F H.
Yelp
I have to say, I'm pretty disappointed by both Sushi Tomo's food and service. Sushi Tomo is a fusion restaurant, but it seems to focus mostly on Japanese food. I thought the Vegetable Ramen would be a safe bet. When I arrived to pick up my take-out, everything was already bagged. I checked my meal before leaving, and noticed that the onsen egg - which is a very soft-boiled egg with a soft white and extremely runny yoke- was completely hard-boiled.
It seems like a small thing to get caught up on, but onsen eggs/ajitsuke eggs are my favorite part of ramen. I mentioned it to the hostess and she apologized, offering to get an actual onsen egg. She mentioned that it would take a few minutes to make it, but I was fine with that- again, onsen eggs are my favorite part of ramen! And mistakes happen- it's easy to overcook eggs.
Roughly ten/fifteen minutes later, she told me that they couldn't make a non-hard-boiled egg. That's pretty odd- if it's impossible for the kitchen to make onsen eggs, why are they an ingredient in every ramen on the menu? Were regular soft-boiled eggs also not a possibility? I was pretty bummed out, especially because I waited for something they weren't making. I expected better from a Japanese restaurant.
I was offered my next Ramen "on the house", which was generous, but brings me to my next point.
The food just isn't good.
Overall:
Ramen - 0 stars. The Vegetable Ramen has a soy milk broth-base and comes with spinach, kikurage mushrooms, and sweet corn. All of the ramens come with noodles, scallion, bamboo, fried garlic, and an onsen egg. Vegetarian ramen tends to be super flavorful and full of umami despite its lack of meat, but this ramen could not be more disappointing. The broth was bland and flavorless. I added some salt, hoping that it was just undersalted (which it was), but it didn't bring out any flavor because there was none. I saw another reviewer describe the noodles as "soggy", and I would consider that accurate. They're overcooked, and there's no springy texture to them. They also seem to be completely unsalted. Surprisingly, the completely hardboiled egg was the best part of the ramen. It was the only ingredient that actually had flavor, despite being extremely overcooked. Thoroughly disappointing.
Spicy California Roll - 3 stars. It's pretty decent $6 sushi, but it's just o.k.
After spending $20 on a meal, I was still incredibly hungry. I'm pretty disappointed- Pittsburgh needs some more great Japanese spots, and unfortunately Sushi Tomo just isn't one of them.