Tommy P.
Yelp
First time back at Tampopo in years; I've been wanting to come back, but I just never really made an effort to go all the way to Porter to try them again. I had a large gap in my schedule, so I wanted to stop by Tampopo for lunch since I had a lot of spare time to commute by train in my itinerary today.
Anyways, it's a pretty small restaurant. They have 3 tables, so three groups can sit at a time. It is focused on noodle bowls and donburi, so in all fairness, turnover is probably really fast.
The service was nice- I got a Calpico, Karaage, Vegetable Tempura Soba, and 1 Cream and 1 Corn Croquette.
Canned drinks are $2.50, Croquettes are $2.50 each, Karaage is $5.50/4 pieces, and my Soba was $11.50. Tax is already included, so I just paid an even $24.50 at the end of my meal, before tip.
The Karaage was nice- it was well marinated and very flavorful. It was fried really well and came out crispy and still moist on the inside. It tastes really sweet here- sweeter than other Karaage that I've had- and came with a drizzled soy sauce on it that gave it a nice salty savoriness that balanced out the sweetness. Again, this Karaage was sweeter than usual- it reminded me of gentle notes of cinnamon and sugar- but it was also saltier due to a soy sauce drizzle. One of the more unique Karaage that I've had and I would order it again. As a bonus, they gave me a 5th piece instead of the 4 pieces advertised! Maybe it was because they thought 4 pieces was too little for $5.50? Anyways, just know that one order comes with about 5 pieces.
The soba was not good. They never made any claims about house made noodles, so I wasn't expecting amazing soba or anything, but the noodles that I got were on the blander side of soba and they seemingly were over cooked. They weren't incredibly mushy, but between the flavor and the texture of the noodles, I would never get them again here. Surprisingly, they also put the vegetable tempura right into the same bowl. Years ago, I got Vegetable Tempura Udon and I believe that they served the vegetables on a separate plate so they wouldn't get soggy. I don't know why they decided to change it up now and put them in the same bowl, but while my first few pieces were really crunchy and crisp, it didn't take long for the rest of the tempura to turn soggy and limp. I think that the vegetables are seasonal so your bowl may vary with what you have(?, unconfirmed). The broth was meh; I didn't care for the bowl at all besides the tempura.
The croquettes were nothing to write home about. The corn croquette was really dry and not flavorful at all. I don't recommend it. The cream croquette did have flavor and it did have a nice mouthfeel due to the creaminess, but it wasn't amazing.
Overall, my take away is, come here for the Karaage, I don't recommend the soba and I don't care too much for the croquettes. The vegetable tempura is nice, so if you do get them with noodles, ask for them on the side or just get it a la carte!