Tot

I’ve been to SE Asia many times and have family there. I know SE Asian food. And let me tell you, Tot’s is anything but SE Asia. It’s the culinary equivalent of eating pasta from a can.
There were zero Asian people eating at this restaurant. That tells you something right there.
Tot’s gets a point for being in the Railroad District. Good location. And the space isn’t bad — sort of an urban hipster vibe. But — at least for me — the whole point of going to a restaurant is to eat good food. And there Tot falls short by a country mile. I actually left the place hungry.
Nor is the service good. My partner (who is from that part of the world and grew up with this cuisine) is a vegetarian. She asked the guy at the counter which dishes were vegetarian and got mono-​syllabic answers. He clearly couldn’t be bothered. Nor could he be bothered to clean a table for us.
But we sat down anyway. And then things got worse. The food was flavorless and bore no resemblance to anything authentic. My partner said her noodles were the «worst she had ever eaten». I could barely eat anything either. The food was all dumbed down and the spices were bland or non-​existent. What a disappointment.
If Chop Suey is your platonic ideal of Asian food and you bond to the SF hipster thing, or if you recently were airlifted from the Middle East and are starving, then this place might be for you. But if you want anything authentic give this joint a miss. Instead I’d recommend Happy Bowl or Blue Toba.

I have eaten here with my husband several times. Everything I’ve had there has been very good. Quality is consistent and the food comes out quickly. Their spicy beef noodle salad is great and is comparable to the same thing I used to get in the international district in Seattle. Other dishes such as the phở (served only on Friday) and bahn mi are less «authentic» Vietnamese, but still good. Their spring rolls are great (meaty and crispy) and we have also enjoyed the dry red curry. They do such a nice job with their meats.

Tucked inside a little strip mall by the co-​op, their grilled cabbage with peanut sauce, mushroom dumpling soup and a simple house salad with vinaigrette are our favorite staples, but the red and green curries are amazing, too! No dish has ever disappointed or lacked complete flavor and complexity in every bite. it’s a weekly takeout order for sure! Thank you, Tot!

The soup at Tot is awesome and the portions are huge. Also love the curry. We did our company end of season dinner here and everyone was stoked. Thanks Tot.

Nothing special, but ok for a quick lunch. The restaurant wouldn’t last a week in San Fran or Portland.

Despite the high ratings, I was unimpressed with this place. My «vegetable noodle» should have been called «noodle vegetable» with the disproportionate amount of noodles to vegetables. Pretty flavorless, and not even extra chile sauce or fish sauce could help. Grandma said her brisket was pretty dry. Grandpa and Grandma also had a really difficult time hearing our conversation; very echoey space, and the music was overpowering our voices.

Been here three times now to get a sure fix on this place. I’ve had their pork noodle special, a couple of their appetizers, and their beef phở (served on Fridays). I haven’t been disappointed, so I’ll definitely be back.

Came here as a single diner. The lady that checked me out was friendly and helpful. I had the chicken curry. Everything about my visit was nice and tasty.

Everything was so awful. White-​washed, wanna-​be vietnamese food. Came here with 3 other girls last friday evening – i ordered the phở, and they had vegan banh mi, pork banh mi, and chicken curry. The curry was alright but the chicken was just weird in texture and taste. The pork was also weird. Phở was not good, and i couldve made better at home. I also couldve gotten a much cheaper and better bowl of phở back in san francisco. just disappointing :/
My friends and I all had stomach aches afterwards!!! We considered executing a mutual throwup in front of the store people, saying, «heres your food back we demand a refund.»

Tot’s food is always fresh and delicious. Most of their menu is gluten free, or can easily be made gluten free. This is by far my favorite restaurant in town for take out.

SE Asian street food prepared with care and attention to detail. We enjoyed our pre-​play dinner immensely. After visiting sister restaurant, Playwright-​Public House last night, we wanted to try Tot. It might just rival some of our fave PDX spots (ie on SE Division) It was refreshing to find some comfort food in Ashland.

I was really excited to grab food here because my mom said it was super delicious and awesome! Unfortunately, the experience wasn’t so spectacular. I was pretty disappointed, and so were my parents (who thought the food was a bit weak and that the cooking was clearly inconsistent).
Pros:
— Interesting, eclectic atmosphere
— Varied menu and beverage choices
— The man at the counter was awesome about making sure we knew what possible allergens or ingredients that we might not want (meat, dairy, etc.) were in each dish!
— Moderate pricing
Cons:
— Many dishes were lacking in flavor compared to other places– the Tom Yum, for instance, was nothing special, hardly spicy, and pretty much all broth.
— The menu is apparently not set-​in-​stone and can change without much notice (my mom’s favorite dish was not there).
— The side dishes are hit-​or-​miss. The salads were fine, but the pickled veggies were not amazing for the $ 4 we paid for a small serving.
Overall, not somewhere I’d go again. Not horrible by any means, but just «meh».

