Volks East 21 — Restaurant in Tokyo

It was a nice afternoon, my husband and I were at Toyocho near East 21. We were hungry but didn’t know what to eat. Suddenly, we thought of the family restaurant Volks, which we’ve walked past it so many times and always wanted to try it, and today was finally the day!

It was around 1:45pm when we entered the restaurant. We took a ticket and saw there were two groups ahead of us. Inside was spacious with quite a lot of empty seats actually.

After waiting about 10 minutes, we got seated. We were very happy and excited to discover that they have a salad bar, drink bar, and even a rare bread bar!

I ordered the Chicken Steak with Onion Sauce (チキンステーキ オニオンソース) with the salad bar and bread bar. My husband ordered the Custom Curry (カスタムカレー) where you can choose 3 toppings. He chose Hamburg Steak (ハンバーグ), Fried Shrimp (エビフライ), and Fluffy Omelette (ふわとろ玉子), with the salad bar and also added the bread bar.

I couldn’t wait and went to get my salad right after ordering on the tablet. I was happy to see they had grapefruit, which is rare! Among the different items, my favorite was the broccoli, carrots, and corn together with sesame dressing. The broccoli was so soft and sweet. On the other hand, the spaghetti at the salad bar wasn’t good, they really need to improve that.

My Chicken Steak with Onion Sauce (チキンステーキ オニオンソース) came sizzling on the hot plate! It was surprisingly juicy and tender, pairing perfectly with the onion sauce, the umami together was excellent.

My husband’s Hamburg Steak, Fried Shrimp, and Fluffy Omelette Curry (ハンバーグ・エビフライ・ふわとろ玉子カレー) was a good size. The hamburg steak was juicy, the fried shrimp were crispy outside and springy inside with good flavor, and the fluffy omelette was tasty. The curry has 5 spice levels. My husband chose level 2, which was supposed to be just mildly spicy, but for both of us it still felt quite spicy haha! Still, it was very flavorful and we enjoyed it. The only disappointment was the rice, it wasn’t separate and a bit mushy. If the rice were firmer, the texture with the curry would be much better.

At the end, we tried the Sweet Milk Bread (ミルクバター), Croissant (クロワッサン), and Plain Baguette (プレーンフランス) from the bread bar. The Sweet Milk Bread was delicious, sweet but not too sweet, almost like a salty-sweet dessert. The croissant was nice, nothing too special tho. And the baguette was soft inside with a slightly crispy crust, with butter it was unstoppable!

We had a very good lunch here. We’re so happy we finally tried Volks, and we’d love to come back...

After being in Japan for two and half weeks and being used to having vegetables or i better say a variety of veggies in our daily meal, our body was craving vegetables so much. In Japan it is hard to consume enough vegetables and greens if you are a tourist and do not have access to a stove in your hotel. Coming to Volks restaurant was so refreshing and pleasant because of an open atmosphere and the options of many different vegetables. Here you order dishes with meat such as steak, burgers or lamb chops; on top of that you have access to veggie, salad, and bread bar. If you don't want to order any meat you may only use the salad, soup and bread bar. Today we only used the salad bar and were so pleased with everything presented. Just remember if you want to use the buffet you may enter here from 10am to 4pm. I highly recommend this place for tourists!

Soup, salad , bread and drink buffet was about $ 11 USD per person. Super spacious, welcoming and YUMMY.

Our favorite was the orange bread roll and the honeyberry jello from Hokkaido. Zesty orange roll and add some of that goodness jello...

Living in the same neighborhood, I visit this restaurant many times. But due to Covid-19, this is the first time this year. The experience was not that good.

The restaurant looked not very clean. The floor was dirty and the salad plates were too! I randomly picked up several plates. And they were all have stains. This was unacceptable!

Before I went here, I thought the restaurant would be uncrowded due to the virus. But NO! On long weekend and holiday, it was very crowded! There were even no standing shields between some tables! And it seemed to become a place for many families to have family time here. It was very noisy. At this moment, I just wanted to finish my food and leave ASAP!

Above all, I won't go here again, even though it is near my home. The food is average. The sevice is average. And the...