ramen – Page 5 – Michael Eats

Amazing Ramen at Nobuya

Published on March 11, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 285 Royal York Road, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Ramen-Restaurant/Nobuya

Generally speaking, if Suresh Doss recommends a restaurant, I immediately add it to my list of places to check out. The man has an almost supernatural gift for sniffing out unsung gems, and his recommendations are always stellar.

But I was particularly excited after reading his write-up on Nobuya, in which he raves about the ramen and calls the karaage “some of the best fried chicken you’ll ever have.”

Nobuya is an interesting place. The restaurant is decked out in sports paraphernalia, and is entirely a one-man show. It’s staffed entirely by the owner, who shuttles back and forth between the small dining room and the kitchen. As you might expect, the service is leisurely, but very friendly.

I started, of course, with the karaage, which was a bit of a let-down. It’s well seasoned, with a nice light crispiness on its exterior. But the best versions of karaage are made with juicy dark meat; this was made with dried-out white meat. It certainly wasn’t bad, but the dryness was a bummer.

But of course, the ramen is what you’re there for. They have a few varieties on offer, but the owner identified the Tokyo ramen as his favourite, so that’s what I ordered.

Tokyo-style ramen is very, very different than the rich, hearty tonkotsu ramen that’s so omnipresent in the city; it has a much lighter consistency and a delicate flavour which makes it a very refreshing change of pace.

It’s also seriously delicious, with a complex meatiness, a very mild fishy funk, and a subtle sweetness to round things out. It pulls off that delightful magic trick you’ll find in the best bowls of ramen, where every spoonful seems to bring something new to the table.

The many toppings — things like garlic, green onion, and pickled ginger — only amp up the already delightful flavour. It’s fantastic.

But then there’s the noodles. I’m assuming this was a one-time mistake (the bowl was too delicious for it to be anything but an unfortunate glitch), but the noodles in my and my dining companion’s bowl were overcooked to the point of mushiness. Given how good the rest of the bowl was, this was particularly unfortunate. But I guess if you’re one guy running an entire restaurant on your own, little slip-ups are bound to happen.

The chashu wasn’t great either, with a slightly tough texture and a gamy flavour. But again, that soup was so damn good that it really didn’t matter.

Subtle, Tasty Ramen at Hakata Shoryuken Ramen

Published on December 12, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 225 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.hakatashoryuken.com/

A lot of times, the broth in a bowl of Hakata-style tonkotsu ramen can be overwhelmingly porky. The one-note pork flavour can get a bit wearying.

I’m normally not a big condiments guy — I’ll just eat it as it comes — but with this type of ramen, condiments tend to be necessary. In particular, pickled ginger does a good job of adding some vibrancy and cutting through the soup’s richness.

Oddly, however, the Hakata ramen at Hakata Shoryuken Ramen has the opposite problem; the flavour isn’t in-your-face at all. It’s surprisingly mellow.

It’s unexpectedly low-key, but quite tasty. The soup is nice and creamy, and though the porky flavour is subtle, it’s definitely there. It’s not going to knock anyone’s socks off, but it’s a pleasant bowl of soup.

The pickled ginger was still necessary, however — it gave the soup some welcome pops of flavour. It’s a fifty cent add-on, but it’s worth ordering.

The egg was another add-on ($1.50), and it wasn’t great. It was bland, and the texture was just odd — it was somewhere between an onsen tamago and a traditional ramen egg, and it wasn’t as good as either.

Everything else was solid. The chashu, in particular, was tender, tasty, and perfectly fatty. The noodles were slightly too soft, but otherwise got the job done.

Tasty Ramen at Ramen Raijin

Published on November 27, 2019November 27, 2019 by Michael Nusair1 Comment

Location: 24 Wellesley Street, Toronto
Website: http://www.zakkushi.com/raijin/

Ramen Raijin is interesting; it’s mostly a standard ramen joint, but then there’s the little Japanese convenience store of sorts near the front that sells candy, instant noodles, and other Japanese goodies. That’s not to mention pre-made stuff like sushi and onigiri. It’s a neat addition that sets the restaurant apart.

The restaurant itself serves a decent variety of ramen styles; the waitress told me that the Gyokai Tonkotsu Shoyu Ramen and the Spicy Tonkotsu Ramen are their specialties.

I went with Gyokai, which the menu describes as “seafood flavour pork broth ramen topped with pork shoulder chashu, bamboo shoots, nori seaweed, bean shoots and green onion.”

