KINTON RAMEN UBC — Restaurant in Electoral Area A

As much as I love Kinton and have been going regularly to different Kinton’s over the past years (reached 50 bowls tonight), this was probably the worst Kinton and ramen experience I’ve had.

I started with a takoyaki, usually my go-to starter. The takoyaki came quickly and was tasty. As for the ramen…

I ordered a Miso ramen and requested less salt in the broth, which the waitress acknowledged. As soon as my order came out, I realized corn was missing from my soup, as this an ingredient I like to have. I tried getting the waitress’ attention but she was nowhere to be found, so I ended up walking inside and brought it up to her directly and she seemed confused. I had to explain to her that the Miso ramen usually comes with corn. Rather than taking my bowl back to the kitchen, she simply brought out an entire plate of corn.

On to the tasting, I was shocked when I had my first spoonful. The broth was tasteless. Usually, there’s still a bit of flavour left even when requesting a less salty broth. But this time.. it was 100% tasteless. Noodles had no taste whatsoever either.. disappointing, but finished everything quickly. My friend requested a less salty broth and hers ended up tasteless as well.

As we finished our meal, we wanted to get our waitress’ attention to pay the bill. We waited about 10 minutes and we tried getting her attention, but she seemed to have noticed us and ignore us or to simply avoid looking at us. Again, we had to walk up to her inside the restaurant to ask for our bill.

Once the bill came, she seemed in a hurry to dismiss us and I politely asked if the Kinton points card was accepted. She glared at me in a cold manner and responded “yes sure we do”. She ended up stamping my card, and although I had reached my 50th bowl, she told me to come back and request for my 50th bowl prize “next time I come”. There was no usual “thank you for coming” or “have a good night” - literally just grabbed the payment machine and walked away without looking at us after we paid.

To sum up this 2 star review, the takoyaki was tasty and arrived quickly. Ramen arrived after but the order was wrong and the broth was tasteless. In the end, the service we got from our waitress was mediocre and not welcoming at all. Because service was disappointing and because we had to stand up ourselves to get our waitress, not once but twice, I gave a 12% tip. I feel that I was given a look and some attitude from the waitress when she found out I only tipped 12%.

It’s possible that the lack of service was due to the restaurant being understaffed because we kept seeing 2 waitresses running around all over the places, but this should not be an excuse to provide a poor service to customers.

I have always received exceptional service from Kinton before but this experience made me regret coming there tonight.

I hope management takes the time to read this and review the...

Updated:

Their online customer service was super nice, reached out and cared about my review and experience. I ended up going a second time, I ordered the same dish, the Chicken Karaage ramen. It looked like they had changed how they run it for better, which I was glad to see. The chicken was fully cooked this time, and I did not wait as long. There was not much broth for my ramen, it was mainly the noodles, but it was still quite good. Everything was delicious. The broth was not watery at all for me.

The only thing I'd mention for what could be improved would be service. Our waiter was super nice, but we did not get over water refilled at all while being there for around an hour. This could have been because KINTON appears to striving to use a contactless service. I would still have to take into account my previous experience, as I do think it is of significance.

Was really excited about going to KINTON RAMEN. When looking online, their food appeared to be very good. Unfortunately, my experience was really disappointing. There was a long wait for the food to come out; I had ordered the Karaage ramen. Once it came after 30 minutes, I was really hungry and took a big bite of the karaage to only discover that it was completely raw. I usually don't like to bring up issues with the food I order, but the chicken was bloody and super pink.

I was very worried as I could get salmonella from the raw chicken. I brought it to the attention of the waitress after five minutes of trying get her attention, she mentioned it to the chef, and the chef started to question the possibility of it happening. He took at my ramen, with the bitten karaage on it, and then immediately agreed that it was raw. I then waited yet another 30 minutes for my ramen, and when I got it back the broth was cold, and the chicken was hot and they added an extra piece of chicken, but at least it was fully cooked this time. It made me question whether they used the same soup and just changed the chicken, which is a hazard as the raw chicken was in the soup. The staff seemed very annoyed, and did not seem apologetic. They still had me pay for the full meal after the long wait and the mess-up with...

Disclaimer: This was my first Ramen experience and I wanted to utilize an offer ( $5 off ) on my Amex.

This establishment is very popular and when I arrived around 7 pm, there was a waitlist. If you are a party of four, I recommend planning ahead.

ID & Vaccine record checked, and since I was by myself, I was promptly offered a table at the bar - sweet!

I did feel lost as everyone from chefs to the servers seemed to be on roll; busy busy busy, loudly communicating on the incoming orders in what I assume was Japanese 🙂

This was a new experience but exciting nonetheless. I did scan the self serve menu, only to read that Amex isn’t accepted for online payments but the card could be used for in-store payments. Hunt to grab the attention of servers began!

I did make a sad puppy face and the server Ms. Mien was kind to put me out of my misery. Asked for a vegetarian ramen bowl and she very patiently explained the difference of broths/soup and what will suit my mood.

Ordered the Veg Original Ramen and Hot Sake combo ( Veg bowls don’t have fish - I confirmed, thank god! ) and the Matcha Cheesecake. Sake is nothing to write about, you may skip it if you want. The mild sweetness of the soup is perfectly balanced with crunchy sprinkle of spring onions. For the first time, the tofu did not feel weird. The thick noodles did seem a little chewy for my taste but overall, 5 stars to the Veg Bowl!!

The dryness of matcha cheesecake is countered with the dollop of cream it comes with. Perfect finish to a healthy and scrumptious meal.

Will totally...