Ryogi

This is the second last ramen restaurant to visit in Toronto.....I think.  After this I still need to make a trip to Sensotei.  No eating out again till after this school term is over.  Lockdown mode starts NOW!

Ryogi was very different from the other ramen restaurants in Toronto.  It was much larger, more loungey feeling.  Location is pretty inconvenient to get to I personally think.  Might explain why there was no line up out the door when we went on a Saturday night at dinner time.

We ordered the Ryogi salad, Ryogi takoyaki, Otoko-Aji (Tonkatsu) ramen, and Onna-Aji (Shio) ramen.  One strange thing I noticed was that if you order their ramens that come with an egg, it's $2 more.  But if you order ramen with a side of egg its only $1.50 more.  The math doesn't add up.  We asked the waitress and she said no one's ever mentioned that before.

Ryogi salad was nothing special, just a bunch of veggies and sesame tofu with the standard Japanese salad dressing.

Ryogi Salad

The Ryogi takoyaki was very disappointing.  I've been wanting to eat REAL takoyaki ever since going to Japan.  The stuff in Toronto just tastes like bread with a small piece of octopus in it.  Here at Ryogi, instead of tasting like bread, it was essentially deep fried mashed potato with a small piece of octopus.  That is NOT takoyaki.

Ryogi Takoyaki

The ramens were quite yummy, even tho they were the thin noodles.  This time the thin noodles didn't remind me of wonton noodles.  When ordering the ramen, they ask you how well done we would like the noodles.  This concept was new to me, I've never been asked this before.  The Otoko-Aji broth is a pure pork based broth, very delicious.  Creamy, but not too thick.  Best part was I wasn't super thirsty after dinner!  The Onna-Aji is a pork & chicken based broth.  I wasn't a huge fan of this one, couldn't pin point an exact reason, but just preferred the Otoko-Aji.  The hubby liked my broth so much he ordered an extra serving of ramen noodles for $3 so he could have my left over broth too!

Otoko-Aji

Onna-Aji

Just a warning, ramen portions are not as big as the other ramen restaurants in Toronto.  But since I base my preference on soup base, and not portion size, I think I might actually prefer Ryogi over Kinton.

Address:

692 College Street, Unit 690

Toronto, ON M6G 1C1

Phone: 416-533-8083

Hours: 

Mon-Thu 12 pm - 12 am

Fri-Sat 12 pm - 2 am

Santouka

The last few months, the ramen craze has hit Toronto!  There's ramen shops popping up on what feels like every corner of the city.  I'm a sucker for noodles so i've been trying to find the time, stomach & pant space to try them all.  I tried Santouka in the middle of December.  Yes i'm getting slow with the posts again :(.

The lineup at the time was crazy long since it was still I think in it's soft opening days.  I think at around 9pm, we had to wait for about an hour still!  According to the time stamps on my pictures, by the time the food arrived, it was already 10:30pm.  Good food is always worth the wait.  But was this one?

The ramen dishes ordered were:  Shio Ramen, Miso Ramen, and Tokusen Toroniku Ramen.

Miso Ramen

Shio Ramen

Tokusen Toroniku Ramen

The flavours of the broth were pretty good.  Lighter than Kinton, but just as flavourful.  For the regular ramen dishes, we found the pork to be on the dry side, and not much flavour.  The Tokusen Toroniku Ramen, the pork was the highlight of the evening.  Good flavour, moist and very tender.  The one thing which makes me like Kinton more is the noodles.  Santouka's noodles are the thin variety.  Cooked very well.  Still a bit chewy.  But it reminded me of wonton noodles.  I'm not a huge fan of wonton noodles.

Santouka vs Kinton?  I would say Kinton wins.

Santouka

91 Dundas Street East, 

Toronto, ON

M5B 2C8

647-748-1717

Hours: 11am-11pm
http://www.santouka.co.jp/en/index.html

Jumbo Empanadas

My coworker told me that there's this great empanada place in Kensington.  No idea what an empanada is supposed to be.  Googled it and looked good.  So after class on a Saturday in December.  Walked over to Kensington to give it a try.  First thing I noticed was this place was full.  The restaurant is not a big place by any means, it had a great 'homey' feeling to it.  The tables were filled by students and families with little kids.  The lineup was long too!  All the way to the door.  I had one objective, order an empanada to go.  But which one?  Chicken, Cheese or Beef?

I ended up settling for a chicken empanada.  Very fresh, and calzone like.  It was STUFFED with tender shredded chicken with a spice-y (not hot) flavour, boiled eggs, olives, celery and onions.  The salsa/hot sauce that they give for you to eat with empanada was amazing!  Since it's been a while, I can't remember the price exactly, I think it was around $5.  Will be back to try the other empanadas for sure!

Empanada Outside

Empanada inside

Jumbo Empanada

245 Augusta Ave, Toronto, ON, M5T 1M5

416-977-0566

Hours: Monday - Saturday 9am-8pm

            Sunday 11am-6pm

http://jumboempanadas.com