Toki Underground

Reviews 4

SA

Samuel Johnson

To start I want to say I hate yelp. I hate when people act like theyre restaurant reviewers and mess with peoples lives who are only trying to make an honest living. Also, I used to love this place. When people came from out of town I used to show it off. Also, Ive worked as a sommolier in a Michelin star restaurant, done marketing for a local restaurant group, and eaten all over the country. Heres my review: You should definitely come here if you like eating really good food served by arrogant hipsters who act like youre the worst part of their day. Everyone who works here treats customers like theyre in the way and walks around with a smug look on their face because they fill up a 20 seat restaurant every night by doing ramen in a city thats a decade behind the rest of the food world. Plus, adding skateboards to your decor and playing hip hop will only appeal to people who know nothing about those things. Also, it doesnt make it ok to be mean. Dont take the fact that you never got laid in highschool and are now flailing to be cool, out on me. If you want food thats as good or better but dont want to deal with horrible, sad people serving it to you, here are a couple places you should go. Daikaya, CCDC. Most of the time the servers are rude and everyone acts like theyre way smarter than you. Its crazy how someone whos such an intellectual Olympian ended up managing a closet where people eat noodles. Hell probably tell you its for the passion. He can lie to you all he wants but he cant lie to himself. He knows hes just a mid thirties jerk with no hope of impacting the world in a meaningful way. The cooks will bump into you while they storm through the dining room and the servers will make you feel like an idiot. If you like that, you should definitely try to come on a night when the manager who was working on Saturday, March 5th is working. This guy runs around the 10 x 20 dining room like the world will end if he doesnt turn a table, and talks to customers like theyre 3 years old. I even saw him publicly berating a delivery driver while I was biting into my fluffy crunchy fried chicken dumpling. In closing, Im devastated that Im leaving DC to go to a place where they actually know how to make ramen, because I cant tell more people that theyll have an awful experience here and to go to Daikaya instead. None of this applies to the Aussie or the cute hostess with the nose ring. Big ups.

RO

Ronald Wilson

Not sure where the rave reviews are coming from, even from Zagat. But my daughter and I went to this place before a show tonight and we were totally underwhelmed. The space it great! It is cozy and funky, which is hard to find and makes the place worth a visit for beverages and the ambiance. However, having been to a number of ramen joints around the world, this one is seriously lacking. My daughter got the vegetarian noodles and there was just no flavor. I got the Tan Tan Rame and it just had this burnt flavor that was inescapable. The appetizer of buns and fried chicken were fantastic, though. But we didt finish either entree. Service was prompt, pleasant, and attentive. No qualms there. To us, though, this seemed like a place that served up half-hearted dishes just to make the urban hipsters and yuppies feel like they were getting a true urban experience that others were not. "Ooooo look at us for being cool while you are not for not going here." With the number of other noodles places in DC area -and just not inside the beltway- that have much higher quality, I dont see any reason that this place would receive the ratings that it does. To make the point about artificially rating places high in this neighborhood, just take a look at the ratings for all the other places along H street. Most every place in this neighborhood is rated above four stars. This is statistically improbable. It is an indication of either depravity options or an over-zealousness in trying to make a place seem better than it is just to make it look hip and look like urban cool because that is where eaters claims their home and not look uncool. We are sure to offend all the people who go there and rate this place high. After all, we are taking away your unique and hip urban experience that distinguishes you from the the lesser of us who are not urban pioneers. But encourage regulars to get out there and try other places in Wheaton, Falls Church or even Adams Morgan and get Toki to do better. The place is an awesome venue that seems to not take the food serious to deliver what you deserve.

NO

Nom Nom Boris

Kimchi Ramen $10 (5/5 NOMs). Now what we came here for, I really enjoyed the kimchi spicy part of this ramen. It wasnt too much and did not over power everything else in there. So much meat. I was shocked with how much stuff we got in there. Many places tent to cheap out on the meat and just give you 3 pieces, but not here. Here I barely was able to finish everything. Whole thing was amazing and I so want to go back and get some more!!! Only big issue was the 1 hour wait time we had on our Sunday dinner table. Well, not really big issue, I was not upset since it was worth it in the end. We will try during the week next time when its not as busy. Seafood Dumpling $5 (4/5 NOMs) YAY more dumplings! We decided to get our seafood as pan fried vs our pork dumplings were deep fried. These dumplings were on a lighter side with seafood fillings having a less flavors. Still I enjoyed these very much with nice sauce. We were out of dumplings very fast and need some more. Only big issue was the 1 hour wait time we had on our Sunday dinner table. Well, not really big issue, I was not upset since it was worth it in the end. We will try during the week next time when its not as busy. Deep Fried Pork Dumplings $5 (4/5 NOMs) I would deep fry the world, Love the possibility of deep frying my dumplings and make them extra crunchy. Why you ask? I say, why not! Lets deep fry everything :) We were very excited to finally try some very nomnom dumplings. I thought pork filling was very good and worked nice with light dough wrapping. Only big issue was the 1 hour wait time we had on our Sunday dinner table. Well, not really big issue, I was not upset since it was worth it in the end. We will try during the week next time when its not as busy

AL

Alice Wang

As with most people, I recommend the Hakata Classic. The broth is so flavorful youll want to slurp every last drop and the pork is so tender. Its the perfect meal for a cold day and is affordable (at $10 a bowl) and tasty. Ramen comes with noodles, half of a soft-boiled egg, sesame, scallions, veggies, and nori. The Hakata Classic has a tonkotsu (pork bone) base, made by boiling pork bones over high heat until the bone marrow is released into the liquid and emulsifies. The end result? A rich, smooth, flavorful broth. They dont take reservations so wait time can vary. I once called and asked how long the wait may be if I came in the next 5 minutes to put my name down and they said "It could be 45 minutes to 2 hours." Okay...to which extreme should I lean towards? Anyways, Ive usually had to wait an hour. Go to Smith Commons or any of the other bars on H Street and wait it out. Theyll text you once they have a table. The place only seats about 20 people at a time. Toki is actually above The Pug (ironic, huh?) - just walk up a flight of stairs and put your names down before immediately turning around and going back down to wait somewhere else. Theres hardly any standing room to wait in the restaurant itself. I did just find out recently that you can make reservations on CityEats! Typically there are no reservations for the same day, but you may luck out and find availability for the next day. Pretty neat find! I havent done it myself yet, but it looks promising.