7.5/10 on the quick tasty lunch scale
Perhaps my all time favourite episode of Seinfeld (yes, a good part of my teen years were in the 90s, and I still make references to this classic sitcom, and cannot eat a pretzel without uttering the famous line ‘these pretzels are making me thirsty’ …) is the Soup Nazi Episode. In this episode the characters discover a great takeaway soup place, however to get any soup they have to conform to the rigid rules of the Soup Nazi when ordering. Because the soup is so good the characters keep returning, putting up with anything, until the fateful day that George asks for a bread role and the whole thing blows up …
Where am I going with this, you wonder? Well, a visit to DonToo certainly has elements of the Soup Nazi episode. This little Japanese eatery (which does lunch and dinner for prices below $15) is tucked away on Little Lonsdale St in the City, and it does a roaring trade. It is not unusual for the queue to stretch back 20 people long and out the door at lunch time. And if you don’t know what you want to order once you get to the front of the queue, God help you.
Today, in 39 degree heat, I brave that kind of whipping North wind that only Melbourne seems to be able to conjure up, and head there for lunch. Alone and red faced, I reach the front of the queue, dazed and confused. In my over heated state, I panic. I can’t remember what the name of the dish I want. ‘Yes!?’ says the woman at the counter. I scramble for the menu – I’ve forgotten my glasses – I squint. I yell out the first thing I see. In my panic I don’t hear here ask/shout ‘Eat here or Takeaway!?!’. I pause, silent. Rookie mistake. The question gets shouted again. ‘Eat here’ I suddenly answer, back on the ball. If this was the Soup Nazi I would be kicked out. But DonToo, even with its brisk and quick service, won’t kick you out if you don’t follow the ordering rules. You’ll just cop a dirty look. I can deal with that, as long as the food is good. So, five seconds after placing my order, I pick my food up from the counter – yes, the service and food is that fast – and I squeeze into a seat to eat. Luckily I managed to order what I wanted, a Sashi Don ($9.50). This lunch set includes salmon and ocean trout sashimi, rice, tofu, lettuce, ginger, pickled purple unidentifiable bits of vegetable (my ignorance of Japanese vegetables prevents me from giving more information) and shredded egg thingos (again, not sure what they are, but they are tasty, I assure you). It is a big lunch and a bargain – for the same price I could probably buy the same amount of fish at Coles, minus any of the other ingredients. DonToo also has a variety of other lunch sets, as well as famous curries (see the tofu curry, $6.50, pictured), which I am yet to try but which look great. Judging by the trade that DonToo does – it is not often you see Melburnians happily queuing at lunch time - all the other items on the menu must be pretty good as well.
So I can recommend DonToo as a far more interesting Japanese alternative to the standard hand rolls at Shuji Sushi (and incidentally, also far less likely lunch to give you food poisoning than ShujiSushi). Just make sure you know what you want to order before you get to the front of the queue, and for all our sakes please don’t ask for a bread roll.
