Midtown lunchers have better things to do than wait an interminable amount of time for a bowl of (admittedly amazing) ramen at Totto Ramen. After I discovered Totto, my previous favorites, Minca and Ippudo became all but distant memories. Others raved about the lovely springy noodles and amazing chicken broth. But quality begets reputation, a flood of customers, and the inevitable line around the block, and as such, the wait and the cramped dining room seriously detract from the overall experience.

Enter Yakitori Totto (on 55th btw. B’way+8th), which recently put ramen on their menu for $9, alongside their other well regarded lunch specials. We already know that the Totto empire, which includes hit-or-miss spot, Hide Chan, knows their noodles, but how will this new dish stack up against the rest?

In short, this bowl of ramen is easily on par with the product found a few blocks south. Instead of pork or chicken, this ramen is focused on beef. The paitan broth is beef based and assertively viscous with a zesty layer of spicy sesame oil. And instead of that lovely char siu at Totto Ramen, Yakitori Totto flaunts a generous amount of unbelievably tender beef short rib, nestled into the springy and pliant noodles. The only hole one could poke in this preparation is its richness – the braised short rib isn’t trimmed of its connective tissue and fat, and the broth was flush with outrageously opulent collagen and rendered fat. However if you’re a fan of the thicker, richer paitan broths, you’re going to love this dish.

For your $9, you also get a salad, which on my visit was as fresh and crispy as it was unremarkable. But it’s a gesture that you’ll appreciate, and it bumps this lunch up from a good value to a fantastic bargain. Throw in the fact that you’re lunching in a cool, dark, serene dining room as opposed to the sweaty and cramped hot mess at Totto Ramen, as well as the fact that there is never (at least for now) a wait for tables at Yakitori Totto during lunch, and you may just well have a new favorite ramen spot in Midtown. I know I’ve certainly found mine.

Related:
Yakitori Totto is My New Favorite Midtown Lunch

I fondly recall previous dinners at Yakitori Totto, which always consisted of indulgent amounts of yakitori, many many rounds of sake, and a boisterous dining room of patrons happily eating and drinking in excess. But at lunch time, there’s a hushed reverence in the dining room as the cooks manning the charcoal grills quietly ply their craft and solo diners wordlessly meditate over bowls of rice and skewers of meat. Despite the tranquil scene the service is efficient, and I noted that my lunch spanned a mere 30 minutes.

The Berkshire pork don includes a small green salad and miso soup, which arrived shortly after ordering. They are what they are – simple appetizers, prepared with the level of quality and freshness that one comes to expect from the Totto brand.

And then the Berkshire pork loin don arrives. In our crazy world of high tech cooking – induction ranges, sous vide, convection ovens, and the like, it’s easy to neglect the primitive technique of cooking meat over hot coals. This trio of skewers of thoroughly tender pork was grilled with finesse and glossed with a respectful amount of seasoning and oil. The skewers are striated with crunchy bits of onion, and just the right amount of flavorful pork fat. It’s simply a knockout punch of pork.

Accompanying my pork over rice was a barely poached egg, which is meant to be swirled into the rice. To borrow a quote from the always quotable Tony Bourdain, “I’m a total egg slut”, and this egg did much to enrich the sticky rice, which was lightly seasoned with scallions, Japanese pickles, and a micro chiffonade of nori. After a bit of augmentation with salt and chili powder, I gleefully supped on this simple, yet decadent bowl of bespoke rice, and found myself completely full.

$10.50 plus tax and tip was paid, and lunch was consummated by a complacently sipped cup of complementary hot tea. My 30 minutes of zen was up, and I emerged content and full into the blustery cold October afternoon.

Related:
Yakitori Totto is My New Favorite Midtown Lunch

Related:
Yakitori Totto is My New Favorite Midtown Lunch

It might surprise you to hear me say this, but being forced to work in such a tourist driven part of New York City is not always a bad thing. Sure, a glut of fat mid-westerners means that Midtown will never have a shortage of TGI Friday’s, Sbarro’s and shrimp restaurants based on Tom Hanks movies. But an abundance of Japanese tourists and businesspeople create the same, albeit more positive, effect:  Midtown is full of authentic Japanese food-  and I’m not talking about sushi.  I’m talking authentic kaiseki meals at places like Hakubai (in the Kitano Hotel), ramen at places like Menchanko Tei, amazing izakayas (after work drinking and eating spots) like Sake Bar Hagi, and the grill-centric Yakitori Totto, and its two sister spots Yakitori Torys and Aburiya Kinnosuke.

