Tochi Ramen

The fact that this place serves the quality of food that I would gladly drive 45 minutes to get and is only 25 or so minutes from my front door is one of the best things to ever happen to me.
Beverages were good – my Great Dane pilsner beer was served straight up in the can, which I can honestly say serves the overall aesthetic of the restaurant well. Not my preference (I would have taken a glass were it offered to me), but no harm, no foul. Our appetizer of pork buns (two buns, three bites or so each) are the «sandwich» style, instead of the stuffed version. They weren’t as hot as I was expecting, but the sauce was rich and full of that traditional five-​spice flavor.
My entrée (Tonkatsu Ramen) was outstanding, and the broth was beyond rich, unctuous, silky and satisfying. The «crispy pork» comes in the form of small cubes of fried meat, instead of my assumption of a fried, breaded pork cutlet normally associated with the description. My dining partner had a bowl of beef udon, and asked that they eliminate the bone marrow butter. The waiter did an excellent job of not arguing, but explaining why he may want to reconsider. After some thought my partner stuck with his decision, and I can only imagine how much more delicious the dish might have been with it.
Our dessert, a mango «cheesecake» seemed more like an «assemblage» instead of a fully-​crafted dish. It was still tasty – a creamy mango-​cheesecake filling in a dish with whipped cream and coconut flakes on top. My fiancée lamented the lack of his favorite part of cheesecake – the crust!
The staff was watchful, professional and genuine. The music and décor are a fresh departure from the status quo.
So if you like ramen, you must go. If you don’t, go anyway. You will after you’ve tried the magic in a bowl available here!

YUMMO!!! So glad we have this restaurant in West Bend

Everything I have had on the menu has been too notch. Glad that West Bend is finally getting good food.

Amazing food, great atmosphere, fun for ALL. Take the kiddos, dinner date, or night out with friends. A great beer listing to choose from too! Anything on the menu will not disappoint! Go enjoy some Ramen!

I still love me some Tochi Ramen. How can I tell? We drove the 40 miles up to West Bend last weekend and I would have gladly walked the last 10 miles in the freezing cold just for a hot bowl of that goodness. I believe this was the first time in my 40-​some years on this earth that I have ever been to West Bend. I have been to Ireland 5 times, West Virginia 3 times, Austria 3 times, and Germany four times, but prior to last weekend, I have never been to West Bend.
As others have noted, there have been a few changes to the menu, but nothing earth shattering, at least not to me. I am sad to see the Godzilla toy display gone, and I miss the mural of the Japanese guys in their white jumpsuits and hard hats, but the interior of the new location is really cool. I understand it is fitting with the new development along the river. In the Pantheon of Ramen within driving distance to Milwaukee, I place Tochi a solid second behind Red Light Ramen. Tochi is very good, but it’s missing that certain «unctuousness» that only RLR can put in your bowl. At least I don’t have to stay up until 11:30 to get a bowl at Tochi, I just have to drive 80 miles round trip. Absolutely worth it for those «pork cracklings» they add. I will say that their pork belly has improved over my last visits to the Shorewood location. It was getting way too fatty.
I’m happy to see Tochi thriving in it’s new (ish) West Bend location. One day I dream of their triumphant return to the 414. I know I am not alone.

Damn Tochi — why did you have to move so far away?
We finally made the (long) trip out to West Bend to check out the new location. They’re in a new development with a good amount of street parking, which is an improvement. The interior is nice — sort of Japanese hipster. I do miss the Godzilla murals and fun toys from Shorewood. This location has a small bar serving up sake cocktails and Japanese beers. There’s a small, but reasonably priced sake list ($ 8 carafes, holla!) and a good beer list.
The menu has changed a little — no more bacon and egg mazeman (sad face) but tonkatsu ramen every day (hooray!). We started with an old favorite — pork belly buns which were as good as ever and now have pickled cucumbers added for a little crunch and acid. For dinner, the Mister had his favorite Tochi Ramen and I went with the tonkatsu. I still say Red Light has the best tonkatsu ramen in town but Tochi’s version is a close second — I love the bit of chili powder they use and I really, really love the crispy pork belly cubes. Not traditional, but absolutely delicious. The broth was really good — it had that silky, creamy texture and wasn’t overly salty. Good noodles too — perfectly cooked with a bit of chew to them. I wished for a second stomach so I could have another bowl (portions are generous btw). Service was great — fun, friendly and attentive.
Why is all the good ramen in town so hard to get? It’s hard to stay up until 11:30 and driving 80 miles round trip stinks. Tochi, please open a location in Milwaukee soon! (Preferably really close to my house kthanx)

Great ramen style noodles in many varied combinations. They are only open 4−9pm nightly. Get there early as it gets crowded very quickly.

pricey, but well worth it, was not expecting the place to be as clean and ncie as it was.

