Tokidon: Raising Beef Bowls to a Whole Gyu Level

Alright, let’s cut right to the chase: For $23.90, Tokidon’s Truffle Wagyu Don is crazy good. The earthiness of truffle is released with every bite, working impeccably with a grade six steak like a pas de deux on the tongue. Throw a tiny bit of foie gras to the mix and you have a flavour threesome. Holy cow, I couldn’t hold back the approving moans and the urge to run out of the restaurant getting every passerby to give it a go.

Here’s a fair warning – if you intend to try anything else, eat those first. I made the mistake of tasting the truffle Wagyu bowl ahead of most other things, and like an ex you can never forget, it lingers. Even when you’ve moved on, you find yourself wistfully reminiscing the joy each bite brought.

Still, I have to move on.

Unlike the other boring food establishment in the same basement, Tokidon, a fast-casual concept brought to us by sake gastro bar Kabuke, attracts you with its psychedelic Ready Player One charm, complete with neon colour scheme and lights. Even if you didn’t take the escalator from the entrance along Collyer Quay (which brings you right to Tokidon), just look for the craziest looking restaurant.

The signature here is, of course, their truffle Wagyu selection of five beef rice bowls. Each bowl comes with an onsen egg, so do make sure you mix it in before digging in. It binds everything together and lends a creamy texture.

If you find rice abhorrent, there’s also the soba or salad bowl options. But there’s only one way to enjoy the bowls – that is, with rice – because it soaks up the flavour like no soba or salad leaves ever would.

There’s also a Salmon Cha Soba bowl in case you have some beef with beef, but what are you doing here having salmon?!

In case the bowls aren’t filling enough, there are sides available. Of note are the Ebi Fried Skewer and Tori Karaage Skewer, as the textures hardly remind you of any other ebi fry or tori karaage that you’ve eaten before, but in a good and refreshing way.

There’s also a great deal going on: from 4pm to 9pm, order ten beers or five cups of sake and enjoy one hour of free-flow karaage! It’s a cow-culated move to draw in the crowd.

Wash everything down with a hot bowl of Wagyu Suji Miso Soup. You’ll find morsels of surprises in there. The off-cuts of wagyu left over from making the bowls are used to make the soup, adding depth to the miso soup’s umami flavour.

The steaks are high for other don joints now that Tokidon has made quality truffle Wagyu beef bowls affordable. It’s so good that it is the only food you can think and talk about for days after.

Tokidon
16 Raffles Quay #B1-33
Hong Leong Building
Singapore (048581)

Tel: 9151 9572
Website: https://www.tokidon.com/

Photos courtesy of Tokidon