Dining Out Boston

In my continual search for inexpensive lunch places, I came across Takeshima, a cheap, unassuming sushi restaurant on Harvard St. in Brookline.

Although my noon-time meal preference is usually for cheese- and meat-based sandwich fare, once in a while I'm in the mood for some light and elegant maki or nigiri. It's even rarer that I spend less than twenty dollars when I do indulge, as I usually go all out and order some gigantic boat contraption with thirty-plus pieces of sushi that take me three hours to eat.

Takeshima, however, is not a refined, see-and-be-seen Japanese restaurant where your food is shaped into dragons, tigers, and exotic flowers; for that, try Ginza or Fugaku. Only simple, straight-up teriyaki dishes, bento boxes, and standards rolls are on the menu. I arrived twenty minutes after "lunchtime" had ended, but the waiter let me order the special anyway, the sure mark of gracious and accommodating service. For $7 I received a shallow bowl of miso soup and fourteen pieces of selected maki, which were freshly made at the counter in the back in the restaurant.

The maki lunch plate turned out to be a mix of california, tuna, and cucumber rolls, with two over-sized specialty rolls that I could not identify. It wasn't best sushi I've ever eaten, as the tuna tasted a bit bland and the specialty rolls, for all their colorful ingredients, were unremarkable. But for $7, I can't complain much as the lunch was satisfying and served at lightning speed. Maybe next time I'll give their chefs a better chance to show their stuff by ordering one of their more exotic creations, like the dragon-killer maki, which are also reasonably priced. Until I make my first million (and no one is holding his breath for that), I'm content with with alternating my turkey-and-cheese with the Takeshima lunch special.

The Info
Takeshima
308 Harvard St.
Brookline, MA