We recently heard that West Bend got its first real noodle shop. Having moved up to the Fox Valley, from Chicago we have always lamented the lack of really good ethnic foods so we were excited to hear that not only a noodle shop opened up within 30 minutes of us, but it was a transplant from the Milwaukee area, with a really good reputation.
Having never eaten at the original location I can’t vouch for the food, but if the quality of what we experienced, in West Bend, is what it was like in Shorewood, the reputation is well deserved.
We started with an order of the Pork Buns and Shishito Peppers. The buns were good but the Shishito peppers were out of this world. My wife and I devoured them within minutes of their arrival at our table.
Both my wife and my 9 year old daughter had Ramen while I ordered 1 of their Udon bowls. All were fantastic; my daughter’s, simple and light with a simple broth, some chicken and carrots garnishing the ramen. My wife’s was a bit more complex, and full of flavor, yet still light as ramen should be. My Udon bowl was definitely more of a fusion dish, with lots of chili powder, lime and cilantro creating a Mexican-​Japanese fusion dish that was really, really good. The only thing that disappointed was the Miso Deviled Egg I ordered which I thought was rather bland and tasteless.
I loved the vibe of the place-​kind of a Ramen shop meets punk rock with a bit of cheese thrown in. While there I heard Depeche Mode and Pixies playing over the speakers while watching Japanese TV (shows similar to Mighty Morphine Power Rangers) that was translated into Spanish in the subtitles.
I think this is a great addition to West Bend’s dining scene and am thrilled that I can now get to such a place in half the time that it takes me to get to Milwaukee. I will be interested in seeing if this place can sustain a following, in West Bend, after the newness wears off. I certainly hope so!!!

I’ve found a new favorite in West Bend! The tonkotsu was delicious — filling and the flavor of the broth was outstanding. We had the edamame first — they were excellent. Had us licking our fingers. Will definitely be back!

When I heard that Tochi was leaving Shorewood and moving to some town near Minnesota called «West Bend,» I nearly, or possibly even did go to tears. I used to hit this place once a week while it was luxuriously located a handful of blocks from my house. So believe me when I say, something has to be pretty damn good for me to make the 45 minute (EACH WAY) drive to, what was it called? West Bend?
Well, I did just that on Saturday night and Tochi took it’s first baby step toward absolution. We started the way we always start, by getting Shishito-​faced. If you don’t know that that means, it means with a bowl of the succulent fire-​roasted shishito peppers sautéed in duck fat. I’m not sure what caramelizes on the bottom of the bowl, but whatever it is, it’s heaven. Shishitos are delicious by themselves but this preparation, a mainstay app from the old location is just plain amazing. Shishitos are sort of the Russian roulette of peppers. About every tenth one is intensely spicy but you never know when you’ll be so lucky, so have something from Tochi’s fine beer collection nearby, like say a Great Dane or a Buddah.
Back in Shorewood the kitchen was smaller so you had to show up (early) on Thursday if you wanted Tonkotsu. Tonkotsu is sort of the holy grail of ramens for us «rah-​men.» Tochi’s broth is slowly simmered out of pork bones over the course of 20 or so hours. Toss in some pork belly, pork belly «croutons» (fried crispy pork belly cubes), a smoked egg and a few other goodies and what you have is a roll-​your-​eyes-​back delight of unthinkable proportion. This stuff is insanely good and the great news for those living Up NORT in West Bend — it’s on the regular menu — that’s right, you can get it any damn night of the week. As if moving away wasn’t enough, we were confronted with THAT insult! OY!
The next planned dish, something I would scrape every last drop off the bowl down here in Shorewood — Apple Bacon Massaman wasssss — MISSING FROM THE MENU! Take that West Bend! HA! We had it! For the love of God man, if I have to drive up to the area of ski hills and deer hunters to get this manna from heaven, put this back on the menu.
So instead we tried something new — Chicken and chorizo with soba noodles. Lord of all that is mighty! This is a bowl of all that’s good in the world. Smokey and yet somehow bright with lime zest, this is a really sophisticated and «much classier than the chef» dish. Bravo. This one may be worth the trek alone.
Many of your favorite things at Tochi are still in place, and there’s some welcome new additions. The space is funky and fun and probably way too hip for whatever the name of the small town that it’s in.
One last bitch — get rid of that nasty raspberry ginger beer and get the regular Crabby’s back. Patrick would completely freak out over at Machu Pichu or the Perfume River, or wherever he is these days. How can we have saki bombs if there’s no Crabbys?! Sheesh.
Well, consider yourself fortunate if you, UNLIKE me, live within a decent and humane commute to this fine establishment. It’s the best bowl of ramen you’ll find just about anywhere.
Sadly it appears Tochi has a long and prosperous future ahead of it in Westburg. Here I was hoping it would already be failing so that they would crawl back to Shorewood. If anyone reading can help by carpooling, let me know.

I was pretty sad when Tochi closed in Shorewood. Of course I had to check out the new location and as long as traffic isn’t bad I can get there in under 50minutes from downtown Milwaukee.
I was happy to see some favorites on the menu and some new additions as well. As always the ramen was tasty and satisfied my craving for ramen. We also tried the udon noodles with beef and of course that was delicious.
It was pretty busy when we arrived on Saturday night around 7. They need a better system of taking names as there is no hostess booth when you first walk in, so we stood there a couple of minutes before being acknowledged by anyone. There are probably less tables than the old location but the kitchen is much larger.
Glad to see they are doing well in West Bend and it sounded like many people frequented their location in Shorewood.

Amazing to have this excellent restaurant move into West Bend. Great environment, well trained staff and the food is amazing. Excellent ramen with many different versions to try. Had the Shishito peppers for appetizer and they were amazing.