Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Dining Review: Tokyo Dining

We originally were supposed to eat at Narcoosee's on Saturday night after the 5k. But we were tired and didn't want to spend as much money with the current state of the economy. So we decided to insert an alternative table service in its place on our last day. Well, we managed to fit two table service meals in its place and probably came about even if we had gone with our original plan.

One of the restaurants we decided to try was Tokyo Dining for sushi. We've recently been on a huge sushi kick and enjoy finding new places that have exciting, experimental choices.

None of us had ever actually been to the Japan pavilion at World Showcase, so there were a lot of firsts. There are beautiful ponds and gardens in the pavilion. The large ceremonial temple still has scaffolding and a huge tarp around it due to renovations. The Cast Members in the entire area were the nicest I have encountered.

Tokyo Dining is located on the second floor above the Mitsokoshi shopping area. It shares the space with Teppan Edo. There were definitely more people trying the teppanyaki-style dining experience where the teppan chefs prepare your food in an entertaining way for you.The CMs at the entry all wore traditional kimonos. They bowed as they greeted you (your servers did as well).

A large picture window overlooks the lagoon (it must be great for Illuminations.) A center dining area has tables and gives a front row seat of the sushi chefs and a large plasma screen that plays calming images of flora and fauna.

Our waitress was so sweet! She bent over backwards for any needs. First, she brings a warm wash cloth and instructs you its to refresh your hands. The menu isn't extensive as some places but there are a few new sushi items that we haven't seen elsewhere.

We each end up trying something different. I tried the Bento box (a mix of tuna sashimi, seaweed salad, steamed rice, teriyaki beef and tempura veggies). It was fabulous. The fish had a great flavor. The seaweed salad was a nice surprise. It was very refreshing. The tempura batter was one of the lightest I have ever tried. It actually stuck to the veggies well and had a great crunch.

Brett had a Spicy Philadelphia Roll, yellowtail sashimi and salmon roll. John had tempura shrimp, squid sashimi, and yellowtail. Everything was amazing. The Spicy Philly roll was something we haven't seen anywhere else. I normally don't like cream cheese in my sushi, but the smoothness of the cream cheese provided a great cooling effect to the spicyness of the rest of the roll.

Tokyo Dining also provided us with a special anniversary dessert slice of chocolate ginger cake. It was really good! I love ginger so much and never thought it would be such a great compliment to chocolate. It wasn't too decadent. (Photo)

Overall, Tokyo Dining is now one of my favorite Disney dining destinations and one of the hidden gems at World Showcase. The entire experience was fabulous. The only downside was the price. It wasn't quite as competitive as other choices you could make at the world or in comparison with other sushi restaurants, but service and ambience more than make up for it. We will definitely be back!

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