I had been to the Totto Ramen in Allston, so I was excited to try the one that is located in Assembly Row. What are the differences? Well for one, you can get takeout here. SCORE. Also, you can pay with a card. DOUBLE SCORE! Oh, and there’s totally better parking at Assembly. They open at noon and we were right there when they opened their doors. Good thing too, because it filled up pretty quickly and by 12:30 there was a wait. The seating is a little tight, probably best to leave strollers in the car if you have one. We started with the fried chicken bun which was DELICIOUS. This is what late night snack dreams are made of.

They have a few different choices for ramen:

Chicken Paitan:
Original straight noodles in house made Chicken Paitan Soup topped with scallions, onions, nori, *char siu and kikurage.  *Choice of pork or chicken.
Spicy Paitan:
Chicken Paitan topped with house made spicy sesame oil, scallions, bean sprouts, nori and *char siu.  *Choice of pork or chicken.
Miso Paitan:
Original wavy noodles in our Chicken Paitan topped with finest Koji Miso and ground pork, half boiled egg, scallions, bean sprouts, onions and *char siu.  *Choice of pork or chicken.
Vegetable Ramen:
Original straight noodles in seaweed and shiitake mushroom base soup topped with seasonal vegetables and Yuzu paste.

You can customize your bowl of ramen with things like extra chicken or pork, boiled egg, poached egg, kikurage mushroom, wake seaweed, corn, seasoned avocado, spicy bamboo shoots or rays (a spicy sesame oil) to name just a few.

The helpings were generous and pictured above is the chicken paitan. I wish that for $5 we went with the mega patina (a larger portion) because it was so good the next day at home!! The broth was just delicious.

Totto Ramen

463 Artisan Way, Somerville, MA

http://tottoramen.com/

The post Totto Ramen at Assembly appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.

Portland might be one of my favorite places, not only for the views and the shops, but for the amount of delicious restaurants packed into a small area. It’s so hard to choose where to go each time, but this time we opted to check out the Honey Paw. It’s the sister restaurant to Hugo’s and Eventide Oyster next door. I love the decor here, from the honeycomb lamp shades to the bear artwork by the restroom. There is large communal table by the window and a U shaped counter that goes around the perimeter of the restaurant. They market themselves as a non denominational noodle bar, that serves up pasta from across the globe.

We started off with the Brussels sprouts ($9), I love the presentation.

They came piled high on the plate and topped with crispy onions.

Next we had the red braised spare ribs ($14), a special item that day, that came with a chili glaze, sesame and peanut. These were delicious, the meat was so tender.

For my main meal I had the Vietnamese chili lobster ($20) that was yellow noodles, 1/2 a lobster tail, littlenecks, and a pork meatball served with red sauce, salted cabbage and cilantro. This was like an asian fra diablo (with meatballs). It was really quite delicious and I loved the kick.

The Honey Paw

78 Middle Street, Portland, ME

http://thehoneypaw.com/

The post The Honey Paw appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.

Following up from my previous post, I had mentioned that I had seen list in Zagat for the best food halls in NY. We already went to City Kitchen, next stop was Gotham West Market. A little out of the way if you aren’t in the area (Hell’s Kitchen), but we happened to be coming home from the water taxi!

The space is industrial and plays the music just a tad too loud for conversations to be had at a normal tone. 9 vendors have space here and all of them looked delicious, it was hard to choose!

Our first stop, Genuine Roadside.

The menu offers a sampling of burgers, pork, chicken and vegetarian options.

Poke style ahi tacos ($13) were top on our must try list. They came with spicy mayo, avocado and border slaw with sesame in crispy corn shells. This puts tacos in a whole new light – it may be hard to go back to traditional tacos after this! Really delicious – salty and creamy, I love everything that was going on in this dish.

I had been dying to try out Ivan Ramen’s Slurp Shop. Ivan Orkin is a world renowned ramen expert and his shop serves classic ramen. If you can’t make it to Hell’s Kitchen, they have a location on Clinton Street.

