Tasty Noodle Soup at Tokasu Ramen Laksa Bar

Tokasu Ramen Laksa Bar
Location
: 755 Queensway East, Mississauga 
Website: https://tokasuramen.com/

Tokasu specializes in ramen and laksa, which strikes me as a bit of an odd combo.  I mean, I guess they are both noodle soups, but the resemblance kinda ends there.  Still, they’re both delightful, so why not?

Tokasu Ramen Laksa Bar

I ordered the laksa, since it’s quite a bit harder to find in the GTA.  They actually have six different varieties of the dish; I went with the chicken white santan laksa, which they describe as their “signature laksa bowl featuring a fragrant coconut chicken broth, shredded chicken, tofu puffs, bean sprouts, and noodles.”

Tokasu Ramen Laksa Bar

It’s quite good.  The broth doesn’t quite have the complexity of the best versions of the dish, but it’s nice and creamy, with a zingy tanginess that helps to cut through its richness.

The noodles were a bit on the soft side, but the chicken (which comes sliced rather than shredded) is nice and tender and the tofu puffs do a great job of soaking up the broth.

Tokasu Ramen Laksa Bar

It might not be the best I’ve ever had, but it’s a solid bowl of laksa.  I’ll definitely have to come back to try the ramen.

Tasty Noodle Soup at Wonton Hut Noodle Bar

Wonton Hut Noodle Bar
Location
: 671 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://wontonhut.ca/

There are a bunch of great wonton noodle soup restaurants in the GTA — at least in places like Markham and Mississauga.  In Toronto itself, it’s a bit harder to find.  Enter: Wonton Hut Noodle Bar, which is on Queen Street and serves a very tasty bowl of the stuff.

Wonton Hut Noodle Bar

They actually have a decent variety on the menu (including a handful of Vietnamese dishes, oddly enough) but of course, the place has “wonton” and “noodle” in its name, so you’ve gotta get the wonton noodle soup.

Wonton Hut Noodle Bar

It’s good.  The wontons themselves are seriously tasty, with big chunks of perfectly cooked shrimp and a very satisfying flavour.  And the noodles are satisfyingly springy.

Wonton Hut Noodle Bar

The flavour of the soup itself is a bit on the subtle side, but is nicely amped up by a couple of spoonfuls of the legitimately fiery chili oil they have on the table.

Great Ramen at Kaminari Ramen Bar

Kaminari Ramen Bar
Location
: 1330 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.bykaminari.com/

Kaminari Ramen Bar actually has a few types of ramen on the menu: clear Tokyo-style, creamy, “duck umami,” vegan, and a soupless yuzu ramen.  The waiter said they don’t really have a specialty, so I went with the clear Tokyo-style.

Kaminari Ramen Bar

The ramen, as per the menu: “Clear chicken broth, pork cha-shu, chicken cha-shu, wonton, Tokyo Negi, bamboo shoot, and nori seaweed.”  You can get it either shio (salt) or shoyu (soy sauce); I went with the latter.

Kaminari Ramen Bar

It’s a very good bowl of ramen.  This style of ramen isn’t quite as common in the GTA as the more omnipresent creamy tonkotsu or tori paitan, but done well, it’s just as delicious.

The soup has a very rich and savoury soy-sauce-infused flavour.  It’s the type of broth that never feels one-note or overly salty, no matter how much of it you have.

Kaminari Ramen Bar

And everything else here was quite tasty, from the chewy, thin noodles to the tender chicken and pork.  It’s a top-notch bowl of ramen.

Stellar Ramen at Ramen x Remix

Ramen x Remix
Location
: 424 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://ramenxremix.com/

I feel like Ramen x Remix really deserves to be more popular.  I’m going to assume (and hope) that they do better in the evenings, because I showed up for lunch on a Saturday, and the place was a complete ghost town.  Based on the quality of ramen I was served, this is a crime.  The place should be packed with a line out the door.

Ramen x Remix

I  ordered the Signature Yuzu Scallop Shio Consommé (“signature slow cooked clear chicken broth, pork and chicken chashu, clam meat, yuzu, lemon, sashimi grade torched scallop, pork shrimp wonton, menma, onions”) and it was absolutely fantastic.

It reminded me a lot of the ramen from Afuri.  I liked that quite a lot, but I think this was even better.

Ramen x Remix

The soup itself had such a clean chicken/seafoody flavour, with a subtle bright sweetness from the yuzu.  A lot of ramen can be a real face-punch of flavour — and I love that, don’t get me wrong — but I really enjoyed how subtle this was.  But it’s still complex enough that I wasn’t even close to sick of it by the time I got to the bottom of the bowl.

Ramen x Remix

And everything else was great, from the super-tender pork and chicken to the sweet, fresh scallop and the noodles, which were nice and chewy.  It’s a very tasty bowl of ramen.

Tasty Pork Bone Soup at Sunrise House

Sunrise House
Location
: 661 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: http://www.sunrisehousetoronto.com/

No, Sunrise House isn’t the breakfast joint you might assume based on the name — it’s actually a Korean restaurant with a delightfully affordable menu.  It’s a bit of a hole-in-the-wall, but in all the best ways.

Sunrise House

Their specialty seems to be their gamjatang, or pork bone soup (the menu refers to it as “famous,” and most of the people around me were ordering it).  It costs 12 bucks for an absolutely massive portion, not to mention the requisite Korean sides, so if nothing else, it’s a great deal (and you can save even more by paying cash and availing yourself of their five percent cash discount).

Sunrise House

It also tastes great, however, with a nice zippy flavour and a pronounced spicy kick.  That’s not to mention the bones, which are crammed with a generous amount of ultra-tender meat (it’s hard to see them with that impressive pile of flavourful bean shoots on top, but they’re there and they’re quite generous).

The sides, too, are all quite tasty.  Nothing here is going to blow your mind or make you reconsider what this dish can be — it’s just a really solid version of a classic dish, served for a great price.  It’s hard to go wrong there.