Profile

It might be Japanese fast food, but the grub at Donburiya is too tasty to merit a pat dismissal. The focus here, as the restaurant's name suggests, is donburi, deep bowls of rice topped with all sorts of delectable tidbits, from stir-fried beef to fatty, fresh raw tuna. Lunch is limited mainly to donburi combination sets; there’s also a roster of little dishes at dinnertime, like grilled smelts and wasabi-smeared, dense and spongy fish cakes. The early afternoon bustles as solo diners dig into greaseless tonkatsu, deep-fried breaded pork cutlets slathered in tangy sauce. Up front, under glowing rose-colored lanterns at the long bar, and in back, near an incongruous trio of giant pale-orange clay pots, groups chat over beers and bowls of udon noodles. Sure, they’re in and out in half an hour, but it’s more than fast food. Think of it as satisfying food that comes to the table quickly, and take the time to enjoy it. — JJ Goode

Pork and potato croquette, $5.50; fish cakes with wasabi, $5.50; ochazuke with pickled plum, $7.50; tekka don, $12.50