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| - Kinton is the newest ramen shop to hit Toronto with many more on the way this summer. Although much press has associated it with the franchise Guu, it should be noted that this is a separate business altogether. The connection is that Toronto's Guu franchisee happens to be the owner of Kinton as well.
After a one hour and fifteen minute wait, our table of six finally got seated. The restaurant itself is long and narrow, with rather anti-social seating save for the standing-room only table up front, and communal table in the back. Otherwise, it is bar seating only. It is definitely not a place I would recommend for a crowd as it doesn't exactly allow for conversation.
Kinton is Japanese for gold pig, as witnessed by the many that adorn the walls as decoration. It no doubt also refers to the pork that is used to make the soup base for the ramen. In addition to ramen, there is a short list of appetizers. They don't have their liquor license yet, but be sure to order Calpico ($3.00), a creamy, citrusy and yogurty beverage made from nonfat milk - it's no Pina Colada, but it's still pretty good.
Tonight, our group opted for to start with a few appetizers. The Spicy Karaage ($4.80), which is basically fried chicken was sweet and spicy with a light batter. It's always a must-order item whenever I'm at a Japanese izakaya. I like the fact that you can choose from regular or spicy.
The Gyoza ($3.50), which are dumplings was not impressive. The filling was scant and not very savory.
The Tofufurai ($4.80), which are tofu "nuggets" were the highlight of our appetizers for me. Resembling McNuggets, Kinton managed to take a rather tasteless and bland tofu and make it very yummy. If you closed your eyes, you could just be fooled into thinking you were eating actual chicken. This was drizzled with a citrus-mayo sauce.
Sadly, the ramen was the most disappointing part of the evening for me. I ordered the Cheese Ramen ($10.80) with a choice of either pork belly or shoulder. I of course opted for the belly. You also get to choose from a light or regular broth. I opted for regular. This is topped with shredded Swiss cheese. While the pork belly was quite tender and flavourful, you had to eat it sparingly as you get one scant strip of it. I should've opted for some extra pork, but instead I opted for an egg. The egg was perfectly soft boiled with a runny yolk and for me, was the best part. The soup broth was not hot enough to melt the cheese, and it became one large, rubbery clump. The soup base was creamy, but lacked any real pork flavour for me and even had a slight bitter aftertaste to it. The bean sprouts are extremely fresh, and the noodles were cooked al dente. You get a heaping bowl of noodles and not much of anything else (if a carb overload is what you're looking for).
V E R D I C T
It's unfortunate that tonight's dinner couldn't end on a sweet note with the lack of a dessert menu. The ramen, which is their signature product did not impress me as the ratio of ingredients was disproportionate. I couldn't help but think that I could've dumped in a pack of instant ramen at home for my carb fix. The soup base also failed to impress, and that is a pretty important part of a good ramen. While I enjoyed the ambiance and service was excellent, the food fell short of my expectations.
P.S. Kinton, it wouldn't hurt to have purse hooks at your bar seats, because we ladies don't like putting fancy purses on the floor ;)
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