Kenzo Ramen — Restaurant in Barrie

2025 Spring: 5/5 Onigiri was DELICIOUS as always (5/5). IMO tuna and chicken are equally delicious and the better options over chicken. Sapporo Miso ramen (5/5) was very tasty! Waitress who took our order was able to explain the different options (broth bases, proteins,...) for the dishes in detail so thumbs up for the great service (5/5), thank you.

2024: 5/5 Netsu as always is delicious! I ate in house this time and it was absolutely divine...so love this dish!

2022 September: 3/5 Netsu = 5/5 - delicious as always though take out is smaller than in house I found Yakisoba = 1/5 - BURNT tasting throughout (all orders of this). Not sure why but will not be ordering this dish again, such a shame as we liked it in restaurant the last time but I guess take out they do it differently? Disappointing (apologies, but quite a few people in our group said to not order from this place again in the future due to the taste of this dish)...

2022 August: 5/5 Customer Service = 5/5 - hardest working waiter I have ever seen, guy was hustling the entire time for us and everyone else...so polite and pleasant, just wow. FOOD: traditional Japanese food... Yakisoba: 5/5 - was delicious, generous portion of chicken with the stir fry, was delicious Netsu: 5/5 - SO TASTY, though VERY spicy. I would only suggest you have it if you like spice else get it with something else much milder. I am a fan of scotch bonnet peppers so for me I was fine eating it though others at my table while they did greatly enjoy it were teary eyed due to the spice. Was SO GOOD though as the flavour and the spice was throughout the same. Restaurant: 5/5 - Clean, we liked the artwork on the walls...

Included photos of the Yakisoba, Netsu, and the...

It’s clear from the reviews thus far that a ramen restaurant has been long awaited in Barrie. Kenzo does an adequate job at filling the void, but it appears Barrie will need to wait a while longer for quality, authentic ramen.

My party ordered the tonkotsu and spicy charsu ramen.

Let’s start with the noodles. They are decently thick and do a good job of absorbing the flavour, but lack the chewiness and consistency that one would expect from quality ramen.

The tonkotsu broth is extremely watery - nothing like the rich creamy goodness that you would expect from authentic ramen joints like Sansotei or Santouka in Toronto.

The spicy charsu broth was also lacking in that it more resembled Korean instant noodle broth (Shin anyone?) than Japanese ramen broth. That being said, if you set authenticity aside for a moment, it was tasty! Level 1 spicy had the perfect amount of kick to it, and I this spiciness profile will bring me back to Kenzo in the future.

But please Kenzo. Just make sure your broth comes out hot. Both our bowls came out room temperature. This is the easiest thing for you to fix.

So here’s the verdict. If you disregard authenticity and just go in for a good tasting bowl of noodles, I think certain menu items (like the spicy charsu ramen) will leave you satisfied. If you go in expecting authentic ramen on the levels of Sansotei, Kinton, Konjiki, Santouka, etc. then you will be disappointed. Leave your Toronto ramen standards at home.

In the end, I’m still very excited to see Kenzo lead the expansion to the Barrie area. I wish Kenzo nothing but success, if only so it will demonstrate the viability of Barrie as a market for other restaurants like it.

I will be back for the spicy charsu broth. Please...

I've been eating here since the first week the restaurant opened—I'd consider myself a pretty frequent customer. For quite some time, a few of the lovely staff knew my friends and I by name, 5/5 stars. We usually come in every couple of weeks.

As much as I love this place, I've been somewhat disappointed by the service over the last couple of months, and more recently by the food.

On Valentine's Day, I reserved a table in advance. We were seated, given menus, and then a few minutes later, we were asked to move to another table. I didn't quite understand the reasoning behind that - something about the table not being meant for reservations. I'm not sure why we were seated there in the first place though, as the booth we were moved to was open when we first walked in. This is small, but I've never got up and carried my menu to another table across a restaurant.

The previous two times I was here, the pork was quite poorly done, curled up and dry, with an oilier broth. Once wouldn't be a problem, but the same thing has happened twice and never previously.

So, today, I opted to substitute the pork with tofu, to learn that this is an extra $3.5, which is the first time that I've been charged extra to swap for a vegetarian option over the years. At first, my order arrived with pork and no tofu. I sent it back, and the busser (?) was apologetic and sweet. I was happy with what came back but less happy that our server did not check in with our table for maybe 40 minutes, and by that time we were well ready for our bills.

Anyway, as a longtime customer, I do really hope I can soon bring this review...