Todoroki

Service VERY slow for the Teppanyaki tables. There were not enough chefs for the tables. Seated for a while before order taken and then over 30 minutes before the chef came to start the cooking. Food was ok. Gratuity pre-​added for a party of 4 and not flagged so easy to miss.

It’s okay. Amazing appetizer, salad and sushi.
But if I just want to have a decent dinner and a good place to talk, I won’t choose it.
By the way, if you are not really really hungry, do not choose the sushi buffet. You can never eat eat the money back.

We ordered off Grubhub and got delivery. The sushi arrived in a timely matter. It was piss poor. The nigiri was not fresh; some even chewy. They try to cover up the poor taste by lacing the nigiri with green onion. The rolls are mushy probably the 2^nd worst I’ve ever had. The miso soup had 1 piece of tofu! A small piece at that… We didn’t even get any soy sauce!!! Luckily we already had some but still c’mon!

Very pleasant dining experience. Nice décor, roomy tables, good food. Service was attentive although most of the tables were occupied. I had the gyoza appetizer, beef teriyaki ($ 17) for the main course. Both were delicious, as was the side salad and miso soup. The beef was tender and juicy– the sauce was tasty and not overpowering. Partner had the crab tempura ($ 15.99) which he said was delicious, and a shumai appetizer which he liked except for the sauce which he said was too salty. We’ll be back.

It’s okay. Everybody likes sushi, so this is a common place for my friends to go.
The décor is whatever. Kind of modern and dark, maybe a little bit cheap feeling, but this is not a fine dining establishment, so I don’t really care, even if you might.
The food is pretty decent. I’m used to the crummy ammoniated sushi Northwestern dining offers, so this tastes amazing in contrast, though I’m sure it’s not the best. If you’re famished, all you can eat sushi is a good deal. The non-​sushi items are tasty but again nothing special: it’s hard to get udon or teriyaki wrong.
Service is fine, sometimes it’s a bit slow, but I’m usually here with a large group of friends, so that might slow things down.

Great place! The atmosphere was very ambient and chill. The server was very attentive to us, great service. The food was above par and very well done. Would definitely come again, great place.

Great food, great entertainment. Had to wait a little long to be seated, but the wait was worth it!
I should probably mention that the hostesses were fairly disorganized and not exactly polite. There were 3 separate parties at our table and they gave us all one check. They also included gratuity, which seems a little odd since we’re all adults and know how to leave a tip. Oh well. To emphasize the disorganization, they seated one of the parties a full hour after their reservation. It made me feel better about the 30 min we had to wait.

I’m not really a sushi snob or anything, but having lived in Los Angeles and close to Little Tokyo for years, I’ve definitely been spoiled by the high quality of sushi there.
Ever since I moved to Evanston, I’ve been on the search for sushi that comes close to what I’ve had in Cali.
I’ve been to Todoroki few times for the AYCE sushi lunch deal. Overall, I’ve felt the price is worth all the sushi I’ve ordered with the group of people I’ve come here with. Lots of people on Unilocal have mentioned the low quality of sushi at Todoroki, but considering it to be AYCE, I don’t have high expectations. Honestly, I’ve never been blown away by sushi at any other AYCE locations.
Service is a tad bit slow here and I’ve definitely sat longer waiting than eating, but I make sure to order as much as possible for the first servings of sushi to come.
I really like how I can order non-​sushi dishes as well and soup is a must!

Waited 40minutes for a Gyoza. And after 10 more minutes our Hibachi is not coming yet. Worst ever.

Normally todoroki is a good place close by to get some decent Japanese food. However, this time we were EXTREMELY disappointed with the quality of service and food
The server messed up our order of egg sashimi and Nigiri. (We ordered 4 pieces of sushi in total so I don’t know how that is possible within an organized kitchen.)
The hot appetizers arrived after 45 minutes of ordering, but only after a reminder to the server at the 40 minute mark. The Gyoza came a little bit soggier than usual but the age Dashi tofu was good.
For the hibachi, the server did not ask any of us how our filet mignon or steak is to be cooked and they came out with a rubber-​tire texture. And one hibachi was not served at all, when I asked the server after waiting 10 minutes while watching my friends eat, a server came out asked whether there was a question. Ummm no? I’m just missing my food, that’s all. So after that the server came out and told me that they forgot about my order.
The quality of food was not worth the price we were paying. And I would really question if it was worth all the wait at all, since it took me an hour to wait to eat two appetizers.
Overall, if I could give a rating of zero I would have gladly given it without a thought.

The staff was nice and the little cooking show in front of us was quite entertaining. The food was ok i probably won’t go back only because my stomach wasn’t agreeing with their cooking but other than that i may come back to try the sushi or anything else

