Toriok is coming soon with a traditional take on ramen
Just 100 bowls of ramen per day will be sold at Toriok, which will open in collaboration with the Plus 82 Group.
Hugh Ok and Terukazu Mukai, who both have extensive experience as chefs in Japan and Australia, noticed a gap in the market when it comes to traditional Japanese ramen in Adelaide.
They had a dream to open a ramen shop and saw an opportunity with the Plus 82 Group, who have restaurants like Plus 82 Pocha, Plus 82 GoGi and Plus 82 Lite.
“I think now ramen is kind of a trend, and so many shops keep opening up, but they mainly focus on tonkatsu ramen,” Hugh says.
“I think you’ve heard the tonkatsu word. The meaning of tonkatsu is pork bone. So I think that’s most popular in Japan.”
But even Hugh admits people in Japan tend to “like and dislike” the pork-based soup, and has decided to opt for something different when they open up their new ramen spot, Toriok, in late August to September next door to Plus 82 GoGi.
“The flavour of the pork is strong and a lot of people think that the tonkatsu ramen is too oily and too strong flavour,” Hugh says.
“We found in Adelaide, there is…not many shops that focus on the chicken – it’s called tori paitan ramen.”
Hugh also noticed when working in other restaurants that parts of meat like off-cuts and bone – that are often used for ramen – were going to waste, and he wanted to do “something with it”.
The chicken ramen – tori paitan which uses “chicken bones” – will be Toriok’s main menu focus.
Hugh says tori paitan translates to “cloudy chicken broth”, and the base is “think”, “milky” and has “very deep flavours”.
“I think that’s what is the difference between other [ramen shops],” Steven Lee of the Plus 82 Group says.
“Chicken also, and this is what we’re going to focus on, brings a lot of good proteins, and it’s actually really good for your health too.
“In Asia, even in Korea, if we get sick, we eat chicken broth soup, because it helps you to recover.”
Hugh says along with their signature dish, their menu will be very “limited” with only five items to choose from.
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Along with the signature tori paitan ramen, the menu will include a spicy tori paitan ramen which incorporates homemade chilli oil, a shoyu ramen with a “clear chicken broth”, soy sauce and seasoning, a vegetarian ramen with a soy base, and mazesoba with no soup broth and vegetables.
“We are not actually going to put any side dishes because we really want to focus on the those limited items and we want to keep the quality,” Hugh says.
“As you know, it’s hard to maintain the quality of food. That’s why we cut down all items so we can really focus on the ramen.
“We want to be a ramen shop, not like other restaurants that do ramen and lot of dishes.”
Along with five menu items, the Toriok team say they will limit their output to 100 bowls of ramen per day and stop selling when they hit that maximum.
“[The benefits are] quality control and we can also [manage] stock retention. Everything will be stocked daily, fresh,” Hugh says.
As for the look of the space, Steven says it will have an “industrial” and “vintage” feel, and will only seat 16 people at a time.
“I think, normally, [in Japan] 10 seats and 12 seats is a max because the ramen, you can cook very fast, but you cannot cook like 10, 20, multiple dishes at the same time,” Hugh says.
“But that’s why the ramen shops in Japan, they’re limited with the number of seats.
“And then also, it won’t take too long time for people to finish their meal, so that’s where we get the idea from.”
Toriok is located at 14 Eliza Street, Adelaide and is slated to open in late August to September.
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