Tokyo Club

Service usually doesn’t bother me all that much, but when greeted and made to feel like I’m some kind of worthless scumbag, it’s fairly off putting. We showed up as a crew of 4 and were told by the fellow who appeared to be in charge that there’s no space. He was super rude. Like… Super super rude. Busy as they were, there’s no excuse for making a whole group feel like shit.
Luckily for them the two gals were still keen on Japanese so we bit the bullet and held on until a table was available.
Good vibe in here, and clean. We walked out after ordering$ 32 bento boxes knowing we could have definitely handled a little more in the portion size. It was tasty, but over all, the experience was fairly tarnished.
I can’t help but say that there are other options in the area that I’ll go to 10 times before having to roll in here again.

Tokyo Club in Ponsonby Central is an «Izakaya» dining bar, offering ‘Yokocho’ laneway dining. The Yokocho market place originates from the alleys between two main streets, where the black markets once traded. Tokyo Club focuses on fresh local & Japanese specialty ingredients.
My two friends and I shared a platter with such things as Prawns, octopus balls, Lamb skewers, duck dumplings which were the best and a side of teriyaki chicken and rice. The must try on the drinks menu is the warm green plum wine. It actually comes with a plum in the bottom which soaks up the alcohol and BOOYA!
Tokyo Bay in Takapuna is the sister restaurant to this little gem if that’s more in your neighbourhood.

A solid contender for lunch if you happen to be in Ponsonby Central and feel like Japanese. The décor is very authentic Japanese and the best I’ve seen for a while. The service is good and attentive and the food is quickly prepared. I had a grilled salmon donburi while a friend had the bento box. Both were good and reasonably well priced ($ 15 and $ 25 respectively). Although the food didn’t blow us away. The salmon was marinated in a very sweet teriyaki sauce which I personally found too sweet — but those with a sweeter tooth may enjoy it more.
On the whole the place has some great options so I’ll give it another go and get some different options and try it for dinner before writing it off completely.

After a walk around the Ponsonby Market day, my friend and I were verging on the lighter end of hangry (hungry /​angry probably due to the choice of places to eat ! Decisions, decisions !) anyway after a looksie at Ponsonby Central, sushi seemed like a good idea .
With a miss 2 ¾ in tow, sushi was a good kid friendly option. Bento boxes started at $ 25 and seemed very substantial, I went for the beef teriyaki Katsu bowl and my friend the chicken karrage Katsu bowl. Both were alright portions and seasoned nicely, tho miss 2 ¾ was more down with the chicken karrage than her own sushi roll and ate most of mums fried chicken .
Service was fast and friendly, but I’ve never really had bad service in a Japanese place and hope not to .
And at $ 50 for two, lunch with beer and wine is a winner on the day for me, will probably be going back.

Really fantastic restaurant at Ponsonby Central offering Japanese market style dining. The menu changes quite often as different specials become available. The $ 30 dinner special is great value and gives you a good option to try the menu’s highlights. Definitely order the grilled eggplant though — it’s delicious. They have Japanese and local beers (by the bottle and on tap) as well as a very good wine list. A good value, excellent dinner choice for a mid-​week meal or something over the weekend. The service is always friendly and they can help with any questions about the menu.

I had no pre conceived notions for my visit to Tokyo club, I knew nothing about the restaurant, so I hoped that the food would be decent for the price. I had the seafood trio, it was badly presented, badly cut and on the small side. I would recommend anyone who loves good Japanese food to at least not order the seafood trio, or perhaps go to the many good options available to you in the city. Even with no expectation I was dissapointed.

Hugely disappointed at Tokyo Club today.
1. Over priced. I ordered the Blue Water Bento box for $ 28, only to find 4 piece of tiny sushi, 6 piece of sashimi, 2 deep fried prawns, some dead leaves and tofu and miso soup. I was still hungry afterwards!
2. The drink I ordered never turned up.
I’ve been to better Japanese restaurants with way better food and service, I don’t think I’ll come back to Tokyo Club again.

It’s a treat to have a Japanese Master Chef create everyday Japanese food along with beautifully fresh sashimi paired with an extensive wine & sake list. The staff is very knowledgable and friendly and wiling to accommodate any dietary restrictions. Whether you are on the run with a takeaway order or hanging out with friends around the open fire grill tables, it’s an accommodating space. Located in Ponsonby Central there is an outdoor flow and good musical vibes.

