If you are not familiar with Baldwin Street in Toronto, it’s a small street between Spadina Avenue and McCaul Street that houses great authentic cuisine from all over the world. I originally came here with my Dad back in my teens for some great dim sum! On this day, JB and I were on a hunt for some great ramen. She suggested we try Kinton and after hearing and reading about it we decided to check it out. The space is long and narrow with only bar top tables. The atmosphere is warm and inviting, you will often hear lots of yelling when patrons enter or exit, don’t be scared, that’s just the staff being friendly.
I am not a ramen expert so I asked the staff for their suggestions. They were helpful in describing the different dishes and in the end JB ordered the Spicy Garlic Ramen and I had the Shoyu Ramen.
JB’s was yummy, but we both felt there was a bit too much garlic. She ended up taking the small scoop of raw minced garlic off the top.
Spicy Garlic Ramen
My dish was amazing! Some of the best broth I have had in a while. I don’t know what I loved more, the broth or the pork shoulder . Not only do they finish cooking the pork with a kitchen torch, but they marinate it in their amazing soup broth before hand.
Shoyu Ramen
The broth is a mixture of simmering a large amount of pork and chicken bones for over 20 hours and “adding broth of selected quality bonito fish and fresh vegetables”. If you get a seat by the kitchen you can see the huge vats simmering away.
The noodles are not just any noodles, they only use the highest quality flour and a special kneading technique. I would love to learn how to make them, but I think I’ll leave it to the experts.
The price was great for the amount of food we got. I didn’t finish mine and got to eat the rest for lunch the next day. I later learned that if you finish your entire dish you get your picture taken and posted on their Facebook page.
I came across a great line on the Kinton web site, “you will be guaranteed to have a wonderful and addictive experience with us.” I couldn’t agree more. I am definitely hooked on Kinton, it’s all I have been thinking about eating since I went!
Tip: Don’t be scared away if you see a large crowd waiting for seats. The service is fast and people tend not to take a long time to finish their food (probably because it tastes so good).
51 Baldwin Street (near Spadina and Dundas)
not foodies. 