As I mentioned, after The Original Soup Man, I still had plans to eat lunch with TC… at Totto Ramen. This place has been hyped up for ages and ages, and the line is always super long. Even at 3pm on a Friday, we waited a good 20-30 minutes (while I ate my soup, haha!) before we were led inside the tiny space to a table.
TC ordered extra spicy ramen – which comes with the hot chili oil on the side for you to add as you like.
He added the entire thing and proceeded to devour it. He said the chili oil was super flavorful – not just hot – and I might have tried some but I was busy with my own bowl.
I ordered the chicken ramen with pork slices. The broth was, interestingly, very creamy, so creamy that I can’t imagine they didn’t use a lot of chickens for very little water to make that broth. It was very salty – not in a bad way, really, though I drank a LOT of water – and I liked it.
The best part of the bowl, though, was the noodles. Super fresh, super springy and chewy, I loved these. I would have eaten all of them but my stomach was still pretty tiny from months of not eating much, so I wound up ‘sharing’ them with TC. Haha. But the noodles were really good, and I enjoyed what I could eat very much!
Yvo says: While I enjoyed my bowl of noodles very much, I thought this didn’t live up to the hype. Maybe I just heard so much about it? I mean, it’s really good, but amazeballs? Worth a 30 minute or more wait? No on both counts. If there’s a line, I’ll just go elsewhere. If there’s no line or a very short wait, then yeah I guess I’d go back. (Note that I also don’t really believe on waiting on lines for things.)
recommended, if there’s no line
TT says
i think North Carolina enlarged your stomach back to “normal.” hahahaha
havent been to Totto Ramen yet, maybe during the holidays I’ll try to get over there. i think every restaurant should offer pork slices as an add on.
Feisty Foodie says
That’s not very nice, and I’m going to have to disagree with you. Hawai’i thusfar has come closest to me eating a normal amount, and I’m still down in terms of capacity pretty drastically. I gave about half my noodles (maybe more, TC will confirm or adjust my estimate) to TC.
And Totto Ramen offers pork slices as an add on… most or all ramen places do.
T.C. says
You ended up giving me well over half your noodles that day. You ate some of it and then started scooping over yours into my bowl (I really didn’t ask for any and you were diluting my delicious chili oil. LOL.) No complaints since I got to eat OVER a bowl and half of Totto noodles that day.
The chili oil was very flavorful. Not extra spicy or too overbearingly hot for those who love spicy but it lingers. I’m sure I offered you some when I plopped all of the chili oil in my bowl but you politely declined. 😛
BTW, Totto was AFTER I already ate lunch with friends at Menchanko Tei on 55th, earlier before they grabbed Soup Nazi to take home with them. I already had a Kuro Tonkotsu Ramen (Garlic Oil) and Salmon rice ball. Yea, I’m not a skinny person like Yvo.
The two slices of Totto char siu pork didn’t really compliment the ramen much. Noodles FTW.
The noodles are better at Totto but the broth at Menchanko is still what I prefer (Tonkotsu – pork bone broth – all the way!) Creamy chicken broth was fine but I’ll stick with Tonkotsu whenever possible.
kcijones001 says
sheeeeee’ssssssss Baaaaaaaaaaaaakkkkk
CheeeeEEEEse says
This place is so overrated, and certainly isn’t worth the wait. 3PM on a Friday and still almost a half hour? Ridiculous.
Usually I like to walk past and see if there is a line (undoubtedly so when I’m hungry) and pass on by and go to ChaPas instead for pho. Personally, I like beef broth of pho over pork ramen (Even though Yvo had chicken ramen).
/Tabata Shill (9th and 40th) No line, friendly, and to my own tastes just as good.
T.C. says
Totto Ramen was chicken broth ramen with pork slices.
I like Pho and Ramen but pork broth ramen at other places a little more than beef broth pho.
I haven’t had ChaPa yet but my friends and I passed by it (same day as lunch #2 with Yvo but way beforehand and before going to Mechanko Tei). I had to point out to my best friend’s gf it is what white person Vietnamese food is. HAHA. She is Vietnamese of course and the pricing for the foods was ridiculous to her. 😛
Eva says
No lie, I totally love this place. I love how it just makes me feel like I’m in Tokyo again. I always feel like the first few sips are really salty and then it mellows out as I start eating everything else.
Hungry says
I really like Totto but hate waiting on line.
Feisty Foodie says
I enjoyed it, but I didn’t think it lived up to omfg-amazeballs!
Dan says
As a sidenote, they have a ‘C’ from the health department hanging in the window.
Feisty Foodie says
The dirtier the place, the better?