Restaurant Review: Tochi’s Ramen Cafe

Tochi Restaurant

Asian style food/ Ramen Noodle

Dress / phone number (N/A) due to location change

If you have not yet experienced the explosion of endless flavors at Tochi’s Ramen Café you are truly missing out on something extraordinary. Tired of the same old bland flavors of ramen noodle? well I am here to tell you to worry no more! Tochi is here to save the day and the name of the very old and much loved instant soup Ramen.

The Ramen style restaurant which was located at 2107 E Capitol Drive in shorewood is now changing locations to the West Bend area. It opened in winter of 2014 in January. Since then the restaurant has become extremely popular and because so they had to expand which is why they chose to move else where into a bigger area where they can now serve more customers. I first heard of about Tochi through my sister, she could not stop raving about the new Asian style Ramen Cafe. Because she was so persistent I had no choice but to try this amazing restaurant out and see what the fuss was all about. I called two of my girlfriends up who evidently also heard about the new Cafe and wanted to try it out as well, so the three of us made dinner plans to grab dinner there. And might I say I am so very happy we took the time to go.

As soon as you walk into the building you are hit with this thick mouth watering smell of bacon. The place was completely packed with customers enjoying their hot bowls of ramen. While my friends and I waited for our table, which took maybe about 10 minuets, we grabbed a few drinks at the mini bar which seats about ten people and enjoyed a few drinks. The drink menu consisted of a large variety of beers, wine, Sake, sake bombs, and saketinis. Not only does the restaurant offer different variety of sake but as well offers an extensive tea list which I found interesting considering that most again style restaurants do not offer as much.

After my friends and I had been seated in this new Zen like atmosphere, we began to look over the menu. To begin we chose to start with a couple of appetizers that unexpectedly surprised us. The Edamame ($5.95) was absolutely delicious probably one of the best that I have ever tasted. And the Pork steam buns also ($5.95) were to die for. Because many of us had never had pork steamed buns before that came as a delicious surprise to us all.

Touch offers eight different styles of ramen to choose from, we all decided to buy a different kind so that we would be able to share and try each others. Because I am a fairly picky person when it comes to my ramen I decided to go safe and chose the TOCHI ramen dish ($11.95). which was a a pork-based broth with Singapore noodles, came with pork belly, Welsh onions and a spicy miso deviled egg. This dish alone blew my mind, I never thought that ramen noodles could taste and look as amazing as this dish did. The broth was filled with endless amounts of flavor and the bowl in general was filled with an excessive amount of noodles and condiments.

Not only was the food and drinks absolutely incredible the service and atmosphere of the restaurant completed the restaurant entirely. Tochi at the time was located downstairs from the Garden Room, through the Garden room lay a rectangular whole which gave you a peek inside of the Asian zen restaurant it was a site to see. It felt as though you were in a jungle that was located and segregated from the world, I felt incredible special to be apart of something that was so obviously bigger than what it was. The restaurant setting was different but appealing, there were any portraits on the wall of asian style cartoons as well as modern art however, it all seemed to fit extremely well with each other. The music was soft and not over bearing I was able to talk to my friends without feeling the pressure to yell. It was extremely relaxing to say the least.

The service was as expected great. The servers were constantly checking up on us making sure that our cups were filled with water and asking us if there was anything more we needed or wanted. They were also very friendly and seemed to really love what they were doing. Although it was extremely packed in this small restaurant they continued to work as though it was empty and stayed on top of everything with a pleasant smile on their faces which both my friends and I found refreshing.

Overall I have to admit that I was extremely bummed out when I heard about the move, but that does and will not stop me from driving all the way to West bend just so that I can get my ramen fix. I have yet to return but I plan on doing so very soon especially considering that I have already found a few favorites on the menu which is told to be expanding as well. Tochi was by far one of the best restaurant experiences I have had here in Wisconsin and I am looking forward to the day when I will go again .