Totto Ramen

A while back I watched a terrible movie starring the late Brittany Murphy called "Ramen Girl." It's about an american girl who gets abandoned by her boyfriend in Tokyo, discovers the mood altering properties of a good bowl of ramen, and learns to become a ramen chef. The movie is probably the worst that I've ever seen, with a strange plot, bad acting, and overall just didn't make any sense. The only good thing that came out of the movie was it presented the importance ramen holds in Japanese culture. In fact, in the movie she visits a museum devoted to all things ramen: Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum. 

In NYC, there's a wealth of ramen places available to satisfy a hankering for traditional japanese ramen. I was looking for a good ramen place in the midtown west area and found two good restaurants: Menkui Tei, and Totto Ramen. Menkui Tei is a bit cheaper, but we went to Totto Ramen because of their super spicy ramen. 

Totto Ramen is one of those places you can easily overlook if you're not looking for it. The entire restaurant is in a narrow and small basement space that seats at most 20 patrons.  They don't do take out, so if you want a bowl, you must put your name down on the list hanging on their door and wait it out. It's a very popular local restaurant so expect at least a 30 minute waits at all times. We had to wait about 45 minutes for dinner around 6:00pm. They only accept cash so you could take the time to go to the ATM and withdrawal some money. 

We were seated around the bar and ordered the spicy vegetable ramen, spicy ramen, extreme spicy ramen, and a side of spicy bamboo shoots. 

spicy vegetable ramen

The spicy vegetable ramen came stuffed with vegetables. They were not really veggies that you'd expect in ramen, such as a ear of corn, or raw zucchini. The broth was good but very light, compared to the regular ramen it tasted watery. The spiciness was there but at first did not taste very strong. DF later added so much spicy bamboo shoots to this that the broth was like drinking fire. If you're not a vegetarian, I would recommend against this dish since it doesn't really give you a good idea of the deliciousness of real pork based ramen. A plus is that since this is not made with pork broth, there is less oil in the broth.

spicy ramen

I think this spicy ramen is the winner of the night. The pork broth was rich and flavorful, and one taste made me feel happy and relaxed. The spicy sauce is the reddish color on top and you have it mix it in yourself. It did not taste very spicy at first, but the hot taste builds up as you eat, and the level of spice was perfect in the end. There was enough of a kick but not so spicy that you cannot enjoy the other flavors of the ramen. I'm not a pork girl but I really enjoyed the char-siu pork they put in the ramen as well. It was perfectly marinated, but I just wish there was more meat and less fat.

extremely spicy ramen

DF's roommate was the only one brave enough to try the extreme spicy ramen. His chili sauce came in a separate bowl so he can control the level of spiciness. He mentioned earlier that the Japanese usually do not do spicy so well. I think its because all of their dishes are very delicate in structure and taste, so too much chili sauce would overpower the taste. But his ramen was so hot he kept sniffling! He enjoyed his ramen but said it was so hard he couldn't really taste the ramen broth. 

Spicy bamboo shoots

I ordered this side of spicy bamboo shoots because I was afraid my spicy ramen may not be spicy enough. You can see the bamboo shoots are smothered in chili. I ate one bamboo shoot straight and it was so dry and spicy I had to keep rinsing my mouth with water. It's better to put it in the broth of your ramen (I think this was what you're supposed to do), but be careful, a little goes a long way!

I really enjoyed my meal here and hope to try Menkui Tei soon to see if I can get the same quality taste at a lower price. 

Definitely recommend this place for a casual dinner!