Torii Noodle Bar

Very slow service when you order sushi from kanki. My wife was done eating her meal before I received my sushi though the restaurants are connected. Can’t fully blame them, since I’ve had this issue with kanki while eating at their own hibachi tables. There is some GF options for pad Thai, and rice bowls. Plan on going back to try pad Thai may update review then.

If you go there for the ramen all I can say is — Americanized. Not authentic ramen and is way overpriced for a bowl of noodle that would cost you maybe 4 dollars in Japan, is 12 – 16 dollars here. When friends and I started coming here they order ramen but the last couple times due to my scolding and them thinking logically they no longer order it. The bento boxes are okay, you get variety and what you pay for, come for lunch time the price is okay for the size.

I love ramen, so I wanted to try Torii. It’s upstairs at the mall, and there’s an elevator to get to Kanki downstairs. There is no restroom at Torii, so you have to go downstairs which is a little annoying. Service is also a bit slow here, but the servers are friendly. I got the tonkotsu miso ramen. My friends got the wanton-​men ramen and shrimp tempura udon. My friend normally loves udon but felt this was overpowered by seaweed. My ramen was just OK, nothing special.

Coming from having lived in Japan for roughly six years, I was sorely disappointed in this «noodle house». The broth was Lacking flavor. The buckwheat noodles were also a huge let down. They had very little options on the menu. They had decent service.
Overall would not return.

My wife lived in Japan while teaching English for 2 yrs & I was ecstatic to have a genuine noodle bar open in Raleigh!
Had a meal here and it exceeded my expectations! Couldn’t recommend it more!

Meh.
Typical Americanized, Japanese food. I have had worse. I have had better. I ordered the spicy udon noodles and for what they charged I did not get a lot of food. This was over priced by a lot.
The service was alright. Never had to ask for water. However our dishes did not come out together, when we asked for that to happen, since we ordered an apitizer and my udon noodles.

We thought this would be a great place to try. Ramen was decent. The tempura shrimp were delicious. And the tuna tacos were our favorite thing we tried. The roast pork was pretty good as well, but some of the seafood in the soup was overcooked.
But the service was what turned us off. Had to seat ourselves which we were okay with until the waitress failed to come for quite some time to even gove us a menu.
After dinner we sat 15 minutes waiting on our check after we finished. We were unable to get the waitresses attention and finally had to walk to the kitchen and ask for our bill.
Now we know why despite every other restaurant in the mall area had an hour or more wait on a Saturday night, this place was about ½ full in its tiny space. People were just not willing to deal eith the poor service.

I was so excited when I went to Torii and the first thing I wanted was a Ramen soup! I’ve tried it once far aways from here and was craving one ever since. No luck this time.
When the waitress came to get our order I told her it was my first time there and I did not know much about the dishes, she smiled and told me she would give me some more minutes, after looking at the pictures I picked one (I forgot the name but its the second picture in the line on the top of the menu, if you go there), looked delicious. When I got it and tried it I could not eat it as it was very greasy; I told my waitress and she told me that’s how it normally is and that if I wanted one less greasy I could get the other options and she explained it to me (I wish she had done that when I told her in the first place that I did no know a thing about Ramen) I decided I just wanted a bowl of Chicken and rice, and it was ok.
Not sure if I’m going back. 3 Stars because I want to give them the benefit of the doubt.

A solid 3 stars for me. I’m no expert in Ramen, but I thought the flavors were overall good. I see a lot of reviews on service. I’m wondering what level of service they were actually expecting from a noodle bar. My server was courteous, friendly, and competent.

Being away thousands of miles from home, we didn’t think theyd have ramen in NC. Ramen here was alright. i guess i had a high expectation for this place. ramen back in California is so much better. its not authentic, but i guess to the people who lives in that town where they never had authentic ramen, will seem authentic to them.

So this place was sort of a neat little nook, upstairs from Kanki with a pretty small menu of various ramen and phở dishes. I ordered the Curry Ramen and thought it was really good. The broth. eh, if you could call it that, was very, very thick. It was more like sauce really, than a broth, or even a standard curry. It was still really good but the viscosity really threw me for a loop. Also, the price point for what I got seemed a bit steep. It was a fairly sizable bowl of ramen, but at the end of the day, that’s really all it was… ramen. Yes, there was some egg, a few piece of carrot, corn, and onion, but mostly it’s just ramen. I will say that the service was top notch! A++ would do business again (little eBay joke for ya) because our server was on top of her game.

