Review Tokyo Garden - Dunedin

this place is sooooo good!! deserves way more customers, staff super friendly and affordable and served quickly! 10/10

Not many people eating here but I can assure the food is great. Had the bento meal and I was too full. Staff is also nice. Dont rely on the rating

Had I seen the reviews to this restaurant I may have not gone. Therefore, I am glad that I did not read them before hand. We tried the Teppan Pork and the Chicken Bento Box. The bento box comes with miso soup. It was a very generous portion as it was very filling and delicious, the chicken was full of flavor. The miso soup was one of the best I have ever had. I amnoy sure if it was due to the chili oil I added but could have certainly had more. My husband had the Teppan Pork and really enjoyed it. It was just the right amount of food.

Great meal, full of flavour and beautifully presented. Good size meals, bring your appetite.

Wow, I visited Tokyo Gardens in Dunedin with friends tonight and enjoyed an amazing tepanyaki experience with the new chef. Was Absolutely Delicious food, very filling! Also great value for money.

Absolutely loved the atmosphere and the chef at the party group table was very entertaining making jokes and get participating customers to catch small bowls thrown at them and get everyone to laugh. The staff was very friendly and the place has a beautiful decor and theme. The food was fantastic too... will go there again sometime for dinner.

Bought mixed tempura, 4 salmon nigiri and 5 salmon california. Very fresh. High quality. Will definitely order again.

ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!! Would 10000% recommend! Staff were absolutely awesome!! So funny! Just had an overall great time. Would go there again!!!

One of the few restaurants you can't go wrong with when dining in or taking out. Both the food and the service does not disappoint.

Pretty good food and the vibe was cool. Not the best food you could ever get but it was still good especially the dumplings.

I had a very yummy, plentiful feed here and the prices are great. The staff are friendly and welcoming. The service was very fast, just what I wanted. The perfect place to go for someone looking for a quick feed.

Tried my first ever poke bowl here! Got the teriyaki tofu poke bowl and man was I pleased. I really loved the raw combination of the vegetables and rice and the price and portion were decent. I asked for more sauce, and they gave me a little dish with extra. It was a clean tasting sesame mayo sauce which was a good accompaniment to the bowl. <br/>8.5/10

Food: 7/10<br/>Customer Service: 5/10<br/>Atmosphere: depends on you. If you want classy. Then dont go here. Good food for if you just want a casual but a little fancy meal. Customer service is meh, because the waiters seemed like they were always too busy and took a while for them to notice my raised hand until I had to finally get up and get their attention myself. Apart from that, a nice dining experience

Taste: 5/5<br/>Portion: 5/5<br/>Location: 5/5 <br/>Price: 4/5<br/>Service: 2/5 <br/><br/>They have delicious food and the price isn’t too bad either. The portions were good and the atmosphere was great. The lady that served us was quiet rude. Our table didn’t get served till 45 minutes after we had arrived. I understand it was busy time but there was no courtesy or any means of comfort.

Me and my partner was exploring Dunedin city this weekend, as we are big fans of Japanese food, we came to Tokyo Garden Sunday night as they have quite good review on Tripadvisor. Sat in with just a average service, and we ordered our favourite dish beef tataki, sashimi, and they are best seller beef tenpanyaki. <br/>Sashimi turned up not really fresh, but we managed to eat them as we dine out a lot, we understand they wouldn't get fresh fish at the weekend and it's ok to have sashimi the next day if they storage right. But the beef tataki turned up way over cooked and looked so dark colour and not fresh enough. We decided to have a feedback to the waitress, she didn't even apologise but kept arguing the side of the beef it's abit over cooked but other pieces are fine, we explained to them do you know what is beef tataki is in Japan? She said every chef cooks differently ?! And we wonder tenpanyaki beef is just on the hot plate to trick more people in but cook in the kitchen instead of a tenpanyaki set up in the middle of restaurant? <br/>The attitude and mood was terrible , waitress turned grumpy after we gave honest feedback . <br/>A very poor meal , heading to Mc Donald's for a fillet of fish

Very disappointed tonight we normally come here quite a bit but we went to use our entertainment voucher on my phone app and the lady pushed the confirm button but she she didn’t and then when couldn’t use it. Not coming back. Very rude. <br/>

Yuck - not even run by Japanese people. Food disgusting. I would not recommend at all. I had been once before years back and it was beautiful but not now it's terrible. Thanks

Reasonable service, but the udon lacked flavour, and the rice was salty and the tonkatsu don was quite dry... being a little picky but overal was quite average

Dined in at this restaurant while we were down in Dunedin last weekend. First impression was it was quite cosy & the staff were very attentive & friendly. Their menu was extensive & it took us awhile to choose our orders. We settled for the couples platter & chicken kaarage for entree. The kaarage was quite a let down - for the price we paid we felt the overall plate was quite small & accompanying dipping sauce was bland & flavourless. The couples platter was a bit more appetising. The calamari was the best I've had in a while, crisp batter & fresh squid ring you could tell it was cooked freshly. The springs rolls were nice also as were the other nibbles but the calamari was def. the highlight of the dish. For mains we ordered a chicken bento & pork hot plate dish. The pork hot plate was nice, the sauce was a bit sweet but accompanied well with the pork. The sauce in the teriyaki chicken was on point, would reccomend. Overall it was a pleasant meal, would agree with other reviews that some of the dishes were a bit expensive but worth the treat.

Great for BYO's however the food sizes are so small!! I ate two mains and an entree and was still hungry. Overall the flavours aren't actually too bad. I would go again but only for a BYO as it is relatively expensive for the small portions.