Friday night ended up being a date night at Tokyo Club. We were going to Dante’s, but given how nice an evening it was we were keen for something a bit lighter (apologies to Dante’s, we are still big fans!).
I am definitely a big fan of Japanese food, and having not (yet!) been to Japan, I can’t comment on any authenticity. However, I will say that the food from Tokyo Club was beautifully fresh and served quickly by lovely wait staff.
We started with the sparkling sake, which is so nice to see on the menu, and then ordered a few plates to share. The karaage chicken, piping hot with decent pieces of chicken, the mixed sashimi, the duck dumplings and the scotch fillet. I like that they didn’t ask us how we wanted the scotch fillet and just served it to us how the chef wanted. I totally dig that. I remember back in another life watching the fumes come out of the chef’s head when I would go back with an order saying that someone wanted their steak super well done. No disrespect to those who enjoy their steak that way, but I like knowing that you’re eating it the way the chef wants you to so you get the most enjoyment out of it. It was rare, FYI.
I imagine this place is awesome for lunch given it cranks out dishes so quickly. We were done and dusted within half an hour. I did think when we left that it was quite a lot of money to drop for all of half an hour — BUT in saying that, the wait staff did say «please feel free to stay as long as you like». There was no Canton fruit platter to signify your immediate departure here, and it was our choice to leave as quickly as we did.
I would highly recommend for a casual dining experience. Parking, being Ponsonby, is obviously awful, but I am continuing a very good streak of parking on Brown Street. Touch wood that doesn’t end by writing this!

Slowly but surely I am making my way around the plethora of eateries in Ponsonby Central and this week was Tokyo Club’s turn. This Yokocho style eatery is tucked in on the left of the internal laneway — right next to Radio Ponsonby. It’s pretty small but there are plenty of bar seats and a couple of small tables. Definitely a 3 — 4 people max dining situation.
We went for lunch and opted for sushi. I got the salmon, avocado, cucumber and caviar roll ($ 13). All the ingredients were fresh as fresh could be and there were 8 large pieces of sushi, which combined with a miso was a truckload of food.
What stood out the most were the staff, who were lovely. Dressed in traditional attire, they were very softly spoken and all smiles. When it came to ordering we dithered about, however it never felt like they were being obtrusive, which is key in my book.
This is going to be a great spot during summer — light, fresh food — perfect for catching up with a girlfriend over a couple of sakes!

Ponsonby used to be my playground when I was living in Freemans Bay. 3.5 years out of the country, and I come back and BAMMMM Ponsonby Central is there.
It was my first visit to Ponsonby Central, and we decided to check out Tokyo Club as neither of my friends had been to Tokyo Club (they had been to other restaurants in Ponsonby Central)
Good:
— Fast, prompt service (unlike the US, you don’t tip in NZ so the service used to be something that left a room for improvement in the past, but they were very efficient. Maybe the venue being relatively small helped but either way good fast service
— limited menu (this is also a negative but a positive as well) — i can usually never decide what I want so them having limited menu was sort of helpful (I guess)
— Reasonable price
— Food — we tried at least 5 – 6 different dishes and all were very good.
* Salmon Roe sushi (don’t be confused — at first I didn’t want to order thinking it only had salmon roe in it — it is a salmon roll with fish roe on the outside) — anyway this was good
* Spicy tuna roll — also good
* Clay Hot Pot (Seafood variety) — it was good but a little too salty
* Karaage — crisp and fresh
* Duck dumpling — wasn’t out of this world but not bad either
* Meat platter — beef and lamb was cooked medium rare (perfect) and chicken thigh was juicy
Improvements:
— limited menu. We wanted items from the lunch menu as they looked good but we only h ad dinner menu to choose from. Lunch menu is 2 pages long as well as dinner, so if you are wanting a huge selection of food to choose from and if you are a picky eater then Tokyo Club may not be for you.
I will probably be back (but I’ll probably try other Ponsonby Central grubs first before returning to this)