I have been back to TOT several times since my initial visit, and now consider it to be a go to… I love the flavors of Vietnam and Southeast Asia, and this is a great spot to experience them.
Lately I have greatly enjoyed the noodle salads and other dishes. The braised chicken with turmeric noodles and the spicy beef noodle bowl are both outstanding choices.

On vacation and staying in town. Saw the reviews for it, read the menu online… thought we would give it a try. I get they are trying to be hip with the whole Vietnamese fusion but it was a miss for my kiddos. They were craving good olé fashion Vietnamese comfort food. My daughter wanted phở and was not a fan of the best substitute I could find for her. The flavors just were not working for her and my 5 year son who couldn’t believe there was no soup in the pork noodle. Granted that was my mistake for not paying attention to the menu as it was listed under salads.
While they didn’t care for the food, I thought my summer chowder as well as my tomato/​watermelon salad for me.

Really fun place! I’ve only been once, so I can’t say I know much about it. Really fun, cute dècor, funky & eclectic. We got the pork bănh mi. The bread is *perfect*, the pork is tender & well-​trimmed. Lots of carrots & cilantro. However, most of the sandwich was missing the picked vegetable taste & fish sauce that is my favorite part of bănh mi. At the end I finally got a bit of that flavor. If they just pickled the veggies a bit longer or gave a side of fish sauce, this would be the perfect bănh mi.
Next time I’m trying some soup! Great job, Tot!

Came in on a Friday evening after a long drive from Salem. From their website, I got the impression that this place would be leaning toward «upscale,» but was wrong in a good way. It was much more laid back, and a little hip.
It is located in a building with other businesses, and has some tables outside the restaurant, but still inside. If we had seen this before we were leaving, we would have sat out there! It was a little quieter than inside.
I had the Phở, which had all the fixings you could want, and had a few different cuts of meat. It was among the best Phở I’ve had! They apparently only serve it on Friday nights though. We also had some of the house tots with tamarind sauce. These are not your super greasy typical tater tots, and I’m not even sure they weren’t baked rather than fried. They also had tasty seasoning, I’d recommend them!
The service was very friendly, but it is an order-​at-​the-​counter place, so by definition it’s minimal.
I enjoyed eating here and would recommend it!

If there were a way to eat at Tot every day and still be able to fit into all my costumes, u would. This is hands-​down, for location and price, the BEST FOOD in the downtown Ashland area. Fresh, fragrant, seasonal ingredients, Vietnamese-​inspired cooking, with some really classy chefs (formerly of Amuse) doing their THANG in the kitchen.
If you’re in Ashland during lunch or dinner time, don’t make reservations. Make your way over to TOT.

I don’t really know where to start. The food was terrible, the service extremeley slow, and again, the food was just plain awful.
Oh, dear Tot, how could I help you improve your restaurant? How about fixing the menu. Stop putting 50 items on your items and narrow it down to a select number that you actually know how to cook. As a note, if you’re going to call your food Asian it helps to know what Asian food is. Tom Yum is always spicy, phở should be a staple of all Vietnamese food, and usually spring rolls are not ordered in only odd numbers. Just saying.
I knew that Asian food in Ashland would be sucky but i didn’t think it would extend to this lame excuse for Vietnamese.

Came with two others and we all enjoyed our dishes: duck homemade egg noodles was good with no msg!!! :) the others ordered the curry dishes, one with lettuce wraps and the other with rice. We are all picky eaters so they satisfied our critique of the food. The only thing we all didn’t like was the rice filled tots, just not use to that kind.
Prices were decent as well. Ambiance was like a cafeteria but at least one doesn’t have to tip :)

Interesting restaurant. We had a nice time here – the casual vibe is good and overall the food is tasty.
Enjoyed the veggie noodles, tots, and spicy kale. The veggie noodles were light and tasty with julienned veggies – had a subtle but nice spice. Tots were tasty, and seemed homemade, with a great Korean-​styled BBQ sauce. Kale was good, with massive spice.
My only complaint is Tot is WAY overpriced for this type of restaurant: they are charging «sit down» prices for a place that expects you to order at the counter and then bus your own table. For this, I would expect about $ 2 or $ 3 less per entrée… the apps were not off on price, but slightly small in size for the the price.
Vegetarians BEWARE! While many dishes are marked vegetarian, many have fish sauce in them. On some, they will ask you if you want the fish sauce added, but on others, its already added to the base stock sauce, and therefore is not truly vegetarian. This is not a huge issue for me, but they should be very careful with how they mark the menu.
We will comeback again… overall, a nice and enjoyable experience!