Here’s what I love about this place, they keep the soup separate until you’re ready to eat it so the noodles stay in tact. I ordered the Shio ramen that came with sea salt, dashi, chicken broth, pork belly chashu and rye noodles.

Tokyo Shio ($12). Don’t worry if you’re not in the mood for ramen, they also have some delicious rice bowls. And, if you happen to be there in weekend mornings, they have a tasty brunch men complete with breakfast buns, rice porridge and even a breakfast ramen.

Choza Taqueria serves up a variety of tamales, burritos, tacos, torts and ceviches.

The burritos are enormous ($8.73) and come loaded with black beans, rice and pico, along with fresh cilantro in a flour tortilla.

The chicken tacos were delicious, they came 3 to an order for $8.04 – double corn tortillas served with citrus marinated chicken and queso fresco.

And how can you forget dessert? Zagat rated Ample Hills the #1 ice cream shop in New York City.

This Brooklyn based company serves up hand crafted ice cream in flavors like ooey gooey cake batter, snap mallow pop, chocolate milk and cookies and peppermint patty.

I had the orange dreamsicle, sherbet made with orange juice, pure vanilla cream and a splash of Grand Marnier. Super delicious!

Nothing starts the day or ends the evening better than a cup of coffee. Blue Bottle has locations in SF, LA, New York and Tokyo. For the serious coffee drinker, not those that are looking for milk and sugar with a touch of coffee, Blue Bottle offers a variety of coffee options. If you’re stopping in in the morning, they also have some delicious baked goods.

Gotham West Market

600 11th Ave., New York, NY

http://gothamwestmarket.com/

The post Gotham West Market appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.

We’ve tried other ones, and we weren’t really impressed – we liked the idea, but the ramen ‘bun’ just didn’t stand up. Well, that’s because they are imitation ramen burgers. The real ramen burger held up while it was in your hands but melted away when you took a bite (must be those fresh ramen noodles). While we found the burger in general to be a bit on the greasy side, it was definitely satisfying our craving.

The burger is USDA Prime ground beef chuck and it comes with a shoyu glaze that sets the burger apart from others. I had mine with cheese and enjoyed every last bite.

Ramen Burger

Fulton Street (between Front and South), New York, NY

http://ramenburger.com

The post Ramen Burger appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.

We are able to get in on a Friday night, in under 15 minutes. The restaurant is crowded – with every seat at the counter taken and three people squeezed onto tables meant for two.

I’m liking the Totto Extra Spicy ramen, check out how many chili peppers there are next to it. Not for the faint of heart!

If you grab a seat at the counter, you can catch a glimpse of guys hand pulling noodles.

We order on extra spicy ramen ($11) with a side of extra noodles (no brainer) and added in some corn. Super filling, we almost didn’t finish it all. We also had the Paitan Ramen ($9.75) with chicken in chicken broth. The service was good and we would definitely go back again!

Totto Ramen

169 Brighton Ave., Allston, MA

http://tottoramen.com/

The post Totto Ramen appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.

It was a rainy day, so there wasn’t a lot of foot traffic. There were two other tables occupied late on a Saturday afternoon. A host at the door takes your order on an iPad and gives you a number. Grab a seat and they bring your order out to your table when it is ready – and when you are done, you bus your own table.

So what’s on the menu?

