Restaurant Review: Kinton Ramen
KINTON RAMEN
51 Baldwin Street ~ kintonramen.com Instagram: @kintonramen ~ Twitter: @KintonRamen Co-Diner: Tim Golem
Toronto is in pretty good shape when it comes to very good ramen. With both Santouka and Jinya in the city (two chains that I consider to be excellent, both from Japan) the options for top-end ramen are favourable. And then there is Kinton, a Canadian ramen shop that started their first location right here in Toronto. Opening in 2012, they were one of the first ramen restaurants in the city (the ramen boom hadn't hit yet) and they have been celebrated ever since. NOW Toronto named them the #1 Best Ramen 2018 and the #1 Best Ramen 2019. blogTO calls them the #1 Best Ramen in Toronto. And they were featured on the fifth season of You Gotta Eat Here!. They've really managed to take the city by storm - and they're moving on to the rest of the planet. Now with eleven locations in the Toronto area, seven in Montreal, one in Vancouver, two in Chicago and one in New York... They are poised for world domination - all within only eight years. Their parent company, Kinka Family is regarded as Canada’s largest Japanese restaurant brand. I visited their original location in Baldwin Village on a hot and sunny Saturday evening - perfect ramen-eating weather! Ha. The restaurant is quite small, as most originals are, and we took a seat on the tiny patio. The patio consists of only five cube-shaped tables with stools and there are a couple of umbrellas for shade. The neighbourhood is very cute and it's a lot of fun to feel immersed in the vibe of the street. Being that we were outside, I didn't get to see the interior of the space. But the real loss is missing out on the signature "irasshaimase!" that always gets shouted at you by every staff member upon entry of a casual-style Japanese restaurant. (This translates to "welcome! Please come in!") From what I understand, the inside is mostly just counter seating, which is truly the way that ramen should be consumed. Fast and dirty! (And slurpy.) There's a very cool wooden feature wall as well. The people working at Kinton were speaking Japanese, which I appreciate, and our friendly server was happy to take our order right away. This is another characteristic of ramen shops: your order is taken quickly and the food arrives before you've barely even ordered it. Normally, I would order some green tea to drink but considering that we were sitting outside in the hot sun, it needed to be something cold. KINKA Ramune ($4.00)? Sold!
If you have never tried Ramune, you are missing out! It's a Japanese soft drink that tastes a lot like cream soda. The distinctive design of the bottle is what makes this drink unique and fun! The glass bottle is sealed with a marble and to open the bottle a plastic device is used to push the marble inward. It's a whole little activity! I also really like that Kinton uses their Ramune as a fund raiser for a good cause. Kinton offers a nice selection of Sides, in fact there are twelve of them. These gave me izakaya vibes, which is never wrong. We grabbed the Takoyaki ($5.50), a favourite street food of ours from when we visited Japan.
This version was great! The balls of dough were fried to a nice golden perfection but were soft on the inside. The pieces of octopus were not lost and were not rubbery. The flavourful toppings really rounded out the dish and I always especially enjoy the use of bonito flakes (dried, fermented fish). Delicious little pop-in-your-mouth treats. Then it was Kinton Ramen time! Kinton offers five pork-based ramen and five chicken-based ramen. And one vegetarian ramen. Step 1 is to choose your flavour. Since it was my first official visit, I wanted to try their most classic dish; the Pork Original ($12.95). Step 2 is to choose your noodle and there are three different options. Our server explained that the thick noodles are usually better in the pork ramen and the thin noodles are better in the chicken ramen. This was such a useful tip! I went with the thick noodles. Lastly, step 3 is to select any additional toppings that you would like. Often, this is where I would add an ajitama (seasoned egg) which isn't necessary at Kinton because it already comes included.
Anyone who knows ramen will confirm that the most important component of the dish is the broth. And this one was excellent. A shio-based broth (my personal favourite) is a broth that gets its flavour primarily from salt, rather than miso or soy sauce. It's the oldest and most fundamental type of ramen. This version exhibited an immense depth of flavour and provided a gorgeous base for the other components. The noodles were nice and loose (not a big sticky ball) and the pork was deliciously roasted. I liked the caramelization on the tender meat and that it wasn't not too fatty. The seasoned egg was just right, with an ideal not-completely-cooked yolk. I enjoyed this ramen a lot. Truth be told, I was a little bit surprised. I had visited Kinton once before back in 2017 at one of their Montreal locations and I didn't leave the experience feeling all that blown away. However, this time I really liked it a lot. I enjoyed it a lot more than I remembered previously. You would think that eating hot ramen outside on a scotching hot summer's day sounds like a crazy thing to do (I did!). But in reality, it was a really pleasurable experience. The hot ramen doesn't make you "more hot" because you're already hot. If anything, it reminded me of being in Southeast Asia and eating hot noodle soups outside. So that was pretty nice. Kinton does a great job of offering delicious and authentic ramen and it's pretty neat that they're a Canadian company. Want to become a "Kinton Bowler?" All you have to do is finish your entire bowl of ramen and it's official! They'll even take your photo and put it on their Instagram page! (You get to join their points program as well.) I would love to return to try their Immune Booster Ramen (formerly known as the Covid Buster Ramen, which I personally found funny). It's made with immune-boosting ingredients which I think everyone would be happy to enjoy these days. Grab your spoons and chopsticks because this really is some of the best ramen in town.
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