Tokyo Maki @ King street review

Don't be confused by the name of this restaurant. Looks like Tokyo Maki is managed by Koreans. Although it was branded as a Japanese restaurant initially, it has started to serve more Korean dishes nowadays. In fact in my opinion, they are better at Korean food. Well, I have been dining and ordering take away numerous times from this restaurant since a few years ago.

Located at the junction of King St and La Trobe St, Tokyo Maki is a small restaurant with about 10 tables serving Japanese and Korean food for dine in as well as take away. During the day, they have a number of ready made sushi rolls and finger food which are quite convenient for a take away. The sushi rolls are usually sold out by the end of the day. On the menu, they have quite a number of Korean dishes one can find in a Korean restaurant such as bibimbap, dukbokki, various stews, wide selection of bento or don with Korean dishes, Korean soup such as ginseng chicken soup as well as a few 'table cook' dishes where the food is cooked in front of you. As for the Japanese dishes, they have various don and bento meals, udon, ramen and some Japanese entrees like tempura, takoyaki ball, agedashi tofu etc.

I have tasted a number of dishes from Tokyo Maki. I reckon their Japanese food is not up to my expectation but their Korean food is not too bad. While most of their Korean dishes are pretty average, their stews especially kimchi and tofu stews are something I would recommend. Other than that, their huge portion of the bento is quite value for money. However, the quality of the cooked rice was not consistent (it's too dry sometimes).

Spicy Pork / Pork Bulgogi bento

I took away spicy pork (pork bulgogi) and chilli karaage bentos on my recent visit. Each bentos came with a main dish and rice accompanied by seaweed and sweet potato tempura, 3 Korean side dishes and a piece of fried chicken wing (tesabaki). The spicy pork or pork bulgogi was average as compare to other Korean restaurants. The quality of the rice was good on that day and I was quite contented with the side dishes and the tempura. However, the chilli karaage and fried chicken wing were a tad hard.

Chilli Kara-age Chicken bento

Overall, there is nothing much to say about the food in Tokyo Maki. However, it will still be one of my take away places after a busy day. Decent food, convenient location, what more one could ask for?