KINTON RAMEN MISSISSAUGA — Restaurant in Mississauga

In 2012, AKI URATA established Kinton Ramen, a restaurant dedicated to serving authentic Japanese flavors in every bowl of ramen. As patrons arrive, they are greeted with a traditional Japanese welcome, "Welcome! Please come in!" or "いらっしやいませ". The restaurant's seating area features small tables arranged in close proximity, including booth tables. Observed that the table arrangements are somewhat cramped and make patrons feel uncomfortable during dining.

Upon being seated, patrons can opt for a soup base from pork, beef, chicken or veggie options. Subsequently, patrons select the flavor from original, yoshu, miso, spicy or vegetarian options. Lastly, patrons choose their preferred noodles from thick, thin or shirataki (low-carb) options.A busy meal selection time!

The lavishly designed poster for Burnt Yoshu Ramen recently piqued my interest, leading me to dine there the evening prior to next day’s snowstorm. Our timely arrival allowed us to avoid the wait and claim the window table, which offered a relatively spacious seating area. We selected the combo set, which comprised ramen, a side dish (either Tokyo fried or Gyoza), and a beverage option of either Yushu lemonade or hot honey tea. Moreover, upon presentation of a Presto card (bus card), we were treated to a complimentary serving of takoyaki (squid balls).

The food was served fairly promptly. Our reviews are as follows: The gyoza, consisting of a serving size of four, was somewhat modest in size and complemented by a spicy mayo sauce; nonetheless, they possessed flavor. The Tokyo fries, which were just regular fries augmented with very few seaweed and Katsuobushi flakes, raised the question of why they were labeled as Tokyo fries. The takoyaki (たこ焼き or 蛸焼) (a batter filled with a diced octopus, tenkasu, green onions and pickled ginger, topped with takoyaki sauce and shaved bonito) was served in a portion of four; the squid was of such a small size that it was almost imperceptible.

The ramen noodles was passable, they tasted more like wonton noodles as compared with the ramen we had in Japan. However, the burnt pork slices did not meet expectations. According to my knowledge, burnt pork slices should be torched to achieve a charcoal flavor. I was disappointed to see that the pork slices were not torched or only slightly torched, resembling boiled meat. I asked the waitress why the pork slices looked different from the poster. She immediately offered to have the kitchen prepare a more torched portion. Although two slightly torched slices were brought to the table, one of the small pieces was mostly fat with little meat. The burnt pork did not meet our expectations. The explanation for the pork slices lacked sincerity, and the response to customer complaints seemed insincere. However, the burnt sesame flavor in the broth added flavor to the ramen. If the broth's temperature could be increased, it might balance out the disappointing pork slices. My experience with ramen in Japan and elsewhere has been that the broth is typically hot, not scalding. I expect a bowl of ramen served in hot broth from a ramen shop. Therefore, I was disappointed by the lukewarm broth and inadequately torched pork slices.

The overall service was average at best. Our waitress only took our order and failed to attend to us after we complained about the pork slices. We requested a bottle of shichimi (Japanese: hot spice powder) to give our ramen a kick. However, our waitress did not return, possibly due to forgetfulness. We had to ask another waiter for the shichimi, but were disappointed to receive a small plastic container with chili powder instead. In Japan, shichimi is commonly found in most restaurants, particularly ramen establishments.

Will persist to find the best ramen shops outside of Japan. Previously, I had written a review of another ramen shop that fell short of...

When we went, the place seemed a little busy but not enough for a store that had proper staffing to be overwhelmed. We ended up waiting roughly around 10-20 mins before getting a seat [3 people ]. No big deal. Restaurants get busy and waiting is expected.

However, after we sat down, we were never asked what beverages that we wanted and it took 20-30 mins before someone came over and asked us what our order was. This location in particular told me they couldn't slice the chicken up nor the port while the queen street location did which baffles me because its not really a complicated request. Are the people who make the food that lazy? The food took roughly around 15-20 min to come. My friend ordered an extra side of garlic which she did not receive, I asked for three spoons but only received one in which I had to go and grab the spoons myself. All three of us got the special where we got a choice of ramen and dessert. After we ate we were expecting the people to come and ask us what type of desert we wanted however no one came. Again we had to ask for the desert after 10-20 min in. The people who came AFTER us left before us and they got the same special as us. This random guy who came in got instant service and at least the whole staff came up beside him to talk to him. By the time we asked for our dessert the restaurant settled down where there were at least 3-4 tables open so it was not busy at all.

You can say that I'm being over dramatic but I expect a level of professionalism when working in a food. You shouldn't let your customers feel like they don't matter or that they don't care because that is how we all felt. Most of the time we were there was because we were waiting on the staff to come help us. The location on Queen street Toronto is superb and their location is by far bigger and had less staff. Anyways I really don't know what to expect but maybe the manager can hire better staff or train their workers better.

Maybe we just came on a bad day. Who knows but I just wanted to share my experience with this...

I usually don't write reviews and give a business the benefit of doubt, but this was by far one of the worst experiences I have ever had at a restaurant. My order was placed at 620 pm on their website and I Recieved a notification it would be ready by 653pm. I arrived at 650 pm for pickup and was advised it would be 5 minutes so I waited outside as you cannot physical distance in the store. I went back in at 710 and was told that my order was still not ready and was just now being prepared and it would be 10-15 mins. At this point I had been waiting for over 40 mins for my food and asked to cancel my order since it had not been started. Another gentleman outside had the same story but we saw others being served even though they were coming after us. I guess these were uber orders. When I asked for a refund I was told that it can only be processed by head office and would take 2 weeks. That doesn't make sense since order was not ready nor should a customer have to go through head office 2 weeks later to get a simple refund for not getting their item in a restaurant. At this point as I had no choice I waited outside another 20 mins and after seeing another 10 people get their order I Recieved mine. Still I felt I would give them a chance and not leave a review. However after coming home I found a piece of plastic (see photo) in my ramen essentially meaning all my time and money at this place was a total waste. DO NOT RECOMMEND UNLESS YOU LIKE WASTING YOUR TIME AND MONEY FOR 3 STAR NOODLES.

UPDATE:

I contacted Kinton and was refunded my full purchase. I did receive better customer service after and an apology for the poor service on that day. As such I have updated my review to a 3 star to...