Tono Sushi

First time having take-​out here. It’s across the street from my work in Chelsea so stopped by quickly for an Unagi Roll (eel, avocado, cucumber). Eel was extremely measily and thin, rice just wasn’t right (barely sticky). Taste was decent enough that I’d give them another try. First time around — not impressed.

I eat here 3+ times a week, fast, cheap and amazing

Now called «Sushi 21» with a board outside advertising some good sushi specials. I ordered the $ 10 special for 3 classic rolls with soup or salad. The place is clean and cozy. Service is fast. My sushi was good but was served in small pieces. Still, it’s a good place for fast fresh, cheap sushi

I would have given them 4 stars because the food is actually good. I have been eating here since they opened but the last time I went they told me they no longer accept American Express. I told them that was the last time I would go, because I write all my expenses off with the card. Too bad for them, don’t they know I can walk just a few blocks and find a sushi place that’s just as good? –No Amex equals no business people.

Review for the sushi only. Perhaps the udon really is good, but if what your named after is a disaster, can’t say I’m coming back to try anything else.
Fish all tastes bland — like it’s the same tasteless white fish maybe dyed various shades of pink & red to approximate salmon, tuna, et al. Even the basics are tasteless and lackluster presentation.
Service is fairly slow, which is not a big deal, but kind of like ‘oh, you’re here? guess we’ll serve you.‘
green tea overpriced for neighborhood take-​out joint.

Meh, I’m such a Nobu/​Morimoto/​Bond St sushi whore. Anyway sometimes you crave sushi and don’t want to travel. One extremely cold day, some childhood friends came over and we wanted sushi and decided to try out this place. Had some sake to start which was decent. I ordered chicken tempura to start which was a big portion for super cheap and was pretty yummy. I then had a spicy crunchy tuna roll (which tasted decent– it’s the safest bet at a place you don’t know, usually is always decent), a philedelphia roll (which was also decent) and white tuna sashami which tasted extremely fishy, so I didn’t eat more than one piece. This place is cheap but I would only come here if I wanted Japanese/​sushi and was extremely lazy. Not a spot to add to the regular rotation but not bad, just stick to hot food and overly dressed rolls.

Wow, the food and service is pretty horrible. The waitress was rude and lacked people skills. We tried to joke around with her a bit because someone in our party was taking a bit long to decide what he wanted, and she did not even crack a smile to be polite! Hopefully she didn’t spit in our food, but it was just bad, fake sushi, probably made by Chinese people. Won’t be coming here again. The lunch special wasn’t even a good deal, $ 10 per plate on average.

They really have to rename this place Tono Udon, because I hear terrible things about the sushi.
The Beef Yaki Udon was amazing and the décor is so cute! Perfect dim lighting, small sushi bar in front, cozy booths, and soothing down tempo electronic music pulsing in the background. A nice low key neighborhood spot to catch up with friends.
What we ordered:
Chicken Katsu Udon $ 7.00
Beef Yaki Udon $ 12.00
Shrimp Tempura $ 7.00
Avocado Salad (with crab stick, tobiko, & ginger dressing) $ 6.00
At $ 7.00 an entrée, this place costs a little more than a Burger King! How is that possible?

Probably more like 3.5 stars but I’ll give them the extra half. I come here strictly for the lunch special – 2 rolls and soup or salad for less than $ 9 including tax. I don’t think the 2 roll special is advertised on their menu (it’s a special take-​out deal) but it’s awesome and always hits the spot when I’m craving sushi. The interior looks nice enough for a sit-​down meal, but I’ve never taken the time to do so since my office is around the corner.
Minus a star for nickel and dime-​ing customers. $ 1 for spicy mayo on the side… annoying. I can make my own, thanks. But overall, a solid place for sushi lunch to go.

I got the bento box, salmon teriyaki to go.
And here’s what i thought.
Food was good. I’ve had better sushi and japanese food in general but for the prize ($ 10) you get a great deal! The salmon came battered and fried which was unexpected. Not bad, just unexpected. The teriyaki sauce was meh.
Service was great. The place looked kinda cute.
Oh, my coworker had the 3 roll special from this place and she complained for 5 mins of stomach ache. But then she was good. Thank god – the office is too small.

