Green tea is only one of the two unusual ingredients in Kitchen House Totoro’s green ramen.

There’s no way that a restaurant that calls itself “Totoro” wasn’t going to pique our interest, so when we found out about Kitchen House Totoro, located in the Inagi City district of Tokyo, we knew we had to try it. And while the eatery may not have any actual connection to the famous Studio Ghibli anime forest spirit of the same name, our taste-testing reporter Takuya Inaba was still able to take his taste buds on a whimsical adventure that he won’t soon forget.

“Kitchen house” is a pretty vague designation, but Totoro is a pretty eclectic pace. You’ll spot a long line of bottles of shochu, wine, and other kinds of alcohol on a shelf as soon as you walk in, and you can use the place like an izakaya pub, ordering drinks and small plates of snacks to munch on with them. But you can also use Totoro like a regular restaurant, since the menu has a whole bunch of teishoku (set meals) on it, with main dishes like karaage fried chicken, hamburger steak, and pork cutlet.

On Takuya’s visit, he got to try both the shogayaki (ginger pork) and kamikatsu pork cutlet meals, each priced at 930 yen (US$6.65). They were both delicious, and like all of Totoro’s set meals, come with a bowl with a mixture of ordinary white rice and barley, and also a bowl of tororo, or grated sticky yam.

In addition to teishoku, Totoro also serves ramen…and we’re not talking about a single, simple variety, either. There are so many types to choose from that the ramen is on its own separate menu sheet, and it’s double-sided to boot!

There are a total of 41 different types of ramen to choose from, from basics like shoyu (soy sauce broth) and shio (salty broth) ramen to more complex recipes like chili shrimp and, of course, tororo ramen. Takuya had no trouble making up his mind, though, because as soon as he saw this…

…he wanted to know if ramen so weird-looking, so very, very green, could still taste good.

That’s the 850-yen Matcha Cream Shio Ramen, and it actually gets even more unusual, because, as mentioned in its written description on the menu, it’s made with mascarpone cheese too!

Cheese is an unusual, though not completely unheard of, ingredient to add to ramen, but mascarpone is an especially rare addition. However, mascarpone is a key component of tiramisu, and matcha tiramisu has proven popular at Japanese patissiers, so maybe this just might work?

Following standard ramen-tasting protocol, Takuya lifted a spoonful of broth only to his lips, took a sip, and…

…was instantly overjoyed at how good it tasted!

There was definitely a strong creamy sensation from the cheese, and this meshed fantastically with the saltiness of the shio ramen broth. There was still room for the mellow bitter notes of the matcha to make themselves immediately felt, though, and the interplay between all those flavors was astronomically enjoyable to Takuya.

We’re used to stumbling across great ramen in Tokyo’s city center, where the intense competition between noodle joints helps breed the best of the best flavors. Kitchen House Totoro is a reminder that there are great meals waiting even in less-touristy parts of Tokyo like Inagi, and now that Takuya has a love for the combination of mascarpone and matcha, maybe a trip to Kyoto to try out the new matcha Margherita pizza is in order.

Restaurant information
Kitchen House Totoro / キッチンハウス トトロ
Address: Tokyo-to, Inagi-shi, Hirao 2-9-7
東京都稲城市平尾2-9-7
Open 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 6 p.m.-10:30 p.m. (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday), 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 6 p.m.-11:30 p.m. (Friday, Saturday)
Closed Tuesdays and Sundays

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