Cheap. Ethnic. Suburban.: Toki Underground on H Street NE, DC

Our latest restaurant visit can’t fully qualify as a true Brigade outing: (1) Only 2 of the 4 members (myself and Alex) were present, with Marta watching her beloved Miami Heat implode in the NBA Finals (as a Chicago Bulls fan, I gain immense satisfaction from this turn of events) and Julia in NYC and (2) our dining selection was located in the District on H Street NE, actually not that far from my house on Capitol Hill. However, Toki Underground is cheap AND it’s ethnic, so I feel that it was in the spirit of our guiding principles.

We made the short jaunt over to H Street with a guest, a Mr. Phillip Lopez, local motivational speaker and a fan of our blog whose repeated emails to the site did not go unnoticed; note that random flattery will get you everywhere if you want to accompany the brigade on an outing!

Mr. Lopez is as confused as I am; is this the place?

Toki Underground opened up recently on H and is part of the continuing trend of new bars and restaurants that seem to pop up on the corridor on a regular basis (Julia wrote an excellent entry on a sampling of the neighborhood’s libations here). The restaurant is unique in that it’s the first restaurant in the District serving true Japanese style ramen. Actually, it’s a Taiwanese take on Japanese-style ramen, but obnoxious foodie specificity aside, this food is not “Cup O’Noodles.” The food was delicious, and cheap, by DC standards.

Unfortunately, as any DC resident can tell you, when something new and unique (and good) opens up, it is absolutely mobbed. We showed up around 6:15 on a Sunday evening and were told that there would be a 1.5 hour wait. Although the restaurant is really small and only has about 20 seats, this seemed kind of ridiculous. Thankfully, Toki is located above a bar, and there are multiple bars on H, so we stopped for a drink and a snack before our meal.

A constellation of beer.

We went to The Queen Vic, a new British pub that recently opened up down the block. Irish pubs are a dime a dozen, so it’s good to see an actual British establishment open up. After a couple of beers, some Welsh Rarebit (a cheese spread on top of toast), and an order of chips (which the manager actually supplemented because he was upset the server apparently short changed us), we got the phone call to head back over to Toki.

World-class pointing!

The décor of the place is a cross between Hawaiian beach hut and pachinko parlor, with some hipster flair. I didn’t much care for it. Luckily, neither I nor the rest of the Brigade discriminate based on appearance; the food is what matters.

I wonder what the words for "unnecessarily kitsch" are in Japanese?

And the food at Toki was excellent. We started off with six pan-fried pork and scallion dumplings, which were juicy, fatty, and delicious. Alex and I had the traditional pork flavored ramen that included vegetables and a pork cutlet (I added a skewer of grilled chicken livers), while Mr. Lopez had the chicken curry flavored ramen. Mr. Lopez probably couldn’t give one of his famed motivational speeches the following day, because he dumped an entire serving of homemade sriracha sauce into his already spicy broth. Regardless, nothing was overcooked, and everything was quite flavorful. The servings were quite large, and at only $10 without add-ons, you could get out of Toki without spending that much. I also ordered a serving of sake for $8, and we got at least 5 glasses out of it.