Update: This restaurant has closed.
Boyfriend and I had originally planned on going to Motomachi for ramen Wednesday night. However, once we got there, we found out that it was closed on said day. We were a bit disappointed, but at the same time I was excited because it finally gave us a chance to try the restaurant right across the street – Toratatsu.
Being on Denman St, I thought it would be quite busy even though it was a weekday. Fortunately, it wasn’t, and we were promptly seated. Service so far was extremely good. Upon taking our seat, we were handed fresh, warm towels to wipe our hands. I was especially appreciative of this since my hands were ice-cold. A nice, warm towel was just what I needed.
As you can see, it is quite dark in this restaurant.
The decor wasn’t too messy but it was comfortably modern. I thought it was kinda cool that they thought to write on the mirrors. I’m liking this place already!
On the mirrors were basically the top 5 menu items of the place and other things they want you to order.
Their menu is a few sheets of paper on a clipboard. Boyfriend ordered a cocktail called “Uno”. It was (I think) sake with Soho lychee, strawberry and ?pineapple. It was really good. It was also really small for $8. The cup with the pinkish liquid in the picture above is the size of the drink.
I ordered the Aburi Shime Saba, which is house-cured mackeral torched in front of you, as you can see.
Watch the video of Aburi Shime Saba being torched
And this is the finished product. Boy was it yummy. We enjoyed this very very much. It was just barely cooked and was marinated very well. Boyfriend says it is intensely more satisfying than the ones you get at AYCE. And it was only $5.00!!
Next came the delicious Cheese Tofu, which is a mascarpone cheese tofu topped with sliced almonds, diced strawberries and drizzled with honey, served with 4 pieces of baguette.
On the menu, it did not indicate that there was going to be strawberries on it, so I thought it was a non-dessert item. Turns out, it WAS a dessert. I only found after I went home and went to their website again, and there it was listed under desserts.
I fault them on this though. Knowing it was a dessert, they should’ve at least asked if we wanted it to come last. We had two more things coming afterwards so even if they didn’t ask they could’ve served it last. A no-no on their part I thought.
However, it was very good. The cheese tofu was very creamy and flavorful and everything mixed together was a wonderful experience in my mouth. This was $6.80.
Then was the Sukiyaki. I ordered this purely based on the thumbs up from Eat, Snap, Repeat. I found that this was good but Boyfriend and I both agreed that it wasn’t that much different from Posh, and for the price ($12.80) we would much rather go to Posh so we can get refills.
The pork however was extremely tender and smooth. I found the broth a bit too sweet though, although sukiyaki is supposed to be sweet.
At first I worried that there was too little broth to cook everything. However, things shrink and “sank” and everything was a-okay.
Lastly Boyfriend ordered the Dragon Roll sushi. This was another one of their torch items. When it arrived at our table, the server torched the tobiko on top, giving off loud popping and crackling noises, much like firecrackers.
But it was all for show, as the (slightly) burnt tobiko does not add any flavor to the sushi. It was good, consisting of (if memory serves me…) salmon roe (or salmon caviar, as they like to call it), scallop/shrimp(?), avocado(?). I guess the difficulty in trying to recall what was in it can pretty much describe how memorable this was. I vividly remember the salmon “caviar” though.
Again, it was good, but not $9.80 good.
Total damage was about $25 per person. We would definitely come back, but will forgo the drinks, sushi rolls, and the sukiyaki.
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Oh wow. Looks like a place we should check out!