Tokio Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Leuven

I've read a lot of good reviews so I wanted to give a try last Saturday night with my boyfriend even though we had an all time favorite sushi restaurant since its never hurt to try out somewhere new. When we went inside of this restaurant it was indeed small like what some of the reviewers have mentioned it (what I remember was it used to be a kebab shop). Anyways after entering inside what we got was silence stares from the workers and they didn't asked us anything so we had to improvised ourselves since we went there to have a dinner. So i asked if there were any seats. They didn't respond to my question so when I saw an empty table I just head toward to it while telling my boyfriend to come along with me... and guess what? One of the worker said "it's reserved". I am not unfamiliar with working in horeca because I worked in horeca for many years, maybe its just me, but in my opinion they should at least said "I am sorry, but this table is reserved even thought there is no tags. We are sorry for inconvenience"... I think it was normal besides greeting us and offer for help ("hello, may I help you?" "Hello, are you here for dinner or for take out? Is it for dinner we are full at this moment, I am sorry"). of course he don't have to be super humble but being told off in unfriendly way have left us with very bad impression of this place (i've been to all the sushi restaurant in Leuven and I am sure all the sushi lovers might have done it as well and this was the first time I got this kind of very awkward treatment or rather situation. If things went differently I would have went back there and tried it again. However it was not the only sushi restaurant in Leuven... Besides I am sure that this place is great and who knows the workers are friendly (maybe I got on the wrong time when they are super tired) and I am only talking about what i've experienced there . So if you want to eat out at this place, make a reservation or just give a call. They didn't say reservations are required and they don't have a reservation tag so you should also ask if you can eat inside or not. I hope I could try out one day but sadly it won't be for very soon.

(Base on what I have written on...

The portions are indeed generous (as other reviewers have stated), it tasted OK, but not great enough to overcome their unwillingness to offer proper service. It started awkward as soon as I stepped in (I thought they might have closed or sth) and just got worse progressively. I asked for a set menu and they started making faces and speaking in annoyance between them (I mean if you expect people to phone their orders in advance write it on the menu or sth). But the customer that entered after me received a much better service, although she also ordered a set menu without preordering; not to mention that it was prepared faster than mine as we got our boxes together. To top it off, when I went to pay with my credit card they refused to accept it saying they only accept cash, even though they had a payment terminal. I complied, as I thought they might have some connectivity issue, only to witness 5' later that they were perfectly happy to accept card payment from the next customer. Neither price, nor quality justify lousy service and blatant lying. If they want to work only with regulars they should simply say that they don't accept any more orders or some other nicety and spare us the trouble. I won't...

I’m from Japan so I know what authentic sushi is. There are somehow many sushi restaurants in Leuven, but I think this restaurant’s sushi taste the most authentic, so I come here when I miss the taste of my country. Especially Nigiri, which is the most traditional types of sushi, is amazing. I also liked fried futomaki, we don’t have this in Japan so I was a little bit surprised at first, but it tasted really good so I became a fan of this!! Thank you so much for providing “real” sushi in Leuven;)

Additional recommendation in 2024: I just tried their chirashi a couple days ago and it was soooooo good!! Definitely...