Midori Ramen — Restaurant in Richmond Hill

We arrived approx 3:40pm. Not busy, everyone around us was finishing and about to leave. The waiter asks if we want water and I added I want some tea as well. 15min later no water no tea. As my friend arrived late. NO WATER NO TEA. We ordered our food with the waiter and asked for water & tea 2nd time. 3rd time we asked for our tea and water then the waiter finally tells us " there was a grand opening yesterday " and tea is sold out, but they can bring us water 😭. Finally got our water to start; The 3 guests who sat next to us were teasing " how's dat water taste" 😂.

Menu - their selection is quite allergy friendly

20 min -[STARVING....] Our waiter finally came with MINI BUTA DON {It showed BUTA "BON" on the Happy hr menu }

Mini Buta "BON" _ sauce is very salty ,even mixing the rice it is still salty. Rice - seems to have been set aside for awhile, its barely hot, parts of the rice is rock-ball shaped. Barely any meat in there. Ginger is not the regular pickled ginger you have; it doesnt have any taste. The Scallions as toppings is ice cold 😂. I asked for a little extra rice to eat with it. The server did try to help me ask kitchen/manager but they refuse to and agreeing that, I quote "The teriyaki sauce is on the more salty side, I[waiter] have not tried it personally, but I asked the kitchen to give you some extra rice to eat with it, the sauce is made like to be salty. I’m so sorry but the kitchen says we would have to charge you extra for the rice $2.50 as regular bowl of rice." I kindly replied " No, it's fine, thanks."

We didn't finish the BUTA "BON". 😂 I took it home to make it delicious :)

My Ramen arrived at 4:29pm 🥲 Black Garlic Ramen - BROTH- RICH but salty. Somehow broth isn’t well made/mix, every sip of it has different variations between broth and just obvious taste of water. Cha shu - all "FAT" 🥲 Chicken - not dry so good job Noodles - could do another min, too chewy for my own taste. [Their thin noodles is even thinner than normal thin ramen]

I added an egg because 😭 Portions are decent, it will get you full.

Friend- DUCK SHOYU with (NO ONION) thin noodles My friend ordered No onions not that he is allergic - LUCKY for him; I don't know about next 👀 They realized is no onions, and they scoop out the SIDE onions toppings, left quite a few chunks behind, and still put the shredded scallions on top 😂 Had the person be allergic to onions... 😭If You know You know.

He ordered Takoyaki, he waited and waited and waited til the bill comes and realizes it never made it to the order 🥲

Bf - Red Spicy thin noodles (MILD) I tasted the broth flavour is same as mine, with maybe tad bit of chilli oil. He surely got a better looking pork belly....with a huge amount of fat as well 😂.

We waited for at least another 10min b4 anyone sees us to get the bill.

As asians we are very passionate with our noodles, so if you are as passionate as us, you...

uthentic Japanese Ramen, simple, minimalistic, bold flavors in a compact bowl of noodles.

Ambience: Two bar seating areas, one with a zen garden in front of you, and one in front of the chefs, the rest are small tables located near the interior of the restaurant. Modern design/decor in the restaurant space with upbeat lively music to pair.

Service: As soon as you enter you are greeted by the staff in a very Japanese-manner, it may sound like yelling but I assure you it ain't.

After we sat down we didn't even wait 2 minutes before someone came to take our order. (5/5)

Menu selection is small (which is good); from the menu you can see they focus on key ingredients to ensure dishes are optimized for full flavor and they don't have a menu that is all over the place.

Food: We ordered one bowl of the original tori paitan and one bowl of the truffle ramen.

Original Tori Paitan - It was a pleasant taste with a rich, creamy broth that coats the mouth, the noodle texture was al dente as expected. Good portion of toppings that go along with this original dish. After a few bites and getting into this you will get tunnel vision on the dimensions and textures within the dish, exponential flavor combinations of the rich, creaminess of the broth and the different elementental combinations of garnishes to go with the dish. It was good, but expect this to be very heavy on the stomach. I didn't want to drive after, felt like I would get a DUI cause of my itis. ()

Truffle Ramen - The flavors in this dish was not fragrant to the nose, but when you mix this altogether and take a spoonful of the broth with the noodles/truffle - it is an explosion of flavor in your mouth. Truffle is a very strong ingredient to use and this is definitely the star of the show in this dish. If you truly love truffle, this item is on limited run - I am not sure how often it comes back but if you do get the chance to try, please be my guest. To say it is truffle is an understatement. *also very heavy and felt intoxicating in a good way ()

Parking: Big parking lot, however there are only a few spots in the front of the restaurant cause there is many eats in this specific plaza. You won't have trouble.

Overall Experience: I'll have to come back and try the other dishes but if you do want ramen, definitely a place...

I believe the Richmond Hill location opened about 4 months ago and I have been driving by for the past few months, and I finally had the time to give it a try.

THE BAD: When we arrived by the front door, it was during the time when most of the customers from previous round were asking for their bills and the 2 staffs were busy with payments and cleaning the tables. There was a line at the front and none of the staffs acknowledged the people in the line and even walked past us to grab take out boxes from the cabinet without saying a word. The people in the line were looking at each other and asked if someone in the line should tell the staffs that they are waiting to get seated. I understand it was a lot to multi-task but a simple acknowledgment like telling people in line that a staff will be with them shortly would be nice as I believe the experience often starts at the moment when a customer put their foot in the door. After seated down and looked at the menu, we waited a good 10 minutes (without being offered a glass of water) before we had our orders taken.

THE GOOD: With the initial impression of the store we had, we didn’t have high hope with the food but when our ramens arrived, we were extremely impressed: The chicken broth was smooth and flavorful (the best chicken broth I ever had) Pork chasu was torched and tasted good Chicken chasu wasn’t dried, very surprised with this The tamago (egg) was really good! The yolk was full of flavor

Overall the experience was pleasant (the food saved it!). The food quality was superb and it seemed like they only need more staff to deliver the service needed for the number of customers there were. Will definitely return again and hope the service/efficiency will...