KINTON RAMEN WATERLOO — Restaurant in Waterloo

Before saying anything I’d like to clear that this is about service not food I have tried it before and it was always good ki tone was my goto ramen support.

I don’t usually write reviews like this, but today’s experience at Kinton Ramen was beyond disappointing. What was supposed to be a fun, relaxed date with my girlfriend turned into a frustrating mess, all thanks to one server: Niko.

We came back to Kinton because we had a great time here before. This time? A complete disaster. I told Niko upfront that I don’t eat pork or beef and asked if I could get the garlic spicy pork ramen or the veggie ramen (both are super spicy) with chicken instead — something I’ve done before. His answer? flat-out no. No effort to help, no flexibility, just, “You can pay extra to add chicken.” Seriously? Instead of helping us customize an order, he acted like it was a burden. We ended up ordering something we didn’t even want, just to avoid more hassle.

When the chicken ramen arrived, it was bland, flavorless, and honestly not even close to what Kinton is known for. I told another server, Rose (who was at least polite and helpful), and she seemed shocked. She told us exactly what I wanted was possible. She checked with Niko, and he straight-up lied — denying the entire conversation. Then he had the nerve to come back to our table, acting like we were making things up. The arrogance and lack of accountability were honestly disgusting.

Even if there’s a possibility that he didn’t understand my question, there’s still a complete lack of common sense on his part. We did ask him all the options and what we can get according to our taste, He should’ve at least recommended switching the pork for chicken in the garlic spicy ramen — instead, he just shut us down and said we’d have to pay extra, which makes zero sense either way. I truly felt the entire situation was his fault.

We weren’t asking for a refund — just the meal we actually wanted. Instead, we got ignored, (people behind us were watching us like we are some arrogant people and making problems for the restaurant) I felt disrespected, and served something we didn’t enjoy at all, all because one server couldn’t do his job or admit his mistake. His attitude ruined the food, the mood, and our entire night.

Kinton Ramen — your food was great before, but this experience left a really bad taste. If this is the kind of service you allow from your staff, especially someone like Niko, then don’t expect us to return. Fix your customer service before more loyal...

let me tell you about my disappointing experience with this location. I am with my group of friends during lunch before our midterm, so we decided to hit up kinton, and from my past experiences with kinton in Richmond hill it was GREAT. Tell me why this location is so poorly managed. First of all when we get seated the water was already set on the table with the ice cubes paper thin like. Some waters were even warm. But overall all of them had a nasty, salty, sweet aroma. As soon as I tasted it I knew the water had been sitting there for ages before I even showed up. Something that caught me off guard was the spicy beef shoyu and how spicy it was. I had this exact order before and it was never this spicy. And to let you know, when ordering the server did NOT let us know that it would cost an additional charge beyond the original set price of 2. If previously informed of this, we wouldn’t have gotten the set meal for 2. Finally after sitting for 20 minutes after requesting the bill we received card reader WHICH WE HAD TO IMPUT THE NUMBERS OURSELVES!?? HELLO??? AM I MISSING SOMETHING HERE?? our bill came and we tipped a generous amount. Way more than they deserved for this kind of LOUSY service!! Unbelievable, will not be coming back to this location, food was okay, service was garbage. Professor Conrad was one of the individuals In the middle, and his voice speaks to me, as he exclaimed “ is this restaurant owned by CLOWNS??🤡” that will be all and I will be contacting corporate about these issues and will be requesting a voucher for my future visit at kinton located in Richmond hill. BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY THEY ARE MANAGER...

When I first walked into the restaurant, it was very busy and crowded but we got a seat pretty quickly as we were a party of 2. When we were seated, we used our phones to look at the menu online. The food took a bit longer than expected for ramen, around 15-18 minutes but not too long of a wait considering it was busy. After looking at such positive reviews online, I expected that the ramen would be pretty good.

I got the original pork ramen, I really wanted to see how their original soup tastes. Unfortunately, the broth lacked flavour and depth. It was honestly kind of bland compared to other ramen chains I have tried. In my opinion, the broth is the key to good ramen. The noodles were decent, I opted for the thick ones. The pork slices were small and when I asked one of the waiters why one slice was complete fat they explained that all the bowls come with one pork shoulder and one pork belly (the slice that is fat). I have personally never seen a piece of pork belly that is all fat passed off as a slice of meat so I was very disappointed as I did not want to eat a slice of fat. As well, no where did it say that they would have this differentiation. The waiter said that we could ask for just pork shoulder next time. The best part of the meal was the egg, it was just the perfect yolky consistency. The price point I would say is mid ($13.99), but for the flavour of the broth and ingredients of the ramen I would not say it is worth it. The spicy one is better because it was at least spicy which gave it a little more flavour.

Overall, kind of disappointed but glad I tried it so that I can review Kinton ramen...