Do you have what it takes to be a Kinton bowler?? I too, had no idea what that meant but saw it surfacing on the internet everywhere!! You're officially a Kinton bowler once you've finished a bowl of Kinton Ramen!
Toronto has been in a ramen craze and ramen places have been popping up all over the place. Everyone is asking one another which is the best ramen place to go to! We decided to jump on the wagon and try out Kinton, which is recommended by a lot of people! It's also owned by the same owners as the popular chain, Guu Izakaya, one of our favorites.
They don't take reservations so it's basically a gamble how long you'll have to wait to get a seat. The place isn't big, probably seats 20-30 people. We went at 6:30pm on a Thursday night and ended up waiting for 20 minutes. Anything later or on a weekend would be a much longer wait!
The first thing we ordered was a round of drinks; a hot plum wine.
Japanese cuisine is pretty well known for its appetizers so we decided to order the fried chicken (original Karaage). It was well flavoured and perfectly deep fried without feeling too oily and greasy. If you do feel it's too greasy, there's a bit of vegetable that you can counter the fried chicken with. It was still hot and crispy when it came to our table. I definitely could have ate more of that!
Can't visit a ramen place without ordering some ramen! There's a variety of ramen that you can choose from such as spicy, cheese, vegetable etc but we decided to go with the more traditional ramen; miso ramen! When you order, you can choose whether you want your broth to be light, medium or heavy. We both chose to go with the medium. You also have the choice between pork belly and pork shoulder. I decided to go with the pork belly and Monica decided to get the shoulder.
The first taste of the ramen brought me back to Japan where I was lucky enough to try out Ippudo and Ichiran; two of their top ramen joints. The broth is packed with flavour. However, after eating more of the ramen and the soup it ended up tasting very heavy and it was getting a bit difficult to finish the bowl. A better option might have been to opt for the lighter broth.
The Japanese culture is infamous for their hospitality and service level and Kinton is no exception. The staff were extremely friendly. However, don't expect to sit long and chat because it seems you are expected to finish up your noodles and then head out so they can maximize the use of their space.
Overall, we had a pleasant dining experience. We can't compare it to any other ramen place because we're still in the midst of trying out more places but we both agreed that Kinton ramen is not something that we would both be craving anytime soon.
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