Traditionally yakitori (and the izakaya that often serve it) has always been an after work or late night snack type of thing, to accompany drinking, so it made sense that these places wouldn’t be open for lunch.  Of course this is America, and my desire for meat on a stick knows no cultural boundaries!  Many of us who work in Midtown have always lamented that these places weren’t open for lunch… and as a business owner, what’s more important?  Authenticity, or paying the rent?

So, you can imagine my excitement when Yakitori Totto announced last month that they were now open for lunch. But Totto is not cheap-a single skewer costs $3+ at dinner time- and even though I had begged for this moment I secretly knew that it probably wouldn’t be cheap enough to quality as a true Midtown Lunch.

Yesterday, I walked over to 55th btw. B’way+8th for the moment of truth.

COME ON NOW!?!  How lucky can a guy get? $9.50 lunch special!  That, my friends, is a Midtown Lunch.  I went right in, and took a seat at the bar.

If you’re trying to keep the lunch under $10, your options are kind of limited.  I like Oyako Don just as much as the next guy, but the place is called Yakitori Totto.  I’ll take some meat on a stick please…

Included in the $9.50 price was an excellent bowl of miso soup (a lunchtime revelation if you’re used to the watered down garbage you get for free at most cheap Midtown sushi spots)…

… and a salad!  This deal was looking better and better.

The main course, three fairly small chicken skewers over a smallish bowl of rice, is not large.  But this is not the cheap dried out sticks of chicken you’re probably used to.  Expertly grilled, I found myself savoring every single bite of the delicious fatty dark meat chicken (the choice between succulent, fatty, flavorful thighs and whit meat breast is no choice at all!)  The rice was also delicious, covered in bits of nori, a little bit of seaweed salad, and a sweet soy sauce.  It came with a lightly poached egg, served chilled. Common sense dictated I put it over the rice bowl (which I did), but next time I probably won’t. I don’t doubt its authenticity, but I like my egg yolks warm- and I didn’t like the cold/hot contrast of the egg over rice.  (Did I do it wrong? Or maybe they only serve it cold in the summertime?)

All in all it really was the perfect lunch.  The fat guy in me was tempted to order another skewer or two (hello gizzard!), or a gyoza appetizer to share, but the Japanese zen master in me was satisfied with what could be considered the perfect amount  of food.  Admittedly it’s not a true Midtown Lunch…  mostly because it’s more enjoyable as a sit down restaurant than a quick take out lunch.  But in some ways it defines the ultimate Midtown Lunch.  $10 is as much an emotional barrier as an economical barrier.  I have always felt that $10 is a line in the sand that restaurants consciously decide to cross of not.  It is tough to run a profitable business, and it would have been completely expected to see a Yakitori Totto menu with lunch specials over $10.  But I feel like they consciously decided to have a few options for the budget conscious Midtown Lunch’er, who also loves meat on a stick!

The cheapos of Midtown deserve an expertly cooked, sit down lunch in a beautifully calm Midtown oasis every once in awhile, don’t we?  The fact that we can get it at Yakitori Totto for under $10 makes it my new favorite Midtown Lunch. You’ll probably want to go soon though.  Yesterday the place was half full around 1pm.  In another 3 months, there will be a line out the door.  Guaranteed.

THE + (What somebody who likes this place will say)

• A calm Japanese oasis, in the middle of the craziness of Midtown
• Upscale Japanese yakitori, for under $10?!?!
• At night, 3 skewers alone would be at least $9 (and this came with rice, soup and salad)
• I love meat on a stick!!!  And this version is expertly grilled
• Far better quality than fast food yakitori, like Kushi Q (and not that much more expensive for what you get)

THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place will say)

• Fat guy says: “It’s not a ton of food” (aka the skewers are pretty small)
• It takes a lot of discipline not to break the $10 barrier
• Cold poached eggs are weird!
• In another few months the place will be packed, and lunch will probably take longer than an hour
• The lunch combo doesn’t include any of the strange yakitori options (like gizzard, liver, or heart)
• The lunchtime chicken skewers don’t have the scallions that the dinnertime versions have

Yakitori Totto, 251 W. 55th St., 2nd fl, (btw. B’way+8th), 212-245-4555