KINTON RAMEN OTTAWA — Restaurant in Ottawa

In general, this place was fine. I don't think I'll be going back again given that there's other better places to go like Koichi or even Sansotei. The only bright spot of the visit was the karage, which was really good, but it was $10 for 3pcs. We also ordered the takoyaki, but not all of them had octopus in them... oh well.

My wife and I got the spicy garlic ramen. I got the pork, and she got the vegetarian (deep-fried bean curd). First thing that shocked me is that my ramen (which cost more than the others) didn't even come with an egg, and that the raw garlic was piled so high on top I was kind of scared to eat it.

The broth was also a colour that wasn't really enticing but it didn't taste all that great and noodles seemed cheap and poor quality.

My wife's deep-fried bean curd (inari) was horrifically sweet and this isn't what's commonly found in ramen and is almost only eaten with rice in Japan. This basically ruined my wife's experience. Why isn't there just regular fried tofu that matches the flavour of the ramen?

The cheesecake was fine, but it tasted far more like cream cheese than matcha which was a little disappointing. They give you free ice cream if you leave a review, but I figured they wouldn't give me one if they saw this review.

My wife is from Kanagawa, Japan and she said the ramen we had reminds her of her local mall's food court ramen shop called "Poppo" where the ramen cost less than $4 back then. Guess what? Now it's $5 today due to inflation. We would go back to Kinton...

Service is great. But the food isn’t unfortunately.

I ordered the spicy garlic pork ramen and takoyaki.

1: The broth was cold so I had to ask them to heat it up again. 2: They microwaved it for me which is not ideal, because I didn’t go to a restaurant to eat microwaved food. 3: Then, I tried more of the broth after it’s microwaved, it was way too salty so I couldn’t continue eating. 4: As a result, they mixed some clear broth in it. 5: Now that I could actually try the broth, the broth lacked depth and was interesting because it was salty, but then, lacked depth. 6: The pork was not flavourful unfortunately, it was basically just a piece of meat.

Overall experience: The ramen here is probably one of my least favourite in Ottawa.

Customers at the next table commented on the EXACT same things as my review above: cold broth, salty broth, flavourless pork. The waiters tried to help the customers next to me as well, so the servers are definitely well trained and kind.

In no way am I saying this restaurant is bad, I think they can improve on the food quality, but they got the nice service and great interior design!

I recognize it’s not easy to have a restaurant business nowadays, I hope they will see this review and make necessary adjustments. I look forward to visiting again once the quality is...

Had lunch here with my wife and it was overall great!

Since it was "Appy Hour" we started with Edamame and Spicy Kaarage. There's not much to mention for the Edamame, since it's hard to mess up, but the spicy Kaarage was just what I was looking for with a sticky sweet and spicy glaze on the chicken! Perfect level of spice with a well-rounded flavor behind it.

Then we got the meal for two, with us picking the Pork Gyoza, Pork Original ramen, and Veggie Miso ramen. The Gyoza were good, served with a slightly sweet sauce drizzled on. The veggie miso ramen was surprisingly good, compared to what we've had from other ramen places, with a good flavor and texture from the bamboo shoots and mushrooms. The original pork ramen, while good with a nice smoky torched chashu, could have done with a bit more to round out the broth - which had the proper look of a creamy white broth, but was missing something in the tare to balance the savory flavors of the broth.

The service and atmosphere in the restaurant were both wonderful, with an unpretentious casual setting and very friendly servers.

Definitely a place...