Torihana Tei Chicken Ramen — Restaurant in Hong Kong Island

Before COVID I've always wanted to come here. Walked by a few times but there'd be a small queue outside. It's an easy place to forget as it's located on a backstreet near a refuse (trash) collection point. It survived the pandemic, I happened to be nearby, and entered at 9:15pm as the final customer of the night, which could explain why the server wasn't very welcoming. There were at least 6 customers still inside the small space. I ordered the most expensive bowl with everything in it -- quick and simple. It arrived super fast. Tasted the broth first and foremost. It had just the right viscosity -- neither thin and watery nor thick like a paste. Not oily at all, creamy but not heavy. Most important, not overly salty like many ramen broths. Next came the chicken. Wow. I didn't realize it came with so many slices of chicken. I looked at the photo on the menu. They're supposed to be thin. Mine were anything BUT. They were all thick slabs of chicken breast. Every bite was juicy. I'm guessing it was cooked sous vide. Then came the egg. OMFG the egg. In the photo, the egg is sliced in half. Mine wasn't. Maybe they were in a hurry. Or maybe they wanted to surprise me with the OMFG gooey yolk inside that was STILL warm! Maybe even on the slightly hot side. Some of the egg white inside was still watery. Could the egg have been sous vide, too? They could've boiled it on demand, but my bowl arrived fairly quickly. It would not be practical to peel it only when a customer orders it. So what is this sorcery? I have only once in my life encountered an egg with a warm yolk, and that was in Tokyo. The noodle (I ordered the curly style) was probably the store-bought kind. It was meh but passable. The fried lotus roots were a nice touch. They were generous with the seaweed. A soda was a reasonable $15. Cash only. No...

Food was tasty YEARS AGO and it used to be our first choice when thought of Japanese noodles. i wonder the ownership/chef was shifted and you better expect to taste a nissin noodle with condensed campbell soup and cold side dishes. We don't expect any service but the staff was actually rude in her 'polite' tone of voice. She will push away your chair when you're going to sit down. Heat your head with her elbow when serving food (not once). Took away the 2/3 full bottle of pickles to refill when you're clipping it but it never returns (we wonder if there's insect inside as she snatch it away so sudden). The seat arrangement was poor . Not once, there were 2 or 3 empty 4-person-table but we were arranged bar area seats. We have no comment with that, all in all, it’s just a small shop. What made us really annoyed is the seat is the ‘serving’ area 出菜位. All the hot dishes pass between us just next to our head, we have to dodge aside every time they pass the food from the kitchen. And the worst is the rest bar seats and other tables were not filled up. The bar is long, why didn’t they use the unoccupied seats to pass the food. Instead, they chose their own convenient against customers’ experience and safety. We have suggested to the young chef to use the next seat, just half step away, to pass their hot dishes. Don’t know if he pretended can’t heard of or with unhinged mind. All we could do is to dodge aside again and again for our own safety, unable to chat even we were just half step away, finish our noodles as quick as possible, and put this shop out of our...

I don’t like leaving negative reviews but this one is warranted. Hopefully it’s taken as constructive feedback.

On the plus, the soup base is still great. Glad we have a paitan option amongst the sea of tonkotsu. Same level of quality from my last visit 2 yrs ago.

Alas, the scallions are cut very poorly. Scallion quality is a telltale sign of a ramen joint, they failed. Cuts are very rough, fibrous (stuck to teeth), and definitely not rinsed in water after cutting. The white negi outer layers weren’t peeled properly, basically like leather and inedible. As a result left a dirty taste to the soup. I can still taste the scallions now, 2 hrs after my meal.

I requested hard noodles, and they were very much over cooked. Even if you ordered normal they would be considered over. It’s not rocket science to cook noodles, a timer is used at every restaurant. Someone overcooked it and didn’t care enough to cook a new one.

Decor is getting more disorganized with time. Covid dividers are diy ad hoc, at level of cut rate茶餐廳. It’s one thing to put up with it for 車仔麵, for $80-$100 ramen, they need to do better.

I understand post covid the restaurant game is quite tough. Have to call a spade a spade, they’re punching far below market standard. Quite a few excellent ramen competitors in wan chai, they need to step...