KINTON RAMEN SQUARE-VICTORIA — Restaurant in Montreal

Wednesday, February 1st, 2023 : Horrible hospitality and customer service. My girlfriend and I arrived at the restaurant around 2PM. It seemed that the rush has just finished since the dinning room started to get empty. It was at this moment that our whole customer experience went downhill. We are in the hospitality industry and we know how the business runs, so we never want to give hard times on any restaurant’s staff. Although our waitress took our order correctly, she didn’t greet us at all once she arrived at our table. She simply rudely dropped her tablet on our table and directly asked us if we were ready to order. Second of all, when we received our appetizer, the basket of karaage has been literally tossed on our table from her. Surprised, we though it was maybe an accident so we didn’t really care about it. Then when she arrived with our main dishes, she tossed again our ramens without any precautions. She didn’t even introduce which plate was what, wish us to enjoy our meal or ask us if we need anything else. Regarding the food, it wasn’t good as usual; eggs were overcooked and the original broth tasted too much pepper surprisingly. When paying at the counter, we have been served by the cook. We shared our feedback by simply saying to him that the customer service wasn’t terrible. He froze, went in the back to reach a lookalike manager. We then explained to him that the waitress had a lack of customer service and interpersonal manners with us. Without any apologies, the careless manager then explained to us that they had a busy lunch service and that they were shorted staff. Not more, not less. Like we mentioned previously, when we arrived, the rush was done and the dinning room was starting to get empty. I’m sorry to hear that, but busy or not, it’s not an excuse to be impolite and to toss plates at your clients. You have to be professional at any time, no matter what. Another details, when we were eating, we were the only table left. All tables still had their dirty plates, glasses, etc. It doesn’t give a nice atmosphere to sit around dirty tables. I’m rarely review my experiences, but this Kinton location made us do it since our experience...

What a great find. This spot is right around the corner from my hotel. It was a little late for dinner (about 8pm on a Sunday night) and I was looking for something close and open. I saw that they are open until 1030pm, so I walked over.

They have counter and table seating available. The menu is very organized and lists what each dish is and what is in it. Very clear to see what you are getting.

I opted for the "Meal for One" which comes with 1 Ramen* + 1 Gyoza (Pork/Veggie) or 1 Tokyo Fries and 1 Soft Drink.

I also got one order of the Original Karaage, (3 pieces of crispy fried chicken with their signature flavour, served with a touch of lemon).

I received the Karaage and the Pork Gyoza at the same time. As you can see in the pic, the Gyoza came with a sweet chili sauce. It was perfect. Just a touch of spice and not overpowering. The Gyoza was crisp and very flavorful.

The Karaage was hot and I opened them up and allowed them to cool a bit, but they were delicious as well. They were crispy and flavorful and I probably could have ate another order of it.

The ramen I ordered was the Beef Shoyu Ramen with the thick noodles. They describe it as "A robust soy sauce broth with savoury beef - a bold and hearty bowl for beef lovers." It contains soy sauce, beef, wood ear mushrooms, bamboo shoots, garlic oil, scallions, pickled red ginger. I was offered an egg for extra, but I declined.

This ramen was delicious. The flavor was excellent, the noodles were the right consistency and each component added something great to the complete dish.

If you are in Old Montreal and are craving Ramen, please give them a visit, you will...

I was there once, three days ago, ordered a pork original with a lot of extras and have been sick as hell for two days following to that… food poisoning I guess. So I won’t go back to this one.

However I’ve known kinton ramen for a while and know it’s not their habits. So I guess I was the unlucky take out order… here is what I thought of the other things (apart from food poisoning):

Ambiance: the ambiance was very quiet when I got there. I liked that you could have a view on the kitchen, so the cooking process could be a show in itself and vouch for more transparency. Lighting is soft and warm, tables and close but you can hear yourself, and decoration is the same as any other kinton ramen.

Cuisine: of course here I won’t comment more. I just have one critic to the broth with is pretty bland and fatty.

Price: prices for ramen are ok but as soon as you add an extra you pay a lot more. And extras are so small. On the picture you can see two pork extras, pieces are so small that for me were not worth the 4$ I paid for. An egg is usually about 2$ each, which can be a lot for one egg only.

Service: simple and efficient, without going out of the ordinary. It’s kept to the minimum that you could expect. So...