Tono is definitely one of those if-I’m-in-the-area-craving-sushi-and-have-no-choice type of place. Came here before a performance as a recommendation from the friend I was seeing the show with. The place is cute with a little alcove in the back that’s perfect for a big group… and I know this because we were originally seated there next to a what had originally started off as 4 girls, then their party grew by the minute. Come to find out they were celebrating an engagement so as the party grew so did the noise level… I mean high pitched «oh my gawwwd it’s beautiful!» Don’t get me wrong, I’d do the same thing if it were my friend but it wasn’t so we opted to move to a booth where I could talk to my friend and not fight over the high pitchedness.
Ok back to the point.Tono. The food isn’t anything special. They do have a very large sushi roll menu… but the quality of it was ehhh. We started with the tuna tartar but I could tell from the first bite that it was the lower quality tuna or the leftover bits. We shared the spider roll, crazy roll and spicy tuna roll. I’d pass on the crazy roll next time… nothing crazy about it… HA!
The good thing about this place is that they don’t rush you. We sat and talked for a good hour before we actually put in our order. And they have a decent happy hour — ½ off sake and wine. Hot sake was good but can’t really complain when its half off.

The Lunch Special is massive. I had to split it up into three meals.
The Vegetable Tempura Bento Box was good. Not the best in the world, but it was only $ 7.50. My coworker loved her Chicken Katsu. She thought it was «light and fluffy» which doesn’t make much sense to me, it being chicken… but I’ll take her word for it. (You should too)
Judging by the California Roll in my Bento Box, the rest of the sushi is probably pretty standard. High end grocery store style, great when you’re craving it and cheap enough to not complain about.

It seems from other people’s reviews that Tono is a clear Plan B or Plan C on any given night. My friend and I were supposed to go to another restaurant in the area, but it was too crowded. Elmo seemed a bit too much for us as well, so we happened upon Tono.
Its a very small restaurant, with perhaps 5 booths that could each fit 4 people max, as well as some space at the sushi bar. I assumed that if the place was quieter, you’d be able to get your food faster! Incorrect. It took a decent while for it all to come out, and they also forgot our Gyoza (but by the time I realized, I was well full)
Its all other redeeming factor was that its rolls/​dishes felt much cheaper — the quality wasn’t there much, but overall my friend any I play $ 27 each for a large meal.
Not a place I’d recommend, but if you must go, its probably not the worst thing in the world.

I really want to like this place more. It’s pretty cute and it’s very close to my apartment. But seriously, this is pretty mediocre food for not that good a price. I mean, I guess the 3 roll special for 10 bucks is alright… but my eel roll had almost no eel in it, and the portions were in general really small. The ramen that I got another night was the most disappointing thing ever. basically tasted like what I could have made myself at home, except with broth that tasted worse.
I will search for another sushi place in my hood.

This place has an amazing lunch special, if you can manage to secure a seat. It’s tiny inside, and once the wait was estimated at 20 minutes for three of us (when there was a couple at a booth and at least two two-​seat tables open – bad decisions, waitstaff).
The Three Roll Special is your choice of any three sushi rolls, so you end up with about 18 – 20 pieces, and it’s only $ 10. It’s a lot of sushi at a very low price. I had to take some back to the office with me and eat throughout the day. It’s a tough life.
Of course, there are other lunch specials too, including bento and don. All specials come with a salad or miso soup – fairly typical.
There’s not much else to say, other than take advantage of the lunch special. Does it warrant a return visit for dinner? Probably not.
And I hope you like pop music of the late 90’s persuasion. It’s all Backstreet Boys, B Spears, and Mandy Moore up in there.

I randomly stumbled upon a Tono Sushi menu sitting on one of my coworker’s desks. After pilfering it and seeing a really nice lunch menu, I knew I had to get something. Called there and ordered the katsu don. $ 7 — how could that be bad. Swung by ten minutes later and picked up my food.
Seven dollars gets you a fair miso soup and a huge bowl of katsu don. Like, huge. And it was pretty good, actually. Nice flavors and all. Admittedly it’s not directly Japanese — it was creamier than normal and had onions, in a sort of donburi style — but it was still nice on an absurdly cold day. I’d probably go back for lunch.
Oh yeah. Seven dollars.

