Don Don

My favourite sushi place for a quick bite. The «salmon love» dish always hits the spot.

From Order To Table: Good timing. Like a joke about your boss at the work christmas party.
Service-​ometer: Cookie cutter.
Stomachability: TOTEMO OISHI (that’s Japanese for Very Tasty)
Digest suggest: First date from Tinder. Plenty of exits and you can pay by card.
I have to admit, I’m really a sucker for good, unapologetic Japanese restaurants. Don Don’s is the best thing in the area for that.
An array of selections from miso, to bento, to curry rice. It’s all good and is exceptionally well priced. There’s a reason it’s always so busy.
BYO.

I can’t believe that I’ve walked up Oxford street nearly every day for the better part of 3 years and never even noticed this place…
Cheap and cheerful is the best way to sum this place up– BYO + amazing prices for sushi and Japanese food. A friend and I split a seaweed salad, edamame, large order of salmon sushi and a California roll (giant) and the bill was under $ 40 for the two of us– we couldn’t even finish all of the food, either, so it’s not like it’s cheap because you only get two pieces of fish.
Quick service as well– take a seat so you can people watch everything going up and down the street while you enjoy your food– pretty much like dinner and a show considering the neighborhood!!!

I’ve been eating here for over ten years. Always a favourite place to eat on Oxford Street and at a good inexpensive price. My favourite dish is the Katsu Chicken Curry for Winter and delicious Japanese Hand rolls for a snack or at lunch time.

The biggest thing about this place is that it’s cheap.
Unfortunately the quality and taste of the food is marginal, although you’re occasionally pleasantly surprised. I think in order to keep the prices the same in the face of rising costs, they just cut more and more corners until some of the food borders on the inedible. Still, their strategy seems to be working judging by the popularity of the place with people who don’t know Japanese food or seem to care.
One of the worst meals was an oyako-​don where all the chicken meat was just skin and gristle. Completely inedible so I tried complaining, but they just wanted me to pay for the uneaten meal and leave. Not great.

I really wanted to like this place: it’s busy, cheap and most importantly right near home. Unfortunately the positives just about ended there. We went in a party of six and only one of us really enjoyed our meal. The dons were all quite one-​dimensional which made them a struggle to get through, and the teriyaki options were overly sweet. Being charged for corkage (which wasn’t mentioned when we asked about byo) and takeaway containers for leftovers (also unmentioned until the bill) meant the meal wasn’t even that cheap in the end.

Been here twice in two days. Food is amazing. Prices are right between $ 10-​$ 15 per dish. The Tanino Udon (noodles) are amazing — you should come just for that if not anything else. Their sushi portions are great — some of their sushi pieces are huge. It’s a BYOB place and they charge $ 2 for bottle service but it’s a nice local eatery. Lunch time there was barely anyone there (maybe because we were there at the end of the lunch hour) but for dinner expect to wait around 10 minutes for a seat. It’s well worth it!

I only ever really get 4 of the salmon and avocado hand rolls for lunch. Value for money, filling and super tasty. If I need a lil more they make a good miso.
Used to get their fish teriyaki bowl till they told me it was basa… A lil surprised as Japanese places normally pride themselves on quality produce.

I’ve literally never had a bad meal at don don. I’ve been going here over the last 4 years or so and I love it. Great sushi, tempura, and teriyaki. Plus it’s BYO and close to everything

Don Don is the place to go if:
–tomorrow is payday and you’re in need of a basic, simple, big feed
–you like to slurp your noodles loudly but your eating buddy is an anal manners freak
–you like Japanese food, particularly rice, sushi rolls and noodles
–you don’t mind cuddling with strangers when eating
Located on the flamboyant Oxford street, this place is anything but gay and colourful. It’s brown and simple, like an unfurnished, unpainted room in The Sims. The menu looks and probably is a few years old, being faded, wrinkled and fairly low priced. Don Don specialises in rice and noodles, but they do have some relatively tasty sushi hand rolls. Most hand rolls are $ 2, are pretty big and taste quite fresh. I haven’t tried the rice bowls yet but the udon I had was passable. It was huge, packed with chicken and vegetables. Be warned, as the other reviewers stated the chicken is dark meat. This is mainly because Asians like chicken thigh meat over dry breast meat. Yes, Asians don’t like breast, that’s why we built a large population with the least breast possible *cough**cough*.
Their sushi roll is below average, the rice was moist and sticky not fluffly whilst the ingredients inside didn’t taste all that fresh the time i had it.
This place is decent for the price.

