woah
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Quite common in many unagi specialist restaurants in Japan (not all I’m guessing) and some jack of all trade washoku restaurants that offer quality unagi set meals as a side dish. Some attention to detail in the execution can really elevate the customer experience. And quite perfect with the right sake too.
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had that at mori! delish!
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Good news! Eel omelette, available on the Toku menu, $38.
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Yike$$$! But glad to know!
Ok I’m going to dub this one Y-Maki or YUmaki
aka YOLO-Umaki. Gotta do it next time I visit!
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My meal here tonight was exceptionally good, thank you for introducing me to this place @J_L. Staff was professional and very courteous. Without a doubt the best eel dish I’ve had in L.A. I got the same set as you (this was a pic of my buddies lacquer box set). The “eel sauce” was subtle but also delicious and complex. Hojicha Ice cream was Incredible, I need a whole buckets worth of that stuff in my freezer.
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Belated thanks to @J_L for spotlighting this new place.
I went Sunday night for an early dinner. Excellent unagi and servers were warm and attentive. One hiccup I realized later was that they forgot to give me pickles with my Hitsubabushi unagi rice with tea set. Oh well, it’s in soft opening mode so that’s ok.
Since the unagi was going to take 30 minutes, I ordered a bunch of appetizers and small plates.
The roast duck breast was very tender, but true to traditional Japanese diner preferences, it was medium (I prefer it a bit rarer).
Out of curiosity, I also ordered Toku’s chawanmushi seafood steamed egg custard and it was full of a melange of the ocean’s bounty both raw and cooked. One of the counter chefs started beating eggs right after I placed my order. While it didn’t have the traditional ginkgo nut or Mitsuba leaf, it did have some sea bream within along with shrimp and was topped with uni and ikura. Very unique combo of bling bling ingredients befitting WeHo.
I spoke with the staff in Japanese during my meal and when they offered dessert, they told me they had matcha and hoji cha ice creams and a pannacotta. After mentioning to my server I had a hard time choosing, they told me the pannacotta was made in house and was a chef’s recommendation.
One of the counter chefs by the name of Makoto-san explained that since they’re an Unagi-ya, they use sansho pepper in the pannacotta’s sweet savory topping which is similar to the sauce used for the broiled unagi - it’s their signature dessert (it doesn’t appear on the menus in Japan and appears to be a U.S. only dessert). The cooked sansho peppercorns were soft and juicy with a bit of a kick, but not as intense as it’s Chinese cousin, the Szechuan peppercorn.
Like the entire meal, the dessert was very balanced in flavors taking care to not have the sweet savory soy based sauce overwhelm the sweet, light and creamy pannacotta cream (some other Japanese restos in SoCal serving unagi don or Hitsumabushi smother the eel with a cloyingly sweet and overly salty sauce). I think my server highly recommended this to me assuming I was familiar with Japanese sensibilities, but for the less adventurous I’d suggest ordering one of the ice creams and splitting a pannacotta between 2 people just to be safe. As for me, I’d definitely order the pannacotta again.
Can’t wait to go back to Toku Unagi again for ultra fresh broiled eel and other delicious dishes!
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Hi @foodshutterbug,
Thanks for the report and pics! 
This sounds wonderful.How did you like the Unagi overall?
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That sansho unagi tare panna cotta looks so good and out of the box creative, love it!
Haven’t really seen much in the way of sansho berries up here in Northern California and it’s really creative to see this with unagi tare to use in place of kuromitsu. What a fun way to present it also, French Pot de Crème!
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@Chowseeker1999 I’m more of an unajyu person, but decided to go with the Matsu $71 unagi over rice with tea set instead because I confirmed with the server it was the same amount of unagi as the Matsu unajyu (unagi over rice in lacquer box). For $3 more, the set comes with fresh wasabi, sliced green onions and a pot of kombu seaweed tea to pour over the rice (as shown in @J_L ‘s pix above). I was a bit skeptical, but when enjoying my 3rd and 4th bowls ochazuke/broth style, I was able to enjoy the textures and pure taste of the unagi even more.
That being said, I’m still eager to try the unagi over rice lacquer box style ‘cuz that’s what I grew up with as the offspring of a Tokyoite/Edokko. I would be looking for a bit more char resulting in stronger aromatics for the lacquer box version, but we shall see.
I checked out Toku’s online menus for its branches in Japan and they all offer osuimono clear soup with “kimo,” the unagi’s liver. I don’t know why it wasn’t offered when I went to the WeHo/Los Angeles branch, but I’ll probably inquire about it when I make my reservations in the future.
Up to this point, I’ve always been disappointed with all of the unagi donburi (eel over rice) I’ve had in SoCal restos - the premium stuff imported from Japan sold at Nijiya and Mitsuwa when they have it is better and I use it to make unagi rice bowls at home. However, Toku Unagi & Sushi in WeHo has certainly been a game changer for unagi, but given the $$-$$$ prices I’ll maybe go back to them 1-2x a year.
I’ve been told some of the high end fine dining restaurants in DTLA are kept afloat by the wealthy Asian families in San Marino and beyond and hopefully Toku can tap into that market as well as other groups.
@Chowseeker1999
PS: They offer 2 types of unagi, one from Aichi prefecture (“Take” level) and the other from Hamamatsu in Shizuoka prefecture with the latter being a higher grade and used for the levels of “Matsu” and “Tokujou” (“extra special” for larger portion of Hamamatsu eel).
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@beefnoguy Toku WeHo’s pannacotta would give some of the French and Italian dessert chefs in this city a run for their money, it was so silky and smooth.
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Hi @foodshutterbug,
Thanks for the info! Great to know they have 2 types of unagi as well.
And you can make unagi rice?! Awesome!
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I’m all over this! Uhhh I mean, I’m all over it now. I really need to keep up.
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Had dinner here last night. Tough location, but the food is very good to great. I guess my overall take is it’s not quite at the level of some of the best eel you get in Japan, but it’s close, and while the price is high, it’s sufficiently unique to justify high prices. In addition to the delicious eel and soup, I adored the sesame creme brulee and the sansho pepper panna cotta.
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Tried out toku the other night, thanks to @J_L for the rec. I couldn’t decide between the unaju and the hitsubabushi so… ooe it was.
positives
- the eel was soft and fluffy
- tare was nicely balanced
- rice was great
- loved the freshly ground sansho powder
- really liked the unique sansho panna cotta thanks @foodshutterbug
- friendly service
- free parking in the private garage
the overly critical negatives, only because they’re a specialist and the price
- when i asked about their live unagi the server said they get their unagi frozen from their farms in japan… uh i guess when their menu says “we only use live eel, kept on premesis, to maximise freshness, flavour and taste” they mean the eel was alive at some point in its life??
- gas grill, no charcoal in sight.
- eel wasn’t crispy or smoky
- no liver
- the eel portion in the unaju was ridiculously small, for the price it should at least cover all the rice
- qpr
giant clam and grated daikon
“extra special” hitsubabushi
takowasa
“take” unaju
sansho panna cotta
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I think the dealbreaker for me is the “no live eel.” I can have grilled frozen eel at my best friend’s house…and that comes charcoal-grilled.
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Most likely that eel is coming from China not Japan though. Not a lot of real Japanese unagi makes it to the US
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They could be lying of course but they insist there that it is all sourced from their own farms in Japan. A
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This was both funny 
and infuriating 
The lack of char was an issue for me as well, perhaps cooking a thawed raw product takes too long to grill?
At least you got a better complimentary side dish of giant clam and grated radish - all I got was boiled lotus root.
PS: Thanks for the shout out re pannacotta
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