-ordered the same again, my expenses will look horribly out of place.

As the fish here was good quality, next time,  I’ll go for the sashimi  and have tempura as my carbohydrate.

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