Two weeks ago I went out with my friend, Bow, to enjoy a trip to the zoo (What are you, kids?). Afterwards she invited me to enjoy a dinner with her and even offered to pay. The funny thing was when our bill came around, she realized she didn't have enough cash so I ended up covering a small portion of her meal. (Totto's is cash only.)
Bow suggested we go to Totto Ramen. It had a small door and the establishment itself was small. They have two stores, we went to the one at Hell's Kitchen since the other one had a huge line outside. I am not waiting outside in this cold weather. We got seated immediately at the Hell's Kitchen location, but even then I saw that it was a rather small restaurant. You have just enough space for yourself and maybe put your bag on your lap. The place was teeming with customers.
For the night we ordered takoyaki ($7) and pork buns ($6) as appetizers. I had a hard time deciding which ramen to choose from. I was really looking closely at that super deluxe bowl with everything in it, but settled for the curry paitan ($13) with a topping of kimchee ($2). I couldn't resist the urge of having something spicy. I let Bow have all the pork buns since I was never a big fan of them in the first place.
I was having second thoughts on takoyaki because my previous experience with takoyaki wasn't that great. I didn't like the taste of it and didn't like the consistency of the batter. But at Totto's, it changed my mind about it. First of all they didn't skimp on the portions of octopus. I could have sworn that I tasted a bit of wasabi in the batter or in the mayonnaise, but a little bit of wasabi made a huge difference. It added a new dimension of flavor. Then the batter I tasted was really creamy and still piping hot. They toasted the outside of the takoyaki enough to give it a crunchy exterior and I enjoyed it a lot. I highly recommend their takoyaki.
Then came my curry paitan. As the name suggests, it is ramen noodles in a thick curry broth. There's bean sprouts, diced onion, two slices of pork belly, sweet scallions and half a ramen egg in the broth. The raw onions left me with extremely sharp onion breath, but they were very sweet and fresh. The pork belly or chashu was a surprise to me. When I had chashu at Santouka, it was more like braised pork. So it was very soft and falls apart very easily. I had accidentally ordered pork for my curry paitan when I actually wanted to go for chicken. Damn it! Why did you slip up last minute? Turns out it was a very happy mistake. The chashu at Totto's is grilled giving it a bit of that barbecue taste and crunchy fat. Totto Ramen, I will come back for you in the future!
After ramen, Bow and I went to grab dessert. At Bibble and Sip, we ordered a pistachio cake to share. To be more specific, it was a matcha white chocolate mousse with a layer of pistachio and raspberry gelee on a spongey cake topped with raspberries. It's very sweet to eat alone so I would prefer a strong black tea to go with it. Otherwise, it's a meticulous process to make this confectionery and it didn't disappoint.
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