Toronto's latest ramen joint "Kinton Ramen" recently popped up down the street on 51 Baldwin Street this week. I had the opportunity of trying it out last night during its soft opening. Their grand opening is tomorrow on Friday, May 18th. The owners of Guu Izakaya (Vancouver) opened up this ramen shop with the design curated by the folks at Dialogue 38, who also did Guu Izakaya on Church Street. Below is a shot of the front elevation but the patio was not set up last night.



Credit: Above photo from Biking in a Big City (http://jnyyz.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/kinton-ramen/)
The wait just to get a table was 1-1.5 hours. Seeing that the shop hasn't officially launched, just wait until grand opening arrives as it seems Toronto is always short on acceptable ramen shops. I would pass though if you are on a tight lunch break from work as the whole experience took about 2 hours+. The ramen took pretty long to arrive as well. I had the regular Shio Ramen with pork shoulder. The noodles are kneaded in-house while Kinton provides the option to customers of having the broth in regular or light . This is the Miso Ramen with pork belly in light broth: 





The broth was good. The ramen was decent, a bit on the thicker side, and acceptable, but could be better in terms of the intensity of the taste. I still find there to be better options at Niwatei or Guu Izakaya. Although the atmosphere isn't as loud and ballistic as it is at Guu, I will go back next time to have a try of their Cheese Ramen that comes with swiss cheese as I've never heard of that combination before.


Here are the rest of the photos of the space. Speaking to assistant manager, Daiki, he mentioned that Manager, Aki, really enjoyed the tastes of the ramen in New York at Ippudo and David Chang's Momofuku. He wanted to bring some of that to Toronto.


The treatment of the interior walls comprises of mainly wood blocking ends put together in checkerboard patterning to add depth and contrast. The ceiling along with HVAC components is exposed. It's simple and I think it looks great with the exposed concrete floor, which induces somewhat of a rustic look.


Go check them out: http://kintonramen.com/

Labels: food, interior design