Tokyo Lunch Boxes & Catering

This place is one of my favorite hole-​in-​the-​wall restaurants. I go at least once a week– huge fan of their U-​dong and shrimp shumai. Very filling at a low cost. Line goes quickly and the staff is super friendly!

I may have had unreasonably decent expectations for this place. Pork ramen was undersalted although the noodles were appropriately chewy, the broth was rich, and the toppings were good. A bigger let down was the beef teriyaki bento box — the meat was measly chopped bits covered in a darker brown version of the ginger salad dressing rather than real teriyaki glaze or sauce. The sushi were two almost dry California rolls. My mom liked the salad enough to eat it all before I tried any but it didnt’ seem that special. I do like the option to swap in brown rice for a $ 1 instead of white and the rice was not bad. But it should be hard to mess up rice!
I am disappoint.

Expensive and gross sushi. Maybe the hot lunches and soup are better but the sushi was very bland. A sushi roll and shrimp shumai came out to $ 15… Look elsewhere if you’re looking for a deal. Also there are no menus but one small one on the wall making it hard to know what is available for order. I won’t come back.

If you need a quick lunch, and are craving something inexpensive, a-​la cart and fast. This place is solid.
It’s lacking in atmosphere and ambiance, but the food is decent. And there’s definitely an international quality about dining in. During the summer you’re better off ordering it to go and finding a nice play outside to eat, like Grant Park.
Their spicy soup is good, addictive for sure. If your friends are vegetarians they might not have the most options though, fried tempura seemed about it.

Pretty decent shrimp udon noodle soup. Though I think it’s a bit salty, made me very thirsty afterwards. But I would still recommend this place. It’s cool they have a buy one get one free deal on their sushi after 3:30pm.
Tried the miso soup, not the best… tasted a bit burnt.

Been eating there three times a week for over three months now. Consistently good sushi. Prices are fair. Service is quick. And the lady working the register is amazingly sweet. Other than my last opinion, those are the elements of a great, urban sushi lunch spot and this place hits them all.

Love this place! The vegetable rice soup is awesome and for $ 2.00, you cannot beat it!!! The sushi is very good as well. My fav’s are the Rainbow Roll, and the Honeymoon Roll. he people who work there are always friendly and welcoming. I try to stop her at least once a week, sometimes more depending on my schedule. If you are in the Jackson/​Wabash area, check it out!

Recently, I used Tokyo Lunch Boxes & Catering to cater a special International Day event at my job. I am very satisfied with my service. The two sushi trays I ordered arrived ahead of schedule. They looked beautiful and were fresh, delicious and everything I’d hoped for. I only had a little bit of the sushi. It was very popular and all of it was eaten quickly. We probably should’ve ordered another couple of trays. I thought the price was a little steep but that’s my opinion of sushi in general. Tokyo Lunch Boxes & Catering definitely has competitive prices. The only real negative was placing the order. They don’t have catering menus or details about catering services at the restaurant locations. You have to call the main office and the people who work there have very thick accents. I stressed out worrying if my order would be correct or if I’d be overcharged. In the end everything turned out fine but they should hire someone to handle catering clients with a clear speaking voice.

I had been looking forward to try Tokyo Lunchbox for a while and when I finally tried it I was terribly disappointed. I feel like I didn’t even eat anything that’s how bland my meal was :(
I ordered
Miso soup
the Maki pre made Combo.
First off the Miso Soup, I’ve had Miso soup plenty of times but the smell and taste of this soup was odd and not what I was expecting. I couldn’t even make a dent in eating this soup. So it sits unfinished at my desk. I couldn’t take myself to throw it out yet since I just spent money on it.
Maki pre made Combo. I should have read the previous reviews first before getting the pre made maki. It was bland and it didn’t help that the young lady at the counter only gave my one soy sauce packet which I didn’t know this until I got back to my office. One little pack is not enough. I would say next time I’ll ask for more soy sauce for unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be making a trip back anytime soon.
Maybe they have a few other items that are better at Tokyo lunchbox but I feel I just wasted my money :(
*Stomach still growling for some good food*
*Update* Nothing has changed here. A Co-​worker just had some California Rolls and buy one get one free, a few days ago. I warned him. He didn’t take heed and when he got home the rice was crunchy in his California rolls. How do you mess up RICE?

Great place to pick up lunch to eat at your desk. Super fresh sushi and very filling.

Run in get what I want then run out for 7 years! Great place! I always get the seaweed salad and sashimi plate. I had the squid salad and salmon teriyaki. The place is clean and the staff friendly.

Taste: ²⁄₅
Location: 4.5÷5
Cleanliness: ⁴⁄₅
Ambience: 3.5÷5
Value for Money: ²⁄₅ (Price, given the Food Taste)
Service: ³⁄₅
Overpriced, small portion, bland taste.
There are so many other restaurants nearby that are much more worth your bucks.

Both sushi and selection not as good as other Tokyo locations.
The sushi selection in terms of the nigiri is not great, most of the stuff is rolls. The quality of the rolls are okay meaning edible, but really not great. There are a few other Tokyo’s within blocks. I would recommend walking a little father and getting better sushi.
Very small on the inside, only about 5 – 6 seats.

