This old train car (literally an old railway passenger car) has been a few restaurants in the past. Probably more than I even know. I know I went here when it was Chris and Rob's. But, Tori (formerly Tori Ramen when they were up in the Summit Hill area of St. Paul) has taken it over and given a totally new vibe and menu. They consider themselves noodle specialists and it shows in the menu they have put together. I know this opened up during the pandemic in this location, but for some reason, it has taken me a bit to get here.
The inside is… unusual… in that it has a sort of dining room in the train car portion, then a very small bar area – apparently housed by local regulars – and then there’s this unusual area with one of those open-atmosphere garage doors that sort of spreads out onto the sidewalk. Not complaining at all, but I just didn’t want you to walk in expecting a traditional 90-degree-angles everywhere situation.
We were seated pretty quickly and spent some time
deciding what we were going to get. The menu has a handful of delicious
sounding starters, a list of various ramen dishes – the items in red are the
ones that are spicy – and then some add-ins. Super easy to understand. They’re
also known for pretty advanced cocktails, so I went with the tiki-est of the
drinks “Will There Be Rum?”, and the server assured me that yes, it DOES have
plenty of rum. D got a strawberry lemonade. We opted for some cold sesame
noodle to start and then D got the Dra(MN) – which is the chicken noodle, miso,
and bali ramen’s combined – and I got the Com Saw Mi Da, which is chili crisp,
gochujang, chicken, and a soft egg.
Drinks were fantastic. The strawberry lemonade was sweet, but
not too sweet, and downright refreshing. The Will There Be Rum drink was an
excellent tiki-style drink and it was a challenge not to drink it down in like
three drinks. Would highly recommend this one.
The sesame noodles were perfect. A nice tall pile of noodles and red cabbage and cucumbers with tahini and black sesame seeds (the most evil of the sesame seeds). Not necessarily spicy, but there was some zing there somewhere. We slopped tahini sauce all over table by sharing this one, but fighting over a dish just means its really good and fight-worthy. You should try this one.
The ramen arrived more quickly than I expected, which ruled. The rich broth in both of our bowls looked the same, but this proved to NOT be the case. The Dra(MN) had a little bit of heat (it was in the spicy section of the menu) and had really good flavor. Lots of tahini flavor from the bali, without it being too peanut butter-y, and a surprisingly generous portion of noodles. Really good dish.
The Com Saw Mi Da was incredible, though. Plentiful noodles and lots of chicken, but the broth was so tasty and spicy. Growing heat, too. By the end, I was sweating. This place doesn’t mess around. Both ramen dishes were some of the more memorable ramen dishes I’ve had, so we will definitely go back here again.
A couple of random notes about this place:
- This place is great for vegans and vegetarians, and they’re willing to make changes to dishes to make sure you’re happy.
- I heard the table next to us say they had called “bullshit” on the heat level and ordered the Fire Shoyu and the Vegan Fire Shoyu. Both of them commented to the server that they may have ordered outside of their expectations and it definitely wasn’t Minnesota hot. Hahaha
- This place has a reallllllly weird vibe. Like Portlandia almost-jokingly quirky atmosphere. Apparently, on weekends, they’re open until 2am still serving ramen, but they have a DJ and it turns into a club atmosphere. Super out-of-the-box. Just didn’t want to forget to mention that it won’t be a chill Japanese restaurant vibe here.
Neither of us could finish our ramen, and we brought a whole additional meal of leftovers home. You can also have them throw in some extra noodles for like $4 and bring
some home to reheat with your leftovers. …which I did. And they were so good
the next day.
I would definitely recommend this place and I’m looking forward
to going back and trying some different dishes, but I doubt anything is going
to beat what I got this first time.
