EVERETT — Many times, tucked away in part of a neighborhood strip mall, there’s a restaurant that deserves a more prestigious setting.
Tokyo House is a small restaurant with room for about 60. The dining area is furnished with simple yet elegant beechwood and rice paper dividers, tables and chairs. The sushi bar extends across the back of the dining room, so there are plenty of stools for those who like sitting at the sushi bar.
Most of the menu is the same for lunch and dinner. The three sushi lunches ($9.95 to $14.95) and the six sushi dinners ($14.95 to $27) are set combinations of pieces and rolls. Sushi lunch choices are available from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, and there’s also one sushi bento box dinner.
In addition to the individual sushi orders and the sushi plates, the Tokyo House menu is filled with Japanese favorites such as katsu ($7.95), tempura ($8.95) and udon ($6.95).
For our recent dinner, my friend asked for one of his favorites — chicken yakisoba ($6.25) — and a cup of green tea. I also ordered some of my Japanese favorites — saba ($9.95) and California rolls ($5.75).
The yakisoba, which is the Japanese version of chow mein, was made extra tasty because of the excellent stir-fry sauce used to cook the noodles, vegetables and chicken strips. This is a choice we would recommend to most, unlike my entree, which my friend calls “the stinky fish dinner.” Saba (salted mackerel) does have a stronger-than-most aroma, and at Tokyo House the fish is served whole, which some diners find disturbing. For me, it’s fish heaven, and the ponzu dipping sauce put this customer on cloud nine.
My dinner came with a salad of torn lettuce and carrot strips in a rice vinegar dressing and a side of steamed rice. Both were of the same high quality as the other parts of our dinners.
I also had the California rolls, which are made with avocado slices, cooked crab and flying fish eggs wrapped in seaweed. California rolls may not be authentic Japanese sushi, but they’re popular, and at Tokyo House they’re excellent because all the ingredients were extremely fresh.
The Saturday night my friend and I visited most of the customers were under 30, and we knew they had found a restaurant with great service, delicious and authentic food, and affordable prices. For Herald readers in Arlington, there’s a sister Tokyo House there, which is also in a neighborhood shopping center.
Herald restaurant reviewers accept no invitations to review, but readers’ suggestions are always welcome. Reviewers arrive unannounced, and The Herald pays their tabs.
Contact Anna Poole at features@heraldnet.com.
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