Because my brother is a bit of a weeaboo, and is crazy about all things Japanese, including the cuisine and because we like the close proximity of Smith St, I think it's my brother's mission to visit all the Japanese places along the strip.
With grandma in tow.
We normally head out on a Wednesday or Thursday and this particular trip took us to Tokushima, on the end of Smith St near Victoria Parade.
David had told me about this place before and how he liked the Japanese food here more than most other Japanese places in Melbourne, so I was looking forward to it.
The decor is simple and understated, but it was still quite tidy and cosy with the Japanese dolls and sake bottles dotted around for decoration.
We started off with some agedashi tofu, my brother has a bit of a thing for it. The tofu was a little lighter in colour than I expected, but it was quite nice, nothing offensive but nothing terribly remarkable as well.
I decided to order some inside out californian rolls, I've always found that name odd and surprising that it's permeated every single Japanese outlet you come across. I mean, it's surely not authentically Japanese, yet everyone loves it. With me as one of the flock as well.
These are deceptively...divine. I popped one in my mouth and just stopped. I couldn't talk, barely chew, from the creaminess of the avocado in it. I've never usually thought too much of avocado, it's not really that noticeable in most rolls even, but here, it was an absolute star. So amazingly fresh and flavoursome. When of course matched with delicious, cool, salmon, it was the absolute perfect mix. I sort of wished at the end of the meal that this was all I had ordered, because it was slightly painful to have to share....
I got my grandmother the vegetarian yakisoba. I think this is when I had just gotten my new Nikon D7000, so I was absolutely smitten with the colour processing when I was taking pictures of this!
Whilst I didn't try any, I was impressed with the presentation, it looked bright and spritely, the noodles didn't look like they had been over fried nor soggy and weighed down with sauce.
My brother got the chicken katsu curry and I went with the vegetarian curry. Yup. There are two different curries in the pictures above.
Sadly, the curries were a bit of a disappointment. Whilst generous with sauce, which was fairly tasty, but not the best I've had....what's with all the potatoes? There was barely a few slivers of chicken katsu on my brother's plate, a mountain of potatoes to be had and on my plate...they should have labelled it potato curry rather than vegetable curry! Maybe two scraggly beans and a few pieces of carrots? I was disappointed at my carbohydrate overload.
Despite this however, I think I would return to Tokushima. It had a very quiet lunch service, with a few lone diners and our table of three. We were attentively served and everything came out fairly promptly. And I find it's (generally) good value for money. Whilst I may definitely not go for the curry again, I would certainly like to try more of their sushi offerings...
Tokushima
70 Smith Street
Collingwood, 3066
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