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| - I'm not sure if this review should be written for Ichigo Ichie or Yokato Yokabai. I actually wish I could somehow add the two businesses to my write up, but we were served in Ichigo Iche, so they are receiving the feedback.
Sunday Thanksgiving night. Six of us are in mood for Ramen. The wait is 30 minutes and actually one of our friends is there 15 minutes early negotiating the table. We are finally seated in Ichigo Iche at a comfortable corner to order ramen. The set up is the following, if you want ramen, Ichigo Ichie will accommodate you and they will bring the ramen from Yokato Yokabai, but you need to wait in line, no reservations accepted. If you want Japanese tapas dishes you can reserve a table. As Yokato Yokabai is relatively small, bigger group will end up anyway in Ichigo Ichie. Meanwhile the underground floor was half empty, but this is the peculiar way the things are managed there.
The food. The ramen broth is thick and heavy. The options are simple and you can select few side dishes, broth style (vegeterian, spicy...) and add extras. The ramen bowl is huge, it is enough to order one side dish and may be one ice cream for dessert to share between few. My friends raved about the fried chicken, but I'm not a fan. The fried gobo is my favorite. I also ordered the the agedashi tofu for the table to share, nice flavors, but nothing extrodinary. The ramen was delicious, but... I woke up early in the morning with bad pain in my tummy and I'm not the only one who complained from the same. We collectively believe the reason is the ramen was not boiling hot, when served and raw ingredients were added to it, indicating how slow were the things that night. That leads to the service. The service was slow and slightly disorganized up to the non pleasant point, we had to wait for drinks, for water, for food and of course bills. Would that impact the quality of the ramen, may be. I'm ultimately happy with the Bloody Ichigo, pretty decent version of the Bloody Caesar a la japonaise.
Would I come back. May be, may be I would give Yokato Yokabai specifically a second chance as everybody claims it is the best ramen in Montreal, but I really don't know now.
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