Nothing warms the cockles of my heart like a hearty bowl of Ramen in the winter. Ramen has been the popular girl in the food circuit for a good while but it took quite some time for me to really get on board and give a couple of them a try. The main reason for this is that the hubs is not a fan of Ramen and so I always waited on lunch dates with the girls or when my dad was in town to hit up the many Ramen joints that pepper every Toronto street corner. I’m lucky that we live by at least 6 Ramen spots, all within walking distance! For my dad’s birthday I decided that we should hit up Ramen Raijin for a casual Sunday dinner and luckily for me…everyone was on board!
To avoid the crazy line ups that accompany every Ramen spot in the city, we decided to head over at 4:30p.m. and the place was empty. Our group of 2 kids and 6 adults were seated in the back room where we were able to spread out and not worry about the kids annoying anyone. What shocked me initiatlly was how spread out the tables were here, unlike other Ramen spots we weren’t rubbing elbows with any other table. These guys are also insanely kid friendly and not only has high chairs and booster seats, but also plastic cutlery and a change table! They even brought out a special dish for the kids even though we didn’t order anything in particular as ours were happy to eat the Ramen noodles and veggies from our bowls.
Ramen Raijin, specializes in tonkotsu ramen and let the pork, chicken and fish bones simmer for 12 hours for most of their dishes. This explains the creaminess of their broth which I absolutely love! My mom the vegetarian was also with us and she was pleased to see an entire page dedicated to vegetarians. If you like things spicy, ask for extra spicy oil as even the spicy Ramen wasn’t all that spicy. My dad ordered the Tonkotsu Spicy MISO flavoured ramen which came with pork shoulder and ground pork and it may have been my favourite! I ordered the Dark Tori MISO which had a special Bamboo powder mixed in giving my dish a most unusual black colour. The broth was very flavourful and creamy and the egg was cooked to perfection. The hubs not being a Ramen fan, opted for the boring (according to me) Tonkotsu Shoyu which was perfect for him. I sampled a bit from everyone and can tell you that no other ramen spot offers a creamy broth like these guys.
Get the Poutine and don’t even hesitate! I was a bit cautios about ordering this dish but we had to get a second serving because it was THAT good. We ordered the Soy Butter sauce and that was mixed in with the gravy and cheese curds making it a very satisfying meal on its own. Teriyaki Mayo was also an option but I have a feeling I’d prefer the Soy Butter over that.
We did sample a few other things, such as their salad (complimentary) and their dumplings and fried chicken. All of them were really good as well. The kids were all over the Edamame and Fried Chicken. Dessert was the most disappointing for me but we did have Japanese Cheesecake waiting for us back at home!
Things can be a bit on the salty side here but none of us are going to bother googling ” how healthy is Ramen?” now are we?
