Tokyo Lunchbox

Man, do I love maki rolls. Even the cheap ones. I did not think I would ever meet the maki roll I didn’t love. But this place served the the worst maki roll I have ever had.
I got one of the complicated dragon-​type rolls, and it was several dollars cheaper than a similar roll in a sit-​down sushi restaurant, so I wasn’t expecting the same quality. But this abomination was… I can’t find a word. The worst part was that it tasted exactly like Chinese food. Not Chinatown Chinese food either. More like Panda Express, or one of those hole-​in-​the-​wall takeout places for people who think chop suey and egg foo yung are Chinese food. Also, it was a shrimp tempura roll, and it was so buried in a thick layer of rice that I didn’t notice the tail until it was savaging the roof of my mouth. Even though I personally saw the roll being made when I ordered it, there was nothing fresh-​tasting about it.
Also, the cashier is weird. He rang up my order and told me my total. I offered him my payment and he seemed to get confused as to whether he should take it or continue bagging my order. Then he explained the price of my order and the tax and how he arrived at the total. I said, «Yes, OK,» and he still didn’t take my money. Finally he took it after I’d been holding in out to him for a while, then instead of giving me the receipt, he held it out to me and explained the charges again. WTH?
Suffice to say, I will not go near this place again. If I want some inexpensive sushi, Id rather have one of those little to-​go boxes from the grocery store. Not even the grocery stores with on-​staff sushi chefs. Even the sushi that gets shipped in and who knows how long it’s been sitting there is better than this.

Absolutely love the seafood soup…
I rarely eat sushi or at sushi places, but lately I’ve wanted to eat less meat. I stopped by this place and tried the seafood soup. Top Notch! Its at the Thompson Center so it’s a quick fast food place but I don’t care.
Highly recommended… sadly I haven’t tried anything else but that’s only because its not near here… I will eat here again,

If you ask them to make it for you, you can’t get better quick, cheap sushi. But, if you just take one of the premade trays, there’s no saying how long it’s been sitting there, and it will taste like chicken. And I’m a firm believer sushi should never taste like chicken.
The price is great, the quantity is great, and the quality (when fresh) is better than what you’d expect. Give it a shot!

Now I’ve had Toro across the street (multiple times) and their sushi after 2pm, tastes a little stale and the tempura crumbs have become moist and are no longer crunchy. I’ve had TLB once and they have a similar buy one get one free deal after 3:30 (but they close at 4, I know because I stalked the woman working there, watching her close up shop and methodically stack the leftover sushis into her bag, while I secretly hoped she would notice me lurking in the shadows and take pity on me and bless me with free leftover sushi… but alas it did not happen so after I followed her up the elevator we parted ways.)
I digress. The tempura flakes were still crunchy, the rice wasn’t stale yet and the spicy sauce was gooood… Now granted it’s still 10 bucks but you get two containers of sushi. I suppose you could save one at the office if you get a tempura roll.

Believe it or not, this Japanese fast food joint is vegetarian friendly. There’s edamame shumai, vegetable tempura noodle soup, vegetable gyoza, vegetarian sushi, and more. Sure, the quality ranges from «meh» to «ehhhh», but if you want cheap vegetarian Japanese food to go then this place is it.

Yum! Fast, affordable and delicious sushi! I was pleased with this fast food sushi restaurant and will be a frequent customer. Maybe not at this location, but I’ll try the location on 225 N Michigan.
They also give you sample sushi to try. Do all of the Tokyo Lunch Box’s do that? Awesome:)

Go across the street for Sushi — Tokyo Lunchbox is mediocre at best, AWFUL at worst and just generally a bad idea.
All of their sushi is ready to go at 9am when I get in the building, which makes me very uncomfortable. All of their spicy rolls taste exactly the same, and man the heat starts to really build up in your mouth! And I love spicy food. Overall, you are much better off at the taco bell.

Decent if you just need to satisfy your craving. Expect a lot of rice. I got a specialty roll w/​eel and quite frankly I think it was more of the skin and fat vs eel. Disappointing, but it got me over my I want sushi craving. Definitely don’t waste time getting miso soup, it’s beyond watered down. Prices are reasonable, I think my roll was $ 7 – 8.

After hearing plenty of positive reviews about how Tokyo Lunchbox was fast, cheap, fresh, and tasty, I was looking forward to trying their new shop in the Thompson Building. Well… at least they got the fast & cheap parts right. I sampled some sushi, rolls, and a chicken teriyaki dish. The chicken was dry & bland, and the fish was not as tender as it could be. The rolls were OK, the best of the bunch were the ones with lots of «stuff» on them — I guess the «stuff» effectively distracted me from the so-​so quality of the fish.
My meal was not horrible but not great either. Quality seemed to suffer quite a bit in favor of fast-​food style service & delivery. I’ve yet to sample any sort of mass-​produced sushi as satisfactory as you’d typically get at sit-​down sushi house.