I come into Torii every time really hoping that I’ll be wowed but so far no luck. Torii has a lot of potential as a noodle bar in Raleigh where this is still a novel concept. However it doesn’t live up to my standards. I’ve tried a few of the ramen bowls and the broth is always hit or miss. That’s disappointing for a ramen bar to have such bad consistency.
For my latest visit, I opted to try a rice bowl from their menu. I got the Gyudon (beef rice bowl) and my friend ordered the Katsu don (Panko-​crusted chicken with rice).
The food came out fast and the bowl was huge! When I order a beef bowl however, I expect a certain meat-​to-​rice ratio. I like to have a little beef for every bite of rice I take. This was not the case with my Gyudon. There were many bites of white rice with none of the delicious beef. I loved the beef but just wish there was a little bit more. I tried my friend’s Katsu don and it was well-​fried and crispy, but likewise, he was left with half a bowl of plain rice.
The service was a little lacking: I picked out all the red ginger on top and the waitress came over and just starred at my pile of ginger next to my bowl and then at me without saying anything. She was curt, but fairly attentive.
Overall, not a dish I would order again, but I will return to Torii!

Service was terrible. Ramen was just okay.
We didn’t get seated or greeted when we walked in. It was an awkward setting and we weren’t really sure what to do. We stood around awkwardly for a couple minutes before deciding to seat ourselves. A waitress came up to us a few minutes later with the menus.
I got the tonkatsu miso ramen. Tonkatsu is usually breaded pork but this was just slices of pork belly. Pork was too tough — not silky at all! The broth had a really strong miso flavor, which was expected but not to this level. It just tasted like miso soup with noodles in it. The noodles were bland with absolutely no flavor or bite (overcooked).
Won’t be coming back. Wasn’t worth my time or calories.

Torii Noodle Bar is a great addition to Crabtree Valley Mall & Kanki Japanese Steakhouse.
Inside space is small & intimate, mostly tables & they have a bar that seats 6. Dined there on a Tuesday night, quiet when we entered but got busier as the time passed.
Service was great, our appetizer Edamame showed up quickly, was piping hot & very tasty!
Meal was equally impressive, pad thai & the spicy Udon noodles were both really good. Only complaint is the Udon noodles dish was about 30−35% less food than the Pad Thai dish.
A solid 4 star rating however!

So I had recently watched on Netflix the movie «The Ramen Girl» with Brittany Murphy and I, call me crazy, was hoping to have this fun, magical noodle experience right here in Raleigh. I wanted to like it so much. I’m not going to say I didn’t like it but it wasn’t what I thought it would be at all. I was disappointed. The waitress was nice and I enjoyed people watching out the window but don’t think I will be going back.

Went with the Wonton Men Ramen dish today which came out luke warm instead of the piping hot side. I thought the flavor was pretty basic because I had to add a good amount of chili pepper to it but the toppings were very good.
The roast pork had a slight layer of fat which was delicious and the dumplings were very good and perfectly cooked.
I thought the ramen was average but would come back to try some of their other dishes.
Parking here is a nightmare because its a mall so just be aware of that if you come here during holidays or for lunch.

I should have known. Shame on me for not listening to my fellow Unilocalers on this one. I was really craving Ramen and this was the only option at the time. Next time I’ll make it myself.
I ordered the Tonkotsu ramen hoping for some satisfying bowl of soupy goodness, instead I got an unbalanced, cool bowl of soup and noodles. The pork was fine, not too much to complain about, except that it wasn’t that rich taste you get from pork belly — none of that crispy pork fat. The hard-​boiled egg wasn’t medium, it was near well-​done. Overcooked egg is a simple execution failure. The noodles came clumped together giving the impression that the noodles were either not fresh or had been sitting in the basket too long. I don’t know how it was possible, but my dish came out cool. It wasn’t cold by any means, but wasn’t as hot as you’d expect it coming straight from the kitchen behind the counter. Lastly, the broth was overly salted, but inexplicably still lacked punch. Where is the richness of the pork in the broth? The creaminess was there, but only in form not function.
2 stars for quite possibly the worst ramen I have ever paid for. Try it if you must, but check out the occasional Sunday offering at Sono and the soon to be opened Dashi in Durham.