It’s a tasty bowl of soup, though the flavour is a tad overwhelming; I could have used maybe like 15 percent less flavour? It’s pretty in-your-face.

The first thing that hits you is a salty, savoury punch, with a wallop of toasted garlic. The pork and the seafood are next, with a nice balance of savoury and seafoody notes. It’s incredibly assertive, but it’s tasty.

Aside from the flavour, the broth is rich, creamy, and satisfying. It’s a bit greasy, but that’s a minor complaint.

The medium thick noodles are nice and chewy, and suit the rich soup perfectly.

My only real issue here are a couple of the add-ins. The chashu is nice and tender, but has a leftovery flavour. And the egg (which costs extra, and which you can safely skip) was undercooked and tasteless; the yolk was runny, and if it was seasoned at all, I couldn’t taste it (though it is possible that its flavour was overwhelmed by the aggressively salty soup).

Authentic Ramen at Hakata Ikkousha Ramen

Published on November 18, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 247 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.ikkousha.ca/

I tend not to mention my travels too often on this blog, because:

That would get insufferable fast.
It’s generally not fair to compare a version of a dish in Toronto to its legit counterpoint thousands of miles away. There are so many reasons why it’s hard to perfectly replicate a dish outside of its home country, from the availability of ingredients to the pool of local chefs. That’s not to mention the psychological aspect; there’s something about being in a place that makes the food taste better. Of course the croissant you just had in Toronto isn’t as good as the one from the charming little bakery in Paris. That would be an uphill battle in so many ways.

However, in this case it can’t be helped; I’ve eaten the ramen at the original location of Hakata Ikkousha Ramen in Fukuoka, so it’s impossible for me not to make a very direct comparison.

Ikkousha serves Hakata ramen, a particularly rich variety of tonkatsu ramen that’s served with ultra-thin noodles.

Shockingly enough, the bowl they’re serving here is basically indistinguishable from the one I had in Fukuoka. I didn’t love it there and I don’t love it here, but the quality is about the same.

Don’t get me wrong — it’s quite tasty. But it’s a bit one-note in its porky intensity. Still, it has a somewhat roasty flavour that keeps things interesting.

The secret to this type of ramen (unless it’s exceptional, and this place isn’t exceptional) are the condiments. Particularly: pickled ginger and spicy pickled mustard leaf. Adding a generous amount of both of these condiments gives the bowl a nice zippiness that cuts through the rich broth quite nicely.

The rest of the bowl is (mostly) quite good. The egg is a $2 add-on, but it’s totally worth it; it’s perfectly cooked and very flavourful. The noodles, despite being very thin, have a nice bite to them and compliment the creamy soup perfectly. And the chashu was nice and tender, though it did have a mildly gamy/leftovery flavour.

Stellar Ramen at Kyouka Ramen

Published on October 23, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2222 Queen Street East, Toronto
Website: https://kyouka.ca/

The Beaches is a bit of a culinary wasteland; there are a lot of restaurants along the main stretch of Queen, but almost none of them are particularly good.

There are exceptions, however. One of them is Kyouka Ramen; it easily serves some of the best ramen in the city.

I ordered the namesake Kyouka ramen: “daily chicken + pork broth, kombu dashi, aromatic sesame oil, green chives, bean sprouts, pork + chicken chashu, egg, naruto fish cake, wood ear mushroom, chili paste.”

The broth — a mixture of chicken and pork — is delightful. It’s got that rich roasty, meaty flavour that you want from a top-shelf bowl of ramen, and it’s got it in spades. It’s really nicely seasoned, with a good level of salt that helps all the other flavours sing, but never feels overwhelming. It looks a bit greasy, but it doesn’t feel oily at all. It’s top notch stuff.

The rest of the bowl is hit and miss, but the soup itself is so good that it barely even matters.

The noodles were probably the biggest issue. They were slightly overcooked, and didn’t quite have that satisfying chew that you’re looking for from a great bowl of ramen.

The pork chashu was tender and delicious, with a mild smoky flavour that was quite tasty. The chicken, however, was slightly dry and a bit tasteless.

The egg was perfectly cooked, with a nice gooey but not runny yolk — but it was underseasoned and bland. Everything else was quite good.

Still, that soup was tasty enough that the bowl would easily be in my top five in Toronto. It’s so good.