Tokyou

Stopped by for the first time last week. I was looking for some ramen that doesn’t come from a small plastic sachet and Tokyou looked like it would work. Note that this place (like many Japanese restaurants) is a Chinese establishment, and a high proportion of their dishes are actually Chinese. Their Tokyou Ramen had a good broth, rich and a bit thick. It came with pork, shrimp, fishballs, and crab meat, and some good veggies (snow peas, carrots). The noodles weren’t the best (seemed more like a standard all-​purpose noodle than an proper ramen noodle).
The prices are really reasonable and the food came out super quick. I don’t know what happened to other customers in the past, but I found the staff to all be quite lovely. No problems on that end. I shall return.

Liverpool tem seus tesouros escondidos. Tipo Eldorado: tão impressionante que dá vontade de cruzar o mar só para encontrar.
O Tokyou é um restaurante de comida japonesa tradicional, com uma espera até nos dias de semana. Valeu a pena! Se tem uma coisa que eu não esperava comer, fosse em Liverpool ou qualquer outro lugar da Inglaterra, era comida japonesa. Pedimos uma chapa com yakisoba é frutos do mar. Para a entrada, alga.
As porções enormes serviam duas pessoas com fartura (até sobrou!) e tudo estava muito bem feito e saboroso.
Uma excelente pedida para as noites frias na cidade!

Epic noodle bar! I’ve been craving ramen now for 3 weeks and decided today that I needed to find a nice place for me and my lady. Tokyou was perfect, amazing food, huge portions, nice pot of green tea and for the two of us with a side and drinks we spent £12. :0 seriously recommend this place. It’s authentic eastern tastes remind me of when I travelled there.

I really did have high hopes for Tokyou.
As a relative newbie to Liverpool’s dining scene me and my other half decided to go for a wander around the city in search of a low key restaurant for a late Saturday evening meal. But what actually happened was a torrential downpour and a frantic half an hour running through the streets to find a restaurant that either — a) had a table or b) hadn’t become more bar than restaurant by that time of night.
This wasn’t easy, so when stumbling across Tokyou all the right signs were there: steamed up windows from the awaiting food, a dinky yet charmingly laid out restaurant and a small queue of people happy to wait for their grub.
The wait was pleasingly short and allowed us the chance to ogle the other diners choices, intrigued by the ‘Japanese set meal’ that we spotted being served in copious little bowls (I’m sucker for multiple miniature servings). We both chose this with miso and a main rice/​noodle dish of choice.
Service was fast, beer was cheap, but sadly the food just wasn’t that great and the overriding taste was SALTY. I’m no Japanese cuisine expert, so maybe we both made the wrong choice and some people do in fact enjoy brine for dinner.
Now I’m not writing Tokyou off, as lots of people around us were enjoying their meals. Other dishes on the menu looked absolutely gigantic and the prices are low. But for me it’s definitely more of a cheap and hassle free alternative to staying in and cooking rather than a reason to go out for a meal.

Tokyou is one of those places– Its the first place that would spring to mind if someone asked me where to eat in Liverpool. But also, I fear that one day, Tokyou will get too popular, too big for its own boots, and do something vulgar like expand. No. Never. Not my Tokyou. It is brilliant. Falling inside after a rainy shopping trip, to warm (and free) green tea. Always, always, order the soup with udon noodles. Japanese beer for under £3. An entire dinner for under £7 is a rarity today. Perfect, enough money for a gig or the cinema.

Definitely a 5star!!! great food at a great price big portions! Try the hot and sour soup and the duck and pork noodles NOMMMMmMMMM

If you want a fly in your food, please do not hesitate to visit Tokyos.

I wanted to love Toykou, I really did.
It’s a cute neighbourhood eaterie two minutes walk from Bold Street. It has big windows, warm wooden tables and a great bustling atmosphere. The menu is promising, the portions are generous and they have a great list of Japanese beers.
The problem is… the food. The crispy spring rolls, chicken terriyaki and chicken and sweetcorn soup all tasted pretty good but the mains we ordered were completely bland. The wok-​fried noodles with mixed vegetables tasted completely under-​seasoned and the chicken dish had half a dozen pieces of chicken floating in a sea of salty broth and congealed noodles.
Maybe we picked the wrong dishes? Or maybe the chef was having a bad night? Who knows.

I last came here in a month that ended with ‘-ember’ or possibly ‘-uary’. The only seat was by the door, so every time a new patron entered, I was treated to an icy Siberian wind whistling up my back, chilling my bones and turning my haemoglobin into something from Mr Frosty.
Despite this, I still enjoyed it. I loved the transient nature of the customers. This isn’t the kind of noodle bar to while away the hours in with long, reminiscing conversations. You come in, eat blandish food, drink lovely Oriental beers and then leave. It’s the closest thing Liverpool has to one of those shady eateries from Blade Runner.

Oh Tokyou. After hearing so many rave reviews about your dirt cheap noodle based cuisine, I came to you with an empty belly and a heart full of hope. What I got was tasteless, greasy stodge that left me with heartburn and an epic sense of disappointment.
Ever since I’ve moved to Liverpool, people have been telling me about the manifold joys of Tokyou — and anywhere which involves cheap noodles for no pounds will always spark my interest. So, when I came here, whilst I wasn’t expecting culinary miracles, I certainly wasn’t expecting what I got.
My Crispy Wontons were horribly greasy, and appeared to have been filled with small marbles of mystery meat. And my Japanese Katsu Curry tasted mostly of nothing — occasionally, I’d a quick hit of spice which would fill my heart with hope, but then it would fade away and all I’d be left with was salt and starch which (to this reviewer anyway) does not a satisfying meal make. On the plus side though, the service was efficient and friendly, and I managed to get change from a tenner — which is something I suppose.
Tokyou is the kind of place I know that I would have loved when I was a skint student, and this obviously the key demographic that it appeals to. But if you’re looking for something which isn’t just a big pile of carbs sprinkled with msg, you’re probably best off looking elsewhere.