SNACKS

[v] corn roasted on the cob sriracha mayo + toasted crumbs, $4

chicken cabbage wraps pickled daikon and korean pepper sauce, $5

[v] wok roasted green beans crispy shallot + garlic, $4

shrimp chips our twist on a snack-time classic! , $3

———–

NOODLES

add a soft egg* to any dish for $2!

chicken and pork meatball rice noodle + lotus root + coconut curry broth, $9

lemongrass chicken glass noodle + roasted cauliflower + chili ginger sauce, $9

[v] spring vegetables  soba noodles + asparagus + soft boiled egg + cilantro-chickpea pesto, $9

chinese bbq pork udon noodles + miso pork broth + charred scallion, $10

lemongrass chicken, chinese bbq pork, or paprika roasted tofu spicy mayo + pork pâté + pickled carrot, $6

———–

SWEETS

bon me banana bread sundae banana bread + vanilla ice cream+ miso chocolate sauce, $5

———–

DRINKS

sparkling mango limeade $4

thai basil limeade $3

thai iced tea $3

hot MEM teas $2

It was a pork kind of day! We had the Chinese BBQ pork sandwich, a sweet and savory Bon Me version of Chinese roasted Char Siu Pork. I LOVE the picked carrots, they add a really nice flavor and texture to any of the dishes at Bon Me.

The chinese bbq pork with udon noodles + miso pork broth + charred scallion was delicious. There were pieces of squash, garlic and bean spouts in the soup as well, a really great lunch on a rainy day. The portions are large, I couldn’t finish! The flavors were bold, certainly a comfort food dish. The noodle dishes are only available at the One Kendall location, they are not offered on the truck, so if you want something really special, stop by their One Kendall location.

Bon Me Noodle Stop

One Kendall, Cambridge, MA

http://www.bonmetruck.com/noodle-stop

The post Bon Me Noodle Stop appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.

We used to come here for lunch when we worked in the Back Bay – they have great grab and go sushi, and you can get brown rice sushi!

The have a small upper balcony seating area as well as seating downstairs. They were doing a lot of take out business while we were there.

I love the chalk art menu on the wall, it looks great!

We start with the edamame. Salty and delicious.

Check out the spicy lobster ramen! Really bright colors, a little spicy and a generous portion of lobster (the portion in general was quite large – I couldn’t finish).

And how can you go and not have sushi? We had the spicy shrimp tempura which did not disappoint, the tempura was quite crunchy, and super fresh.

Snappy Ramen

108 Newbury Street, Boston, MA

http://www.snappysushi.com/

The post Snappy Ramen appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.

The part I love most is that they give you all the pieces of the meal separately – no soggy, bloated ramen noodles here.

The portions here are generous – with the additional ramen and the thin slices of pork.  The broth is salty and allows the other flavors in the dish to shine through. Overall, we were very satisfied with this meal.

Pikaichi

1 Brighton Ave, Boston, MA

The post Pikaichi appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.

They are only serving 200 bowls of ramen a night. We showed up at around 6:00 and there was a line out the door. We managed to grab a few seats at the bar.

They are only serving one kind of ramen, the shio ramen (salt flavored), which is their signature dish. The ramen had a wood ear mushroom, bamboo, scallions,pork pot roast, a fish cake and a pickled plum. The dish was a generous portion for the price ($10). The meat was quite flavorful, and the fish cake wasn’t too fishy. The pickled plum was a bit of a surprise. It looks a bit like a cranberry, and for some reason I thought it would be chewy, when in fact, it was crunchy with almost a tart flavor.

If you are planning on attending the event, get there early – as they were sold out by around 6:30pm.

Itadaki

269 Newbury Street, Boston, MA

http://www.itadakiboston.com/

The post Itadaki Pop Up Santouka Ramen Event appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.

The lid above is from the spicy ramen, how cute right? I get the good old standby chicken ramen, noodles in a chicken and pork broth topped with marinated grilled chicken breast, baby spinach, menma and scallion. You can order any of the soups with vegetable broth and many of the soups can be made vegetarian (with tofu instead of meat) so there is something for everyone. They even offer gluten free options. For around $12, you get a TON of chicken and a good portion of noodles, this is certainly enough for two meals!

Wagamama

Faneuil Hall in the Quincy Marketplace, Boston, MA

http://www.wagamama.us/

The post Wagamama appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.