According to Santouka's website, the Toroniku Cha-shu is simmered pork cheek (jowl) meat. This ramen is served separately from the broth and noodles and can be added as you consume the ramen, or all at once. I opted for the all-at-once approach while my fiancee opted to add as she ate the bowl of ramen. Either way, it was damn tasty. Now, I don't claim to be an expert on ramen, in fact, I can't even remember the last time I ate ramen that wasn't from a bag that cost $0.30. (As I write this, I recall eating the ramen chronicles twice at Playground (#70 on the list)). Regardless, I'm still quite new to the world of ramen, and as such, don't have much to compare this to.
That being said, this ramen was quite exceptional. The pork was tender, melt in your mouth, and the spicy miso was perfection. Usually when I go for pho, I'll have some of the broth, then add the jalapenos and Sriracha to it for heat. With this spicy miso broth, there was little to no room for improvement. I see some people recommending adding more oil (most likely a chili based oil), but when drinking the broth alone, there was just the right amount of heat, and while eating the noodles and pork, the flavors burst through.
A quick word of advice - parking here sucks. Head straight for the underground parking. Every eatery here takes cash only. It does get busy at lunch, but people cycle through quickly and a table isn't hard to find. There's about five other eateries in the food court and they all looked quite interesting. I'll be going back here many times for ramen as it's close to my work, but I'll also be trying the other locales and sampling other fine Japanese cuisine.
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