Rainy days are perfect for ramen, and this is the only ramen place in Raleigh of which I’m aware.
This was my first visit to Torii and I ordered the seafood scampi ramen. It was a huge portion, definitely two meals worth. It had a huge variety of ingredients including shrimp, scallops, calamari, soft egg, green onion, fried sushi rice ball, veggies, garlic and broth.
It was a good meal, not amazing, not bad. The service was prompt and it delivered on my expectations of fast casual. I’ll be back.
Next time I’ll try the miso ramen because the seafood broth was too light/​clear for me.

Torii is a new concept restaurant by the owners of Kanki, a noodle bar situated upstairs from the main restaurant. Having just recently opened, they’re still working out a few kinks in terms of the space and the service, but they are definitely on the right track to getting some well deserved foodie buzz going.
Their broths are currently made all in-​house, long simmered bone and dashi stocks and one unique Japanese curry flavor. The Momofuku inspired «tonkatsu» broth was creamy and full of flavor, enriched with bone marrow, and I can also recommend the classic soy broth.
A ramen class I attended was full of food and fun and sake tasting pours, and I was impressed by the knowledge imparted to us about sake (the manager is a serious sake sommelier) and the fresh ramen that was quickly cooked in the excellent house broth with various tasty toppings including chirashi pork, kamaboko fish cake, inari bean curd, sugar snap peas and perfect «onsen tamago» eggs.
The space is a bit small, so come early to get a seat. Even if you’re not a fan of the «Americanized Japanese steakhouse» restaurant type, which I am definitely not, Torii has a good concept, care in the execution, and a very friendly and engaging staff that make this a welcoming destination. I’m looking forward to what they do in the future and I will be back.

Had the unique chance to check out Torii for a bloggers night out. I’ve been dying to jump into the ramen craze and realize here in the Triangle we just don’t have many options. However we have Torii yay! The real reason I haven’t been here is because I avoid the mall like the plague. It’s just such a pain to drive around the parking deck at the mall and it’s just not my scene. In saying that I think that Torii would do much better in a trendier spot in Raleigh. However being part of the Kanki chain I understand why they are there.
Torii and the Kanki’s in town are all locally owned by the same family. The management, chef’s, and staff were all there to greet us upon are arrival and were extremely friendly. We got to learn about the history of the business as well as the background on where ramen came from.
Torii is more then just a noodle bar they also offer classes every month like, sushi & sake, and noodle making. Us lucky bloggers had the chance to check out the noodle making class. The space itself is really small and the restaurant only seats I believe around 45 people inside & out. But I like the small space it makes you feel quite homey and I’d feel comfortable dining here alone.
We started the evening off with some appetizers from the menu including tuna tacos, calamari, edamame, and pot stickers. Next up was a Sake tasting. This was a nice added bonus I had no idea we would be tasting Sake, I was stoked I love Sake!
We were all given our aprons and ready to pick a station to start our noodle making class. But first they brought us out a tray of four broths. We were able to sample each broth and learn what was in each one of them. All the broths were delicious it was hard to choose a favorite but I really liked the currry and the shoyu broth. The chef schooled us on ramen and how it’s made and went step by step in showing us how to make the dough. We were mixing, kneading, and rolling till we had the perfect consistency for our noodles. I got to say it’s a lot of work to make homemade noodles, but it was so fun. I do understand why they don’t make their noodles in house though, it would take forever.
Everyone took their dough and put it through the pasta machines until we had two servings each of perfect ramen noodles. Lucky us we got to take a bag of fresh noodles home. The other noodles we gave to our server and then picked the broth that we liked most from our sampling earlier. The servers came out and presented us with a piping hot bowl of ramen noodles and they set-​up condiments buffet style to add to our bowls including: fish cakes, tofu, pork, green onions, seaweed, soft boiled eggs and more.
We sampled some more sake and enjoyed the enormous bowl of noodles in front of us. I really enjoyed my meal and can’t wait to get back here to check it out on my own to experience Torii. As a ramen newbie I have nothing to compare this too, I’m sure it’s not NYC standards but it was tasty.
I highly recommend taking one of these classes. Whether you are looking for something fun to do with your friends or significant other this is such a cool unique class and a lot of fun. I think this would also be great for a small group for team building.
This is a great concept brought on by Kanki.