My husband found out from a friend on Facebook that Kinton is doing their soft launch right now and was begging to go for dinner. Official opening is Saturday January 28. This morning I saw on their Facebook page that they're opening for lunch, so we popped in for a bite. This Kinton is the most spacious i've been to (I have only been to their Baldwin and North York location). And I guess because it's during the soft opening phase, it was busy all the tables were taken, but not overly busy. I'm thinking that after the grand opening, it will get busier.
Menu wise, it's pretty much the same as all the other locations with ramen being their focus. We ordered their original ramen with pork with thin noodle (which is the equivalent of what other ramen shops call shio ramen), original ramen with pork with extra thick noodle, and original karaage. The broth was as good as I remember, thick and velvety, i'm salivating as i'm thinking of it. The broth is thick enough so it thinly coats your tongue. No chunks of unappealing fat floating around which is a thumbs up from me. Both the thin and thick noodle was cooked to a perfect al dente. Egg was good but I think a slight tad overcooked. There was the beginning formation of the powdery yolk on the outer edge. Pork wise, I'm not sure if this is the way the pork is served with ramen at the other locations, but instead of getting a choice of pork shoulder or pork belly, you get one slice of each. Taste of the pork shoulder was same as the other locations, but thinner. The pork belly was what was different for me. The slice of pork belly was smaller, and thinner than the Baldwin location, and the charring of the pork belly was minimal, so there was less of the smokey flavour. Overall, still better than other ramen shops.
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| Kinton Hwy 7 Menu |
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| Original Ramen with Extra Thick Noodle |
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| Egg |
The karaage was good, 5 pieces of deep fried thigh meat served piping hot. So hot that I burned the roof of my mouth, I couldn't help it, I was too excited! My husband thought that the batter/coating could be a bit thicker to make it crunchier, which I agree. But it was still crispy enough.
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| Original Karaage |
So super happy a good ramen place is now open in the Markham! One small gripe is that service is a bit slow, it took longer than normal to get our ramen, but i'm assuming that it's because their still working out their kinks during this soft opening phase. I'm thinking that it's going to get super busy in the future, even with the pain in the butt parking.....
Kinton Ramen Hwy 7
505 Highway 7 East, Unit 54-58
Markham, ON
L3T 7T1
Phone: (905) 597-8775
Hours: Hours currently are soft opening, not sure if it will be different after their grand opening. Check their Facebook page for updates. https://www.facebook.com/kintonramen/?fref=ts
http://www.kintonramen.com