Alas, the true test of any business is how they deal with any issue that comes up. I’m going to state the facts here. Based on these facts, I give them three stars.
There were six of us that went to Todoroki on a Saturday night. My spouse and I arrived at 6:30pm. Two others arrived at 6:40. We all decided to go with the eat all you can menu. We ordered the appetizers first. Then at around 7:20, we submitted the sushi order. Our waitress came at 8pm to apologize and said that our food is being prepped. At 8:22, I asked the waitress about our order. She says it is still being prepped and she apologized. At 8:35, I asked our waitress for the bill to our drinks and appetizers because we’re all starving and we want to go across the street to eat at Joy Yees. She apologized and said the food is coming.
I stopped one of the male managers (not wearing the black uniform) and asked for the bill again. And he said he’ll ask his manager to help us out. A few minutes later, the female manager walks by and I asked for the bill. She apologized again and said that the food is coming. I mentioned that the table to my right came after us and they are already finishing up at this point. She said it is based on how our orders are submitted but she said she cannot do anything about it. Someone from my group asked for a discount because of the long wait. The manager apologized again and said she could make sure that the second batch will be prioritized but she can’t give us any compensation.
The sushi arrived at 8:46pm. I made a copy of our order. We asked the waitress to tell us what arrived. She noticed that our order is not complete. So we ate and waited for the rest of the order. Finally, the female manager arrived at 9pm to asked us how everything is. I replied that our order was incomplete. I reminded her that she promised our order would be prioritized and hoped she can do something about it. She apologized and left. The food came at 9:06pm. We ate and then my friends ordered a little more. While waiting for their sushis, our waitress came with two platefuls of dessert. They are fried bananas with ice cream which is absolutely delicious. When our bill came, they comped most of the sodas.
Overall, my anger dissipated toward the end of the evening but I wished the manager could’ve said something like she’ll see what she can do to appease us. I think they did try to do good but the response came too late. And that’s why I gave 3 stars for effort.

All you can eat lunch with a 18 $ price tag is not bad, but the quality of the sushi was extremely lacking. I’ve been here before and at that time, although the sushi wasn’t GREAT, it was decent and a good deal for a college kid.
But this last week their sushi was probably the driest fish I have ever had. I sent a picture of it to my friend (attached) and the first thing she said was «why is it so dry?»
But that being said, I probably still at 18 $ worth of their sesame balls.

To start off, the interior ambience is just amazing. It’s a great place to go on a date or with a small group of friends. Very well done environment. Both my friend and I went with the AYCE option and tried a variety of rolls and appetizers. The miso soup was very good and so were a few of the rolls — I can’t particularly remember their names. However, other rolls were subpar and tasted store bought. Overall, its a great place to go but it should definitely not be as pricey at dinner!

I haven’t had sushi is a long long time so decided to hit Todoroki with a couple of friends after an exam. In general, for Evanston, I’ll say that Todoroki is just ok.
We ordered from the lunch menu —
They have a Maki lunch special where you choose ²⁄₃ maki + 2 nigiri/​sashmi.
We did 2 of these and got a variation of the norm — salmon, tuna, spicy salmon, godzilla (similar to a dragon roll). For sashmi, we did salmon, tuna, ubi, and one more.
Quality wise, it’s alright. When you crave sushi, it hits the spot. The sashmi is cut pretty thinly and wrapped around a piece of herb. I think this is really wierd because I have to now unravel it to eat it. I suspect its to make it look like a bigger piece than it actually is.
We also got 2 bento boxes, chicken and steak. Both the proteins were pretty thin in the box. For ~13−14 bucks, I’d expect a bit more. There’s a ton of rice that came with it, which was a bit dry. It comes with a salad and a california roll. For that price, I would expect a bigger piece of chicken/​steak. It is amazing that they can cook a steak medium given how thin it is.
Again, the place isn’t great. I won’t be rushing back to it. It hits the spot when you need some sushi or if you want a sapporo.

At this place you get a great value for your money. The all you can eat sushi costs less than 20 bucks, and the fish is pretty good. Of course it’s not out of this world, and they put a lot of rice in the niguiris and rolls, but that is true for almost any all you can eat. And you get ebi and tako, not that usual for all you can eat!
Service is a bit slow, but polite.

As much as I like the idea behind Todoroki (AYCE, location, price, hibachi), I’m not sure that’s enough to compensate for what they lack: good sushi.

Oh god.
I wish people have high standard for sushi, or at least, know what sushi is. Coming from Los Angeles the sushi at Todoroki is just awful.
The nigiri are really pricy here and they don’t do a good job on the rice/​fish ratio (tiny piece of fish + large chunk of rice), nor do they use good sushi rice to enhance the sushi experience. Not only was the rice itself not up to the standard quality, the recipe they used to make the sushi rice was also on the sour side. The rice doesn’t stick together nicely.
Service is mediocre, on the slow side and the server had a straight face the entire time.
Rolls. aren’t. real. sushi.
Please up your nigiri game.
— — — — -
So they gave me a discount to tryna let me add another star. How about no. Good reviews can’t be bought.

Yet another fantastic experience!
we went for dinner with friends. The men in the group had the all you can eat-​and they definitely could! I had the chirashi which I love. The fish and rice were fresh and tasteful and their misu was wonderful. Service was very friendly and attentive even though the place was packed.
Todoroki, it was a pleasure as always!

Let me preface this review by saying: I think Todoroki is best when you order AYCE. Otherwise, prices can be a little steep.
For lunch, it’s a little under $ 20 and for dinner I think it’s around $ 25. I’m not going to say it’s the best sushi I’ve ever had, but it’s very good, especially for the price. It’s also BYOB and they don’t have a corkage fee. That, combined with AYCE, makes it a great place for group dinners or if you want to sit for a while and catch up. Service is usually pretty middle-​of-​the-​road, nothing remarkable. I have also done takeout once from Todoroki and they got our order completely correct and it was ready on time.
My favorites are the godzilla roll, the unagi nigiri and the spicy salmon roll. AYCE also includes salads and appetizers, including gyoza, fried chicken, house salad, seafood salad, edamame, soup, tempura, etc.
Overall, Todoroki great sushi at a reasonable price where you don’t have to pay for booze because you can bring your own. Which, all combined, is pretty hard to find.