I had high hopes for Tono Sushi because it got a glowing recommendation from a particularly picky friend. While home sick on a Friday, I figured I’d order in – what a weird experience. The woman who answered was literally impossible to udnerstand and the weird echoes & static made it sound as though she were talking to me from, you know, Japan, or something. The gist of our convo was that she asked me to call back in five minutes. Annoying. And when I did, a guy answered, only to tell me that they don’t delivery before 5:00 p.m. Put that on your Web site somewhere!!!
Anyway, I ordered delivery another day (after 5:00, of course) and ordered the chicken ka prao and the mango sticky rice. It arrived fairly promptly but the deliveryman refused to come up and deliver it to my unit, so I went down to get it. Annoying strike two. The food was leaking all over the soggy paper bag. Annoying strike three. And it came with chopsticks instead of utensils, which is udnerstandable but annoyed me nonetheless.
Whining aside, my entrée was really good and very flavorful. The basil sauce was one of the better I’ve had in the district, but I didn’t like that the dish came with green beans, which weren’t listed in the menu description and really messed with the taste of an otherwise stellar meal. The sweetness of the beans threw off the spice and the basil — a very weird combo. However, the chicken was white, smooth & looked appetizing (I’m picky about meat!!!), so good news there.
The sticky rice was OK, but it was more hard than sticky. I liked that it came with a side of cocnut milk so that I could make it as sweet/​wet as I wanted, but I wish it’d been a little softer/​sticker to begin with; it felt like pasta that had been sitting out for awhile, if that makes sense. It did taste good, though.
I’ll try it again. I’d like to go to the actual restaurant. The food was good, despite my delivery woes, and it’s definitely worth a shot.

I started going to this japanese sushi restaurant because my college was nearby (SVA holla!). It was reasonably priced and had good portions — pretty nice for college kids. Also, it was conducive for a group of 5 or 6 people to hang out before a movie or something.
Graduating did not stop me from going. When going out, we’d still frequent the place and partake in the deliciousness.
it’s run by asians, not necessarily japanese but they do a good job with making food on the spot and serving it up quickly. It’s a order at the counter type place and you get a tray after they call you. People are straight forward, and the place is clean.
Not Buckingham Palace by any means but it’s a nice enjoyable experience that I would especially recommend for meeting up with friends for a semi-​quick meal before a movie or something.

The other night I wanted to have Indian in the East Village, but my friend talked me into going for cheap Japanese in my neighborhood of Chelsea at Tono Sushi. I had actually eaten here a long time ago, before it’s makeover. I didn’t like it then, but I didn’t hate it either. It was cheap, fast and it knew what it was. Now, it looks a little nicer but still serves the same cheap food for twice the price. I ordered an iced-​tea and they served it to me in the same can I once paid $ 1 for and charged me $ 2.50! Had some sushi, which I swear made me sick, and my udon chicken noodle soup tasted fishy! In addition, they brought out the food in no order, just when it was ready. My friend was half finished his entrée, before I even received my sushi.
All I really need to say about this place, is she is the same tired cheap girl as before her new party dress, but she is no longer worth what she is charging:)

If there comes a time in your life when the following description — «On the go; not quite sure what (or where) to eat; not in the mood for anything in particular; not looking to impress anyone; into sushi; on 7^th Avenue between 20^th and 21^st» — fits you perfectly, do yourself a favor and stop into Tono. It’s no-​fuss, no-​muss, fast-​food-​style sushi, ready to eat, or ready to go wherever you’re headed. It’s a small place, easy to miss, so you’ll look pretty sushi-​savvy as you duck in for a quickie.
Not in too much of a rush? Then wait the extra five minutes it takes to prepare the shumai (Japanese dumplings) and gyoza (wonton-​wrapped pork). Trust me: you’ll thank me. (I accept cash and gift certificates.)