KINTON RAMEN PARK PLACE BARRIE — Restaurant in Barrie

Friendly servers, didn’t have to wait long for our food. I’ve been to multiple other kinton locations and I always get the Pork Spicy Garlic Ramen. The bowl I had at this location was good but the broth was more watery than usual. It was missing that rich, thick texture. This location hasn’t even had their grand opening yet though and I bet this won’t be a problem in a few weeks time. The gyoza, matcha ice cream and matcha cheese cake were all delicious! ————— Edit: I came back to this location again (May 9), 10 days after my first visit (Apr 28) and I need to update my review. We came on a Friday night so it was packed, which is fine. We got seated at the bar, which again was fine.

But the expo person was standing literally right beside me. She was yelling to the cooks what time dishes will be ready and what orders needed to start being prepped right beside my ear. This is happening on my side of the bar. It was distracting me while I was trying to have my own conversation. She had all the order receipts spread out in front of her. I feel like this shouldn’t be done right beside a customer and can be done somewhere else while still being in close proximity to the cooks.

In front of me, there were stacks of clean, unused small bowls and plates for appetizers and what not. At one point, the expo person reached right in front of me to grab a plate. Didn’t say excuse me or anything, just reached over right across my face. I felt like she was hovering too, staring at me eating my last bite of my appetizer and before I could put down my fork she was already taking my plate.

The servers also weren’t really organized in who is serving who. A server asked us if we needed more water when our glasses were full to the top right in front of her. I felt like I talked to every server that was working tonight because we were constantly being asked something by a server every 2 minutes.

There was a very strong odour in the restaurant too. It was almost B/O-like, which affected the taste of the meal.

I ordered the Pork Spicy Garlic Ramen again and it was still a little more watery than it should be. The texture from the egg wasn’t that good creamy texture that Kinton usual serves.

I’ve never experienced this in any Kinton Ramen location I’ve been to. I don’t think I will come back to this location again.

Also note that many of these reviews for this Kinton location were provided because they had a promo going on for their soft-launch: leave a google review and get free matcha ice-cream. That’s why I left a review the first time I ate at this location.

The gyoza and the matcha cheese cake was great as always. Our food also came quite quickly despite...

We were so excited to go to Kinton Ramen’s new location at Park Place, Barrie. We had been to one of their locations in Montreal, and we really enjoyed the food and the vibes there. To our surprise, the interior was decorated in the same way. With light wood finishes, brightly lit area and an open concept kitchen.

The food was good but I do wanna add that the service highly impacted my rating of this location. We ordered Hot Karaage (3/5), Pork Gyoza (3/5), Beef Spicy Garlic Ramen (4/5) and Chicken Spicy Jalapeno Ramen (3/5).

The service was unbearably slow and disorganised. There were only 4 other tables who were there before us so we didn’t expect the service to be that slow. Just to give a rough idea: we got our karaage 15 minutes after we ordered (which is understandable, it’s a normal wait time for an appetizer). We got our ramen 12 minutes after we got our karaage, and after we finished our ramen, we still haven’t gotten our gyoza. We then reminded our server, who definitely forgot about it. At this point, we were frustrated. We finally got 4 pieces of gyoza 47 minutes after we initially ordered it. I think seeing other people, who came in after us, getting served their full meals and appetizers made it even more frustrating to be honest. Also, it wasn’t just our table who found the service disappointing and frustrating. We saw two customers pay for their drinks and walked out because they were waiting so long for their ramens while they see other customers get theirs. The table next to us were also annoyed at the fact that people who came in after them got their orders taken while the servers completely ignored them. Honestly, Kinton Ramen at Park Place needs to do better. Until then, I would rather drive an hour to a different ramen place instead of coming back here.

Now for the food review: Hot Karaage was crispy and juicy. The sauce itself was on the sweeter side which I personally wasn’t very keen of. You get 3 pieces for 10.99 so I don’t think we’d order this again.

Gyoza was also crispy and juicy. The filling was satisfying. I wasn’t a fan of the sauce, again personal preference. It was more on the sweeter side. A simple soy sauce dip would’ve sufficed.

Beef Spicy Garlic Ramen has a nice kick to it. The garlic really heightened the depth of the broth’s flavour.

Chicken Spicy Jalapeño Ramen was mild compared to the spicy garlic. It also had a bit of a zesty flavour to it.

They don’t have spice levels to their ramens, and I hope they would consider adding them since we love spicy found, and found their spicy ramen did not hit our craving...

*This is an update to my initial review: After hearing about the allegations of unethical labour practices involving a former staff member, I encourage everyone to stay away from this place as they are clearly only in it for the mere pennies they make from their very underwhelming bowls of soup off the backs of their young minimum wage workers. If you are interested in knowing what I'm talking about, I encourage you to go to Reddit to do some research. Shame on you guys! Sansotei Ramen in the Bayfield mall is waaaaay worth the money - around the same price for miles more flavour and authenticity, and they actually pay their workers.

Original review: This Kinton location is extremely disappointing. I've been a Kinton lover for YEARS now and the ones in Toronto are amazing with flavours quality, portions, consistency - however the Barrie location unfortunately falls flat. The portion sizes are so small and they look similar to the value sized meals that are offered in toronto. The broth is unfortunately watery in consistency and flavour, and lacks depth. The noodles I was served were unfortunately undercooked and hard, but the egg was nicely cooked and jammy in the center (I ordered a double portion of egg for my soup). The pork was cooked nicely but the serving size was laughable. It was like two half strips of bacon. I guess you could say the quality is on par for Barrie, but not for actual ramen lovers.

I must say, the servers need to be trained a little better as they all walk around entering each other's sections and crossing over customers. In the 45 minute lunch I had with my partner, I had all 3 servers come up to my table in 5 minute alternating increments to ask us the same questions over. I don't think they have assigned sections, and they definitely don't communicate with eachother.

They had a bribery promo going on where if you gave them a nice review, they would give you free matcha icecream in return - hence all the positive previous reviews you'll see before this one. We declined the icecream 3 times because my partner and I had specified that we are lactose intolerant, yet they continued to ask. Before we had even finished our bowls the service manager had asked if we "had left a review yet". That is CRAZY to me!

If you're looking for quality ramen this is not the place. It's good for a quick mediocre lunch but that's all. You can find amazing ramen and service at Kenzo on Essa.

I hope things change at this location or it's not going to...