I really enjoy Tokyo Lunchbox because after 3pm it is buy one get one free. Being a college student on a budget this works out well for me, especially on Tuesday or Thursday after class. The last time I went, however, was on a Monday and it was NOT good. I tried to eat as much as I could of the California roll before admitting to myself it was not as fresh as the sticker said, (9am that morning.) My assumption was that it was left over from Friday or Saturday, and a new sticker was just put on top that Monday morning. I couldn’t stomach it. I’d never had that experience with them before (again, having only gone midweek.)
I would have given 4 STARS based other experiences. but I was put off enough that I don’t think I want to go there anymore. Which is too bad, because overall I really liked it.
The other locations (like the one on Van Buren seemed reliable) so I’m going to give it 3 STARS, but if it was solely based on the Jackson location, I’d give it 2 STARS because I really will not eat there again.

Decent place for a quick lunch. Try the udon noodles with tempura veggies, plus for an extra dollar you can get four pieces of California roll style sushi on the side. The offer buy-​one-​get-​one on their make after 3pm. The food is good, though not stellar, and just right for the price.

Since the dawn of human history, primitive man has been magnetically drawn to fire. Long before developing facility with dialing rotary telephones, writing their name on paper, and sending event invites on Facebook, humanity has taken great joy out of cooking food and huddling around fire to keep warm at night, though over the millennia our attention span for staring blankly and wordlessly into leaping flames has much diminished.
Some 400,000 years after humanity learned to control fire, Tokyo Lunch Box offers a sushi roll called «Fire Works.» Like my primitive ancestors before me, I am very much drawn to the fire involved in preparing this dish. Immediately upon placing my order, a tall Latino man procures a blowtorch and (gently) burns the hell out of a crunchy roll containing shrimp, tuna, caviar, and three «special sauces.» I can see by the crazed look in his eye and the excessive use of the blowtorch that he really enjoys playing with fire. Likewise I very much enjoy watching this.
Almost as much as I enjoy eating the finished product, which tastes light and fresh with a distinct carbon undertone.
Can’t say I’m blown away by the other choices here– decent for take-​out sushi, but not so great if you’ve been spoiled by some of Chicago’s finer sushi restaurants. There’s also a 2 for 1 deal after 3:30 PM, which makes sense. But there’s really no need for these other options. Why not have fire, when you can have fire?

Tokyo lunch box is pretty great. Sometimes, when you’re on the go (or stuck in the loop, like I often found myself for a couple years) you don’t want something that tastes like you’ve compromised. Have you ever had sushi from a grocery store? It tastes like paste. This is not that sushi. Every roll I’ve had at Tokyo lunch box has been yummy, and more importantly, fresh. The greeter behind the counter always offers you samples of the chef special, too (it’s a delicious cooked roll called «fireworks», or something). So even if you don’t go with sushi, you still get a little bit.
Awesome, right?
While the menu is pretty sizeable for a lunch-​counter/​to-​go style joint, the main attraction, for me, is their Udon. Namely the veggie tempura variety (with «spicy on the side” — trust me on this one). $ 7 gets you a HUGE steaming bowl of the good stuff, and when you’re a broke college kid, you really appreciate this sort of thing all the more. They also do this buy one get one half price sushi thing an hour before they close which is a great idea, but since they close so early (4 PM, I believe) I rarely partake in that odd too late for lunch, yet too early for dinner sort of deal.
Oh, and while temptingly cheap and ready to grab and go, skip the gyoza. They’re greasy and kind of weirdly hard.

I’m not the most adventurous eater, so I always get the chicken teriyaki bowl with brown rice. But for six bucks it’s a great meal! White meat chicken breast slices, fresh spinach, mushrooms and carrots and fried tofu. It’s big enough to eat half for lunch and leave a bit for an afternoon snack. See the picture I added for proof!
The décor leaves something to be desired, but I always take it to-​go. The staff is very friendly, especially the guy who takes orders. They always offer a piece of the «chef’s special» for free (I think it’s always the same special, a roll with shrimp tempura), which satisfies my roll carving without me having to buy a whole one.

Check out the menu online before you head in there. The layout isn’t that of a typical restaurant. There are chefs putting out individual rolls on top of the first counter — those are free samples… ask for a piece! Then there are little boxes all lined up underneath the counter with all of their various food choices. Read the box, each is priced accordingly. If you want the u-​dong noodle soup, you ask for it at the cashier.
Though a little confusing, the place accomplishes what it’s supposed to do. Quick, reasonably priced, ‘lunch boxes.’ But, come for the soup (which comes in a HUGE container), not the sushi. I got ken’s u-​dong (which sounded kinda dirty to me, but whatever). It had beef, chicken, a shrimp tempura and vegetables. For an extra dollar I got 4 pieces of California roll. You have to order the noodle soup spicy, it gives it that extra kick it needs.
It was good, but unless I’m within a couple blocks and have an unscratchable itch for soup… I probably won’t make it back anytime soon.

Met my brother here for lunch one day — spicy shrimp soup and a few pieces of sushi.
The menu/​ordering system is incredibly confusing. Streamline that, people!
The soup, however, was delicious, and a GIANT bowl. I love soup for lunch, so I’ll come back when in the area.