Toko Melbourne

Walking into Toko on a Friday night doesn't just feel like you're entering an import of a Japanese resto-bar from Sydney; it feels like you're walking into Surry Hills, Sydney. The beats. The lights. The beautiful people sitting at the bar eating sushi or subsisting on fruity cocktails. It's the sort of place where what's going on around the plates seems as important as what's on them.

This clubby, coiffed izakaya​ where elegant design meets fashion food is one of a group of four restaurants – Toko in Sydney and Dubai, and Tokonoma, also in Sydney. You couldn't have picked a more appropriate spot than the old Fog restaurant on Greville Street. This huge venue, replete with outdoor courtyard, has always drawn a crowd equally hungry for action as food, and Toko has seamlessly filled that space. 

There's vibe here, no doubt about it. You'll need to arrive by 6.30pm or earlier if you want to get one of the spotlit tables, separated by bronze-y partitions, but don't want to wait. Then again, there are significantly worse places to be left in purgatory than the separate bar to the back. 

Hot tip: the cocktails here are decent if you like yours long and fruity; there's black and regular Asahi and sake, too, but the Japanese whisky collection is not only impressive (Nikka's punchy Taketsuru 12 is one of the best things coming out of Japan), it's about to become endangered. Japanese whisky demand has skyrocketed in the last five years, meaning you won't see much more of the Hakushu 18 or Yoichi 15 past next year. Get them while you can.  

The menu is a vast thing you might need help navigating, and waiters do a decent job of recommending dishes they genuinely like over what's popular. Small plates give way to tempura and sushi, all chased with a double-page bill of things that you can get singed over charcoal.

Toko sometimes tends towards the more is more mentality, which isn't necessarily a bad thing when drinking is clearly part of the party. 

Golden-skinned gyoza​ packed with shredded wagyu have an extra richness that's nicely countered by a mustard and white miso dressing.

The Moreton Bay bug tempura, crisp nuggets of bouncy flesh wrapped in a light batter, replace fried chicken as the go-to beer snack. The vegetarian version offers whole bunches of enoki​ mushrooms and yams in the mix, served with light dashi for dipping. 

The extra hits of salt, sugar, Kewpie mayo and yuzu-driven dressings that form a common theme, often help achieve cut-through on a beer-dulled palate.

It's sometimes indelicate too. Venison carpaccio is a dish of many ingredients, thoroughly gussied up with nashi pear and potato airbags – airy bits of crunch that look a little like spatzle​ – but it's all yuzu in flavour. 

On the flip side, sushi chefs prepare very straight sashimi – bracingly fresh salmon, tuna, kingfish and snapper, fanned over bowls of ice dressed with big leaves. It's a matter of adding soy and wasabi for extra kicks. There are fatter, flashier hand rolls exploding with soft shell crab, but little in the way of fin or belly for die-hard fans.

You can, however, summon the kingfish collar from the grill and you should. Rarely ordered and not always available, the meat from around the head is buttery soft, the sweetest, richest part of the fish, lifted with a sweet teriyaki glaze. The salmon fillet hits the fatty, smoky, miso sweet notes, and lamb chops take on all the particular qualities of the charcoal grill. It's punched up a gear with the pow of chilli miso sauce. 

Whether you'll find those chops worth $10 a pop (a "large shared plate" consists of three) will say a lot about whether this restaurant is for you. The value is tied up in the experience.

If you're after delicate, restrained and refined, save your pennies for Minamishima​. If you want a party, Toko provides.

Pro tip Try those whiskies – you won't be able to by next year
Go-to dish  The grilled kingfish collar is buttery soft, $14.80
Like this? Another Sydney import, Sake on Southbank has a similar disco sushi vibe, 100 St Kilda Road, Southbank

How we score
Of 20 points, 10 are awarded for food, five for service, three for ambience, two for wow factor.  
12 Reasonable 13 Solid and satisfactory 14 Good 15 Very good 16 Seriously good 17 Great 18 Excellent 19 Outstanding 20 The best of the best