Tokonoma

Tokonoma has been on my ‘To Eat’ list for a while, so as soon as it popped up on Groupon, I snapped it up. The Groupon was for 12 courses and a glass of wine.

We went last Thursday night for dinner, and it was quite a nice night. I love the feel and décor of the place, very calm and quiet. Looking around, it seemed the same food was going to lots of tables, so assuming almost everyone there had a Groupon too.

My sister was meeting, mum, my aunty and I for dinner and she was running late. I don’t know if the wait staff were too impressed but hey, what can you do? Traffic isn’t something we can control.

While we were waiting, we ordered a round of Lychee and Jasmine Mojitos, umm… YUM! $17 a pop, pretty standard for a cocktail.

Sister called us and said she was still stuck in a traffic jam, and the wait staff said our table was booked at 8 for another group so we had to start on the food before she arrived.

We didn’t actually get a menu to let us know what was going to be coming to our table and we also weren’t told prior. This didn’t really bother us too much. But each course the wait staff brought out, the provided an explanation of what it was in a whisper. So, a couple of the things I didn’t actually catch what it was, but I will do my best to explain…

First up was a bowl of Edamame. Can’t really go wrong with these, salty and yum. Great to nibble on.

Second I believe was sliced kingfish. Really nice, thin slices with a beautiful fresh dressing.

Third was a beef croquette. This was a nice texture change up from the fish. Beef cooked perfectly inside with a nice crisp crumb. Decent size serve as well.   

Fourth to quickly follow was sashimi of salmon and king fish. This was presented so nice in it’s little box with a big ice cube to keep it cool and decent amount of wasabi on the side. However, in saying that… while the box was sitting there waiting for Sister to arrive, the ice melted through all over the table. Woops!

Two more dishes came next, and I actually can’t really tell you what these were. I know one of them was a king fish nigiri. The others, all I can tell you was they were pretty yum!! One of them was more salmon and I think one was something like a beef tartare? Can’t tell you for sure though, sorry!

I also know the pics aren’t the best, but lighting in there is quite dark.

Seventh plate was grilled scallops with sweet pickled apple. I think pickled apple is my new favourite kind of pickle! YUM! Scallops were grilled perfectly too.. Mmmm…!

Eighth was pork belly with apple wasabi. Apple wasabi is also my new favourite flavor of wasabi, wow! I think this dish was my fav of the night. The pork belly was so tender and juicy and the crackling crunchy. Soft, crunch, sweet, spice… all things nice!

Ninth and Tenth came out in quick succession. A bowl of miso soup and zucchini with sesame. I enjoyed the zucchini but it was still a little bit hard for my taste.

Last savoury course was a plate of lamb cutlets with chili miso. These were really yum and tender and covered in a good amount of sauce.

 Sister arrived somewhere between courses five and seven. So she was a little behind on eating and it was coming close to eight when our table was booked for the next group. The wait staff cleared a table in the bar area where we could stay and eat our dessert, so this was OK.

For dessert we got a little platter of pineapple sorbet, chocolate gelato, crème brulee and some fresh fruit. The sorbet and ice cream had really nice, true flavours. The brulee was silky smooth and had the anticipated ‘crack’ that the top of a brulee should.

Besides the several serves of kingfish and salmon, the food was really fresh, cooked well and enjoyable.

Tokonoma ticked off the list!