Whilst I'd never profess to wholly enjoy racing into a restaurant to whiz through a quick lunch, it's a damn good test of how any decent restaurant copes under pressure. Not that I'm some kind of mystery customer - or am I..? - but observing this often becomes an interesting sideshow to a speedy restaurant lunch.
A mid-May afternoon was the day for a working lunch at Toku, part of the huge and impressive Japan Centre on south Regent Street. The great thing about Japanese food for lunch is that it lends itself to speedy, efficient and clean portions of food. If there's any kind of restaurant one can get a good feeding in half an hour, Japanese should be it.
We both had relatively straightforward don meals - rice with assorted toppings - which are a great test of any Japanese restaurant's standards. I went for a Japanese tradition close to my heart (and one day I'm sure it will eventually be the undoing of my heart): tempura. You cannot really go wrong with decent Japanese tempura and this was happily satisfactory. A mixture of sweet potato, asparagus, squid, potato and prawns was a hearty but not overly filling lunch combination.
The wife went for the chicken don, another substantial and simple Japanese standard. It was well-cooked: moist, succulent and just what one needs to get going for the afternoon. It was a little stodgy for me with the rice to chicken ratio too high on the filler, but generally very good.
There's not a lot to say about Toku other than the fact that it's just what you need and expect from a quick Japanese lunch. It's not as cheap as I'd like but then it is right next to Piccadilly Circus, making it super-convenient. Plus, given where it is, there's usually enough time for a quick browse around the supermarket in the Japan Centre for a basketful of sauces, meats, seafood and sweets to take home. Well, that might just be me...
Toku
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