About Me

Food is one of my many joys in life. It is a common bond I share among my friends and family. Combining food and travel makes it all the more interesting. I enjoy going out for a good meal with friends and family. The array of various cuisines and our fantastic array of produce really makes Sydney such a great city to live in. Blogging is my hobby and my posts on restaurant meals I have had are paid for and not gratis. Any gratis provided to me will always be stated beforehand.

Sunday, 9 November 2014

Tounoya (Eastwood, Sydney)

These days Eastwood is seriously buzzing as a food hub. And it has been happening in the past few years. Now it is a suburb predominantly filled with Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese eateries. For example there are 6 outlets selling BBQ duck, pork and other Chinese roast meats. And counting..

Recently a friend of mine mentioned there was a new Japanese restaurant in Eastwood replacing what was the shoe warehouse. I strolled by one evening and could see effort was made in furnishing the restaurant.

I decided to check it out for dinner with some friends and made an effort to book a table. A decision I made when I realised there was a queue to get a table during my stroll.

To the right of the restaurant are booths with a tablet on the wall for ordering our meal. To the left is a more open area with tables that can take a large group of people. The rear of the restaurant are 2 Karaoke rooms for those who want to exercise their vocal chords on a night out!


We were seated in one of the booths and was engrossed looking at the dishes on the very small screen. So we resorted to asking for a menu and then ordered on the tablet. Absolutely convenient!

Soft shell crab salad - the soft shell crab was nicely crunchy and topped with a slightly tangy Mayo sauce.

Unagi don - sorry but I didn't get a chance to take a photo but young B devoured the unagi and left all the rice for her Dad. I can only imagine how delicious it was.

Yakitori and Pork Belly grilled skewers - this was ordered from the Grill section of the menu. Of the 2 meats I preferred the Yakitori chicken, there was a nice and smokey flavour to the meat.


Sushi and sashimi mix platter - nice presentation. I found the sashimi of scallops, tuna, salmon, ocean trout, and eel to be quite fresh.

We also topped the sushi by ordering some ikura sushi and Tamago egg sushi rolls.


Chicken Karaage - this was one of my favourite dishes of the night. There were 2 sauce options to dip the chicken in. One had a touch of chilli and the other had a touch of mustard. The chicken was beautifully crunchy, tender and moist and when dipped with the mustard mayo was seriously delicious!



Cold soba - 3 of us ordered this dish and we loved it. It was perfect after a hot summer's day of 36 degree heat. I loved dunking the soba in the dipping sauce of soba tsuyu, with finely chopped spring onions and seaweed. It was cold, fresh and tasty! Yum!

We were also fascinated by the drinks on the menu. There was a drink for every day of the week and I liked the look of Wednesday which was called Amethyst. I found out later it was lychee juice, grapefruit and a bottled white liquid with a name I cannot remember but it starts with K.

As we sat there enjoying our meal, I could see a queue starting in the front for those who did not book a table. We enjoyed the experience of ordering from the tablet, the food and drinks came out very quickly and the service was very efficient.

Tounoya on Urbanspoon
Tounoya
169-171 Rowe Street
Eastwood
NSW 2122
Tel: +61 2 9007 1178
Facebook: TOUNOYA

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

9 comments:

chocolatesuze said...

i saw this place the other day, eastwood is changing so fast! the karaage looks awesome

Helen (Grab Your Fork) said...

Wow that's one massive transformation from a former shoe store!

Cindy said...

Hi chocolatesuze, I can't get over how busy Eastwood is these days food wise. I couldn't find a parking spot on a Friday night as everyone was there dining out!

Cindy said...

Hi Helen, yes, quite a transformation from a shoe outlet to a restaurant! :)

Leona said...

Whoaaaaa that looks pimped! Shows how long its been since I last paid a visit to eastwood!

Leona said...

Whoaaaaa that looks pimped! Shows how long its been since I last paid a visit to eastwood!

Cindy said...

Hi Leona, the food scene at Eastwood is definitely evolving!

ChopinandMysaucepan said...

Dear Cindy,

I walked past this place last week but was a little skeptical when all the staff including the sushi chef were talking loudly to each other in Mandarin.

Cindy said...

Hello ChopinandMysaucepan, lol! I still think you should check it out. My fave dish was the Karaage!