Grub/Pub Crawl - Lake Ivanhoe Area: Token Ramen and Band Box (Closed)

I tried these spots at dinner on Friday. I'll have another (on its own because it was good) review from Friday in a few days. The first is in that shopping complex (with a Whole Foods?) at Mills and Virginia. The second is near White Wolf Cafe. I only ended up here because the Juju wait was too long and I couldn't find Kaya. 

Token Ramen - I wonder if they are run by the same people who do Kung Fu Tea because the receipt calls them out and they serve it there as well. Open for two weeks. Less "sit down" than I expected. More fast casual. You order at a counter. They bring it to you. I veered away from the ramen because I saw the lunch discount and I wanted a less rudimentary ramen after seeing a show about it the night before. I tried the harumaki (spring rolls) for $4.50 and gyoza (3) soup for $4.50. To go. The spring rolls (3) are probably store bought. The inside seemed a tad underdone. Exterior was crispy and not oily. I left the soup in the car for a few hours, so, the gyoza were mushy. I'm blaming myself, but, who knows. The soup was supposed to be a clear soup. Seemed like beef consume to me. Not great. They sell 9 ramens for $15 - $17. Lunch is $10. BTW- "men" means noodles. They sell: 17 apps, 5 fried rice, 2 katsu, 5 yakisoba (noodles), 11 hibachis, and drinks. The place is modern Japanese. No color. Booths, tables and an unused bar. The dishes I saw while waiting looked ok. Not too busy. Here are some ramen notes from a show called Lucky Chow. Noodles can be named for their width (ie 30s mean 30 noodles per 30mm noodle sheet). The first (from China) ramen was shoyu. Soy broth. Only royalty knew of it for centuries. Tokyo. The next type was tonkatsu. In the south. Pork broth. The next (1950 AD) was miso from the north (Sapporo). Wok fried. Then tsuke. Fish (ie bonito flakes). And lastly, maseman. No broth. Thicker noodle. Butter. No broth. This was for laymen. Tare is liquid seasoning. Mame are the toppings. Broth can overcook the noodles. I may have confused some of this. Fact check me.

Band Box - It's about that big. Unless they lied to me about hidden rooms, it seemed to be one small room with two tables. Almost too small to turn a profit. I was going to get a non-alcoholic drink to go (they do this), but, they said it cost as much as an alcoholic one. I could not abide. I never knew hard alcohol came in non-alcoholic form. But, they sell that too. In bottles. The drinks aren't that expensive. The flyer says $10. They have canned cocktails for $7 and $4.50. Ohh, it's meant to be a speakeasy. What there is of it seemed in character. They have a velvet rope. The staff were also in character. Like sad neo-Steam Punks. They trade in mixology. Parking is hard now. The once free lot across the street now is a pay lot. This is why I didn't stay. Open for six months. Nights only.

*I also saw that Moderne (and the ice cream place) on 50 near Mills also opened. Looked cool. Packed. Inadequate parking.