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| - Jinya is brand new in Toronto, and is a large global player in the world of ramen. I love ramen, so we just had to come check it out.
Located at Church and College, Jinya sits inside of an unassuming space that looks like a repurposed bar. The table settings were neatly placed and clean, with prominent Jinya branding, and there was even an array of sauces for your own enjoyment: hot sauce, gyoza sauce, ramen seasoning, and the familiar mixed chilli pepper powder. Being able to season your own dishes is relatively novel, so I'll give them props for that.
Our server quickly greeted us and walked through the menu, before letting us know that, unfortunately, they had run out of thin noodles, so only thick noodles would be available. At the end of the day, not a huge deal, but I've never heard of a ramen place running out of noodles.
Anyhow, we ordered the brussels sprouts tempura, the premium tonkotsu white ramen, and the Jinya tonkotsu black ramen.
To start, the brussels sprouts were well presented, and were fresh from the fryer. They were hot, and crispy, and the sprouts themselves were nice and tender. That said, they lacked any sort of seasoning or flavour, and I really wish they served it with salt or some sort of flavoured sauce to dip it into. Really, really, disappointing.
My girlfriend had the premium tonkotsu white ramen ($12.75), which was a mixed pork and chicken broth, and I had the Jinya tonkotsu black ramen ($14.00), which was just a rich pork broth.
I can tell you that the noodles were well cooked, and the fixins were prepared well. Unfortunately, both of our broths were on the weaker side, in terms of richness, and were really nothing to write home about when it comes to flavour. In addition, both of the ramen we ordered had seasoned egg as an inclusion, except the premium tonkotsu white came with half, and the Jinya tonkotsu black came with a whole one. Who decided this, and why was no one told?
In addition, the portions were on the very small side. I found myself not feeling completely satisfied after a beer, splitting a starter, and a bowl of ramen. The pieces of pork in my bowl were also quite small, and despite being tender, lacked any sort of flavour. This did not help.
Basically, eating at Jinya came down to this: a mediocre bowl of ramen that was further dragged down by small portion sizes, tasteless meat, watery broth, and at a price point that makes it far more expensive than better bowls of ramen from other places. Very disappointing.
There are better offerings down the street, or a short walk away: Kinton, Santouka, Sansotei. I encourage you to explore those options, or any other ones that aren't much farther away.
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