Tokushima

70 Smith St, Collingwood
Phone: 9486 9933

Years ago, before it went up in flames and then closed down, I used to go indoor climbing at the Mill on Oxford St in Collingwood. After an hour or two of clinging on to the holds, we’d head down to the local Japanese joint Tokushima. Actually, I think it was still called Samurai back then, but that’s not really important right now.

I remember ordering the bento box, and then struggling to eat with chopsticks because my hands would tremble so much from too exerting my muscles too much climbing. Good times!

It’s been a few years since I’ve been back to Tokushima, largely because I’d been lured away by the nearby Wood Spoon Kitchen and Wabi Sabi Salon. But the novelty of fusion wears off, and sometimes you just want the classics. Like gyoza.

These had a nice filling, though the skins were a little on the under-cooked side, I think. We also had some harumaki (prawn spring rolls).
These were surprisingly good! I’m not usually one to order spring rolls, but Mr N had a craving, so harumaki were had. The filling was tastily prawny, which was off-set by the dollop of kewpie mayo which was served on the side.

Because we like to share, we ordered the sukiyaki beef, a dish for two to share. When it came out, we were both quite excited.

The waitress did some mixing of the raw beef around in the big cast iron pan, and then we dug into the sukiyaki, dipping the rare beef and vegetables in the raw egg. Deliciousness!
We ordered some rice to go along with the dish, because it just felt necessary, although the sukiyaki has some bean thread vermicelli in it. In hindsight, the rice wasn’t so necessary – we struggled to finish the dish. We almost got there, but not quite.

Tokushima is great value for money, and they dish up some great classic Japanese dishes, though on our last visit, they seemed a little understaffed, as the one waitress was rushing around a bit. Still, though the service was a little harried, it was flawlessly polite and friendly. So Japanese.