Cheap enough to cover over the fact that the meat is second-​rate. First time I came I was drinking so I didn’t notice as much, but the second time with the teriyaki chicken bento box combo there was no denying the chicken was dark, gristly, and just generally questionable. Tempura prawns had that slightly chlorinated taste to them that I find unpalatable. Tempura veggies, edamame, salad, rice all otherwise tasty and even without the meat, the combination bentos are a good deal for a quick bite at night. If I had to wait though, I wouldn’t.

We only tried it once, but this place is always jammed pack at nights. It’s pretty good for price, I had a sashimi don which was delicious and gyozas and some sort of ramen. The place is super small, doesn’t take credit/​debit card. Must come back to try more rolls later!

Cheap and tasty with fast service, this place is a staple for hassle free refuelling on Oxford St. The service is fast, but not everyone working there speaks English. This for me is usually a great sign but your milage may vary.
At dinner time the place is normally packed so expect a short wait for seats in peak hours. The food is enjoyable but won’t set your inner gourmand on fire, for the asking price though it is great value.
Ambience is more functional than chic, it certainly lacks pretension but I wouldn’t bring a classy lady/​monsieur here for a first date (hypothetically I mean, my life is too lacking in classy ladies to risk experimenting with strategies for first dates).

Has something changed at Don Don since the last bunch of Unilocal many months ago?
After reading the reviews here I was really excited to try this place out. Good, cheap sushi restaurants are the holy grail and this place had many of the earmarks of such a place: small, simple store front, good looking menu, great service, and (of course) low prices. Most of the menu is around the $ 9.50 mark, with some of their large bowls of rice, noodles, veg and fish at around $ 12.50. But I’m very sorry to report that this is only cheap sushi — not good sushi.
My experience with their salmon nigiri was that it just didn’t taste good. And I would not say that this is because I have particularly refined sushi tastes. I’ve been to maybe a dozen sushi places in my life. I love sushi, but here I found myself debating whether to finish my plate or just leave it. My lunch companion was also disappointed with his bowl of eel, rice and veg and left a third of his bowl uneaten — something I have never seen him do in a restaurant before. The quantities are great, the prices are low, and because of this, it might be worth it to push through and try to find some gems on the menu, but I’m sorry to say I did not find them.

Behold, the most delicious and inexpensive hand rolls in Sydney! At the same price of a metro snack, a mere $ 2, Don Dons’ vegetable, salmon, and various teriyaki flavored hand rolls are a STEAL! If you don’t have your eye on the Don, then you’ll be sure to miss this super-​simple Japanese hole-​in-​the-​wall sandwiched in between the bustling businesses of Oxford Street. But don’t let the bare bone appearance fool you. This place gets PACKED, especially during lunch hours, so consider takeaway as an option, too! If you’re after romantic ambiance for a weekend date, then Don Dons certainly wont deliver, but if you’re keen for delicious seaweed salad and sushi at an unbeatable price, you can’t get better than this! Don Dons also boasts 1.50 miso soup, 1.00 hot tea, main dishes for about 9.50 and BYO beer/​wine at 1.00÷2.00.
One con … Apart from our usual seaweed salad and hand rolls, we tried the agedashi tofu, and unfortunately I can’t recommend it. It was a bit soggy, and for 6.00, simply not worth the price… The sushi saga continues!

Salmon don is great.
Japanese lemonade is legit too.
One of my favorite cheap Sydney eats.

It took me way too long to discover this place.
It doesn’t look like much from the outside. I had noticed it before but thought it was just like any other average noodle place on Oxford Street. Now it’s quickly becoming a new favourite for a delicious and quick dinner.
The noodles are pretty awesome. Beef teriyaki udon please. Affordable too. Friendly service and although it’s busy they seem to turn over tables pretty quickly. Overall great value. I’ll be back (many times) I’m sure.

Alright, so I must admit this happens like 3 nights a week. Me and my guy finding each other starving at home after a day of work. No words are needed. We both know what time it is. We only need that one look. That look that says: «I couldn’t be bothered cooking and I know you couldn’t either. Let’s not waste time and energy on thinking what’s for dinner. Because we both know it’s… Don Don time!» And then we high five and do a little dance.
Don Don is one of my fav local hangouts. Nothing fancy, just great, yummy, fast and cheap Japanese food. Edamame, sushi rolls, soft shell crab tempura, all so good. BYO and enjoy the ride!
Oh and one advice: don’t bring your first or blind date or so to this place. The sushi rolls are so big that you can’t shove them into your mouth at once. It could get really messy. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

So Thai has become famous for being cheap and cheerful — yet somehow DonDon has found a way to that with Japanese…
Their food is fantastic — super fresh and really inexpensive…
I’ma big fan of the Salmon Sashimi Don — fresh salmon slices over rice… it costs $ 9.50 and it’s a whole meal.
It’s not the easiest place to find and once you do, it’s so tiny you may struggle to find a seat…
Great vibe and an awesome local hangout!