One of my favorite things about World Showcase in Epcot is all of the different types of food
you can find there. In one theme park there
is just about any cuisine you may be caving including Mexican, Chinese, French,
Italian (both pasta and pizza), German, Japanese (hibachi and sushi) and more!
This review is for one of those amazing Epcot restaurants –
Tokyo Dining. This World Showcase restaurant is located
in the Japan Pavilion above Mitsukoshi Department Store. You will first check-in to this restaurant right outside the store at a desk - be sure you're entire party is ready to go or else you'll have to wait until everyone is there to check-in! This one desk serves as the check-in location for both Tokyo Dining and Teppan Edo.
When you are paged, you then go upstairs to a second desk to check-in again and where you will wait again for your table. Up here there are plenty of benches for those waiting. Guests visiting Teppan Edo tend to wait longer than those visiting Toyko Dining. While you're waiting you can see through the wall and watch the sushi chefs at work.
Once we were seated at our table - unfortunately no where near the windows like I had requested (unfortunately you can't make reservations for certain tables and requests to be seated in a certain location are just that - requests). Our waitress was very friendly and prompt. And soon it was time to figure out what we wanted. But first - lets take a moment to appreciate the beauty of this menu.
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| The Tokyo Dining and Teppan Edo check-in desk. |
When you are paged, you then go upstairs to a second desk to check-in again and where you will wait again for your table. Up here there are plenty of benches for those waiting. Guests visiting Teppan Edo tend to wait longer than those visiting Toyko Dining. While you're waiting you can see through the wall and watch the sushi chefs at work.
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| View of the sushi chefs preparing sushi from the waiting area. |
Once we were seated at our table - unfortunately no where near the windows like I had requested (unfortunately you can't make reservations for certain tables and requests to be seated in a certain location are just that - requests). Our waitress was very friendly and prompt. And soon it was time to figure out what we wanted. But first - lets take a moment to appreciate the beauty of this menu.
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| The front cover of the menu at Tokyo Dining - definitely more detailed than your traditional menu! |
Tokyo Dining serves sushi along with other Japanese dishes. Here is their menu:
On the back of the menu is a little history of the Mitsukoshi Department store.
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| The history of Mitsukoshi.
My dinner companions and I came for the sushi. But first we
started with an appetizer, the tempura sampler.
It comes with one shrimp, a vegetable (a piece of carrot in our case) and a piece
of chicken fried in tempura batter.
These were very good but on the very small side. It made sharing a bit difficult since you
only get one piece of each. The ponzu
sauce that this appetizer comes with was very delicious.
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| The tempura appetizer. |
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| Tokyo Dining's sushi chefs. |
I ordered
the Volcano Roll. This was the table’s
favorite and my favorite as well. I loved the tempura crunch and
the fish was high-quality, sushi grade fish that I was beyond pleased with.
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| The Volcano Roll. |
I also ordered a side of the beef fried rice and I wasn't impressed with it. The rice lacked in favor and I'm used to having fried rice with some vegetables, egg and some protein in it and this one was just rice. This did make the baby very happy so not all was lost!
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| The beef fried rice. |
My friend ordered the Dynamite Roll. This roll was also very good and the wasabi mayonnaise under the roll packed quite a punch – it was made with very fresh wasabi. This was theme of the sushi rolls we received – it was all very fresh!
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| The Dynamite Roll. |
My other dinner guest ordered the Philadelphia Roll, the Spicy Roll and the Spicy Crunch Roll. He enjoyed all of these and also noted how fresh the fish was.
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| The Philadelphia Roll, the Spicy Roll and the Spicy Crunch Roll. |
Unfortunately this visit we were way too full to order dessert, however, in the past the Green Tea Mousse Cake has always been a crowd favorite!
Another reason I love going to Tokyo Dining is for the
amazing fireworks view. Most of the restaurant tables doesn’t have a view of
the fireworks. However, if you leave your table during the fireworks and go out
on to the restaurant balcony or go down the stairs – you’ll have one great
view (and this is very common at most Walt Disney World restaurants - just let your server know!)! Another bonus of watching the fireworks here is that Japan is rarely crowded for IllumiNations –
and I’m not sure why because the view is fantastic!
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| View of IllumiNations from outside Mitsukoshi Department store in the Japan Pavilion. |
What do you think? Have you ever dined at Tokyo Dining at Epcot? What were your thoughts? Let me know!