Sarah and I went to Tokyo Club for dinner tonight. It’s in that popular Ponsonby Central joint that everyone seems to be frequenting of late. We sat at the bench infront of the kitchen so we could see things being prepared infront of us.
I’ve had pretty good experiences of Tokyo Club so far. I’ve been four times in total, the only time I was a little disappointed was at lunch and that’s because I was kind of in a bad mood and the waitress seemed like she was too. Also, the lunch menu didn’t seem as good as the dinner one.
Tonight we shared a sirloin steak teppanyaki dish, some karaage chicken, and upon Sarah’s request, ‘bacon and cream cheese spring rolls’ which I was pretty skeptical about but they turned out to be amazing. The pastry was really light and crisp and there wasn’t too much cream cheese. Get them, they’re good. Other recommendations? The plum wine with ice. It comes served with one of those trendy striped paper straws you see these days, in a glass with a ball of ice in it, and inside the ice is a frozen plum. So good.

Tokyo Club was my first stop of my first visit to Ponsonby Central. The whole place is very swanky and upmarket, which foolishly led me to believe that the service would be snobby, disinterested and distant. Tokyo Club was nothing of the sort — I chatted to the owner for almost the entire time our meals were being made and he made me feel completely relaxed… or was that the lunchtime wine? Either way, the service charmed me and I would happily recommend this place to anyone on this alone.
For lunch we had the «Tokyo Two Step» and ordered a tofu donburi as the main and a couple of sides each as the second of the two steps. I grabbed the Japanese dressed green salad and edamame beans, while my partner grabbed the seaweed salad hiyashi wakame and probably the weirdest item on the menu, the spring roll of cured bacon and cream cheese. While you might be put off by the idea of a bacon and cream cheese spring roll, do try it — it’s fatty, salty and really, really good. Luckily it’s only a small portion though — they could probably be lethal in high doses.

Tokyo Club carves out a unique space of its own in Ponsonby Central. Inside seating is more or less around the kitchen itself and outside they have a few tables also. The first time I came with friends it was a sunny day so we sat outside and promptly we were given menus and glasses of water.
One of my friends ordered a tofu meal while another had chicken sushi and I had a vegetable sushi roll made specifically for me as the menu had no such option. The manager or owner even came out to double check it was what I wanted when it was bought over to the table which I thought was really nice. Our water glasses were kept full the entire time and what I thought was really awesome was paying for it all. They have a wireless eftpos machine so you don’t even have to leave the table to pay for your meal, fantastic. This was by far the best method of payment when you have groups of people coming together and paying separately. Overall Tokyo Club makes a great addition to Ponsonby Central, the food was good, the service equally so and I have been back and will continue to do so.

This was the first food stall I went to when I first discovered Ponsonby Central, and I think it’s probably the reason I went back the second time. It’s a really cool little spot, there is seating all around the kitchen, so you can watch them preparing your sushi while you wait, there are also a few tables around the corner if you are looking for a more intimate setting. The sushi arrives in this big plastic bowl, which I thought was a nice approach, and it’s really cheap for a sit down sushi place, I can’t remember the exact pricing but I think I got 8 pieces for around $ 11. If you need a super quick lunch in the Ponsonby area this is the place to come, if you wanted you could easily be in and out of here in 20 minutes the service is really quick.

Last Sunday night we visited Ponsonby Central for the second time, specifically to try Tokyo Club. It calls itself «Yokocho» style which is laneway dining to you and I. The Executive Chef is Michelin-​starred Hideharu Shimura, so although this is street level food, I had pretty high expectations.
I have to say I was immediately a bit disappointed as my usual Japanese «small plate» faves were absent from the menu. In fact the menu is minimalist with not a single vegetarian sushi option. I wouldn’t normally order sushi when dining out but as I was struggling to find anything much else substantial to order, they did make me an avocado and cucumber roll on request .
To be fair, there was Miso, Japanese Salad, Edamame and Pickles so thus a meal was made. I feel like I need to give this place the benefit of the doubt as it’s probably great for the fishy/​poultry palate with a lot of amazing sounding Sashimi and Teppanyaki. There is also Okonomiyaki (Japanese Pizza) on the menu, including one topped with BBQ Duck, Bacon and Chives which sounds interesting if you are that way inclined.
Unfortunately what I ordered was less than flavourful (the salad lacking particularly) but like I said, I think the menu just wasn’t created with veg-​heads in mind. So that’s ok, it’s still a fun place and really reasonable prices.