The portions are mahoosive. The price is cheaper than chips. Literally oodles of noodles, the only problem is you get so much that it gets kind of boring before you see the bottom of the plate… I challenge you to finish it. (Great for those starved students).
The prawn toast and hot and sour soup. Yum. Also, take the tea, it’s great!
I personally love the window seats, if you want a quick snack on your own undisturbed it’s a good shout. However, it’s always busy and you have to grapple for seats and make yourself known otherwise you could be hovering about for quite a while (It’s kind of like musical chairs… see someone leave… dive in!)

This little oriental noodle bar/​takeout is a great place for a cheap, tasty lunch. I’m not really a big fan of noodles, or really all that fanatic about oriental food in general, but I do like to sample some of this cuisine now and then, and I was pleased with the food at Tokyou.
I had the sweet and sour chicken because I tend to always order on the safe side so I know I’ll get something that I like. It was tasty, juicy, and a very big portion for a really low price (less than £4 for a really big plate of food.) And it wasn’t greasy. I hate greasy Chinese food.
Service was excellent, from the waiters to the cashiers, and I was really pleased with the whole experience. Again, I’m picky about my oriental takeouts, so saying this one is good is actually worth more than the average Chinese-food-junkie’s opinion.

With exception to one or maybe two restaurants in the city, you are not going for fine dining when you opt for Chinese in Liverpool. Tokyou has therefore gone straight for the juggular of the market with big portions and cheap prices. Now certainly this is not always a winning formula as they are only a few steps away from Eat As Much As You Like Chinese Buffets, but to give Tokyou its due they have got it just right with a selsction of tasty soups and broths and noodle dishes.
This has lead to Tokyou being a very popular venue and without a reservation system often creates an irritating wait for seats or worse — going without. However there’s a sense of commaraderie — or smugness — for those who manage to make the selection process.

This is the best far east beast in town. I could eat the starters for the rest of my life.

Have eaten here a few times and each time my boyfriend and I say «we are not going back there». But we think maybe it will be better next time and it never is.
The last time we went the food was just salt with some food put in it. Absolutely awful. Haven’t been back since and definitely won’t be going back. Have sadly been disappointed with place far too many times to carry on wasting our money here.

Great for a quick and (very) cheap bite!
A lot of the dishes looked/​tasted the same to me, but you get a huge plate and good value for your price.

I absolutely love this place. It’s super cheap (huge portion for £4−5!) and usually lasts me 2 meals easily. They have a very extensive menu with all sorts of different Asian dishes, you can definitely find something of interest. I usually go here once a week and have never been disappointed.

I was walking my way through liverpool’s chinatown looking for a Saigon restaurant in search of a much needed bowl of phở after a 3 month withdrawal period, but unfortunately the Vietnamese place was no where to be found. Fortunately, Tokyou came to the rescue! The menu in the window looked promising and had RAMEN! My 2^nd favorite type of noodles. However i imagined it wouldnt be great considering it is the UK… i love the UK but the food is horrible haha. Anyway, I ordered the Tokyou ramen and Duck spring rolls. You had a selection of egg noodle, ramen, and another type of noodle i cant remember, served in miso soup. The duck spring rolls were amazing, crispy, tasty, and freshly prepared with no signs of staleness from the duck. When the noodles came, the soup was no where near miso, more like a cantonese wonton soup base and the noodles were also not ramen, they looked like ramen but tasted more like cantonese egg noodle. However the not-​so-​ramen ramen was quite tasty, it had bits of asparagus, fish balls, chasiu, and artificial crabsticks. Oh and did i mention the menu is CHEEEEEEP and portions are huge! Great for the students in the area looking for a filling meal at a reasonable price. The orders of the other patrons looked very good as well. I’m confident i’ll be going back quite alot as im here for a week.

How I walked past this place everyday for weeks without noticing it is beyond me. Then again, the windows get so steamed up, you can’t really see inside anyway. Behind the fog is a tiny noodle bar where you can get a lot of delicious food (and here’s the important part) cheap. They have Japanese and Chinese dishes, plus some of my favorite Japanese beers. Just be sure to get there early since there is always a line to be seated. You have to time your entrance based on the progress the diners at the tables are making because otherwise you could end up with one of the seats at the bar against the front window, where you get ignored by wait staff and elbowed by hungry patrons waiting to be seated. It’s not the staff’s fault these seats are awful, they just can’t see you behind the line of people eagerly waiting to stuff their faces full of noodles.

One of the best restaurants I have been to in a long time — here you can eat out for cheaper than a takeaway most of the time. You can drink free green tea to keep costs down too. Portions are big and cheap. Food is really fresh, tasty and not overcooked. None of the brown gravy gloop you get in a lot of chinese places. Healthy japanese menu too if you are ‘being good’ on your night out. Would recommend 100% but just hope not too many people discover it as I don’t want to have to queue!

Fantastic food, huge portions and a nice informal setting. Great bottled beer tsingtao!