Toki Italian Inspired — Restaurant in Sydney

We were sitting at home one Saturday night looking for somewhere new to try, and were in the mood for Italian. We did a bit of an online search and found Toki Italian Inspired, an Italian restaurant run by Thai chef Toki and his wife Cherry. Located in Woolloomooloo, it is in an inconspicuous location near apartment blocks not far from William Street.

A very casual restaurant, with table service and they offer quality food at an affordable price, as well as alcoholic drinks and dessert. It was easy to get a booking and service was friendly and very efficient.

The food is a bit like an Italian choose your own adventure. You select the style of pasta, the sauce and add some extras and you’re in for a treat. The menu is extremely extensive and organised under ‘tomato, pink, cream and white’ with plenty of sauce options. You then select your style of pasta.

We began with an entrée as well, the homemade spicy meatballs. These were cooked in a tomato and chilli sauce, which was super flavoursome and nice and think with the moist and delicious meatballs. Other entrees on offer include bruschetta, arancini, salt and pepper calamari and garlic prawns to name a few.

For the pasta, we chose the olive oil base; in particular the “toki”, which had clams, prawns, calamari, cherry tomato, rocket, chilli, garlic, olive oil and white wine. We opted for a linguine and made it a large size.

To supplement this, we had a salad, the toki salad. Greens, topped with tomato, cucumber, olive, beetroot, corn, roasted capsicum, caramelised onion, parmesan cheese and a house dressing.

We found our food order to be appropriate for two and still with room for dessert. For dessert, we tried one of the banoffee desserts. It comes in a small $5 container and was absolutely delicious, especially the dulce de leche component.

Overall, we enjoyed our dining experience here as the food was very good and service was very welcoming. We look forward to returning to try more of their menu options, for there are certainly...

The absolute worst service I have ever had. Waitress put food on other side of table for us to reach for ourselves over the table instead of putting in front of us. The prawns side dish has a weird taste and do not recommend ordering this. The gamberi pasta was so bad I had to share my partners meal and couldnt finish it. I had asked for no onions but found something similar to an onion in my meal. Then the waitress took my plate and started inspecting it under the light infront of me.... I had never seen anything like it. Not once did anyone come and see how our meal was going. We ran out of table water and no new water was brought out. We went to pay waitress at till and she burped while on counter. No thank you for coming or asking us about our experience. I would definitely not recommend this to even a group of school kids if it was free. On top of this, please note it was a very quiet night for the restaurant with barely any customers. Accordingly, they cannot excuse this conduct by saying they were busy. Also, the bin in the toilet was overflowing with toilet paper and what not... very unhygienic. Also, being an "Italian inspired restaurant", one would expect parmesan cheese to be on the table or at least offered by the waitress. But surprise surprise, no parmesan was to be seen. May I also note, the lighting outside was almost non existent, with no candles on tables or any sort...

Wow. This was the best pasta I’ve ever had in my life. I got the chicken alfredo and boy was there a ton of options. The dishes came so fast and piping hot. The service was amazing. As soon as a single piece of the pasta hit my tongue, I felt the symphony of flavours spark poetry in my mind. The delectable creamy-smooth sauce, with just the perfect amount of seasoning. The amazingly cooked fettuccine. The savoury delicate soft chicken. Each element complimented the other, enhancing my experience. If i could eat this pasta all day every day, I would. I wish there was a location closer to my house. I almost felt as if I was ascending to a higher place, an out of body experience I have only felt with this spectacular mouth-watering pasta. Nearing the end of the dish, the bowl was almost cleaned and my stomach felt as if it was about to burst. But I couldn’t, in good conscience, leave a single morsel of the meal behind. I knew I’d regret it later when I was hungry again and fantasising about Toki’s alfredo sauce. The servings were bountiful and filled us all up fast. According to my family, the bolognaise was just as scrumptious. Also, they have dairy free options if you ask. Overall, eat here. Get the fettuccine alfredo pasta. And thank me later. #wowza #yummy...