Fried noodle dish not good at all: the cabbage was cut in big pieces and it seemed raw. All other vegie pieces in the fried noodles were of similar quality.

It is not authentic Japanese restaurant. They don't even use the Japanese rice which are short round grains and has sticky texture. However, the test of the food are fine. The price is not expensive at all especially, the bento set. The atmosphere of the place is not too bad.

I don't know why the reviews on here are so negative; I plug it on being that it's been a while.<br/><br/>I went for lunch a couple of days ago, taking advantage of the $11.50 lunch special, which is any of the dishes on the menu and a bowl of miso soup. The soup isn't anything special but the food is good. I had the oyako don - chicken and egg on rice - a large portion, the eggs still soft and not hard and overcooked, and I was able to taste the dashi stock and seasoning. The service was alright, nothing impressive, but definitely far from terrible. The bento is of really decent size, and my sister had a tonkatsu don, which she said was a bit dry and chewy, but few complaints otherwise.<br/><br/>The food here is good. Miles better than the highly-rated Jitsu, which I had a few nights ago. This is good value. I would definitely return again.

Wow I came here before checking reviews one day for lunch and surprised to see how the reviews are below. I did have an entirely different experience.<br/><br/>As previously mentioned I came for lunch one day and chose the spicy chicken don from the lunch menu for $11.50. This is somewhat high priced for lunch, considering Auckland you would get a lot more for a lot less, but still reasonable. The bento boxes also looked very good.  My friends had also ordered spicy chicken noodles and teriyaki chicken.<br/><br/>The portions were okay sized, felt the amount of chicken was on the lesser side but the taste definitely made up for it. Wasn't at all spicy but had flavour. It was a little bit about average but nothing I found to be that special. The other meals were much the same, nothing too amazing but not bad either. <br/><br/>The service was friendly, but not overbearing which is good.  The place itself was extremely empty which was a bit worrying, only 2 other groups. <br/>Will probably return again

Tokyo garden, hands down one of the worst byo dinning dear I say 'restaurant' I have been to. Very inhospitable staff. Below par food, you have to hand in your wine as you walk in the door and when you order you meal you get handed back your wine. With a number written on it, whichigher when you get I'd checked is logged against your drivers liscence number. Rushed service. Terrible. Last resort.

Hands down, the worst dining experience and the absolute worst Japanese food I have ever had. The "Karaage Chicken" came served with tomato sauce and western mayonnaise and to be honest, I would have preferred KFC.<br/><br/>The waitress was incredibly rude and practically pushed us out of the door when some of us were barely halfway through our meals. She even started taking away meals that we were clearly in the middle of eating without even asking! She then not-so-subtly told us she'd cork our unfinished wine in an effort to get rid of us at 9.30pm on a Friday night. Her behaviour was completely unjustified as we weren't eating particularly slowly and certainly weren't causing a scene.<br/><br/>I would definitely not recommend this restaurant to anyone...go to the restaurant just down the road, it is cheaper and a lot more authentic with better quality staff and food.

Came in for lunch and had a vege bento box. Pretty gross to be honest, didn't resemble any 'Japanese' I had had in the past. Tempura veges were disgusting. Not worth $10.<br/><br/>The lady who greeted us was friendly enough, but it annoys me that this restaurant passes as 'Japanese' when really it's just bad Asian fusion that doesn't resemble anything authentic. Disappointing, won't be back.

Good portion of food with excellent taste went there with friends and will be back. Nice friendly staff with big smile on face. only concern was bit loud but will back for the excellent food. Good Job.

Our student son told us this would be a great lunch spot and that lunch time meals were half the price of dinner. Good size portions, for the price not bad at all. I can see why he would come with friends - price, quality and size of portions worth it. He loved his food! For inexpensive tasty meal i would go back. Probably excellent for groups.

Good amount of food compare to the price..<br/>Lunch bento box is awesome..<br/>Friendly and good service.<br/><br/>Very filling!<br/>It was just great.<br/><br/>I like the japanese uniform for waitress..<br/>Can i possibly buy one??

This place used to be the best in town. Now, the food is average, the place looks terrible, the service is ok, and the place is freezing!!

They have changed the interior and its very nice and the food was still very yummy. Good service and friendly.<br/><br/>I had a Birthday party there and they provided a icecream dessert with candle on it with birthday song.<br/><br/>It was absolutely good experience.

I regularly go to Tokyo Garden for lunch. They have a wide variety of lunch set menus for a cheap price. The soups especially are quite tasty. The food is always fresh and the presentation is of good quality. The wait time for food is not long at all, but perhaps that is because there isn't much of a rush at lunch hour. I must mention the teppenyaki they offer in their dinner menu. The experience was amazing, and you can be assured to go home with very full tummies! The chef is very entertaining and gets the whole table involved. I tried the seafood teppanyaki which was slightly more expensive. They give you a huge amount of fried rice, veges, meat and seafood. A must try.

The meal was nice but the service was very poor. We were given an order form to write our own order.Took over an hour for our mains to come out after we had finished our entree.

The atmosphere and the interior was very nice. And the food was soooo yummy.<br/>Their Teriyakki sauce is the best ever!!<br/><br/>The price is very affordable as well.<br/>$13 ~ $15 ppl for the main dish!<br/><br/>Highly recommend for friends nite out!

That was absolutely great !!<br/>The teriyaki dish was so yummy!<br/>And the sashimi was so fresh and melted in my mouth.<br/>Higly recommended !!