KINTON RAMEN MARKHAM

Kinton’s latest location in Markham is their 7th outpost and the largest yet. Located on the corner of Highway 7 and Commerce Valley, the newest addition has all the earmarks of the popular ramen house from geometric wooden decor to black marble and wooden stools. I would guess the Markham Kinton to be 3-4 times larger than their usual layout with a mix of large tables and smaller two seaters. This would be the rare ramen shop that has the space to accommodate large groups. More importantly, this Kinton offers a selection of tapas from Kinka Izakaya’s menu as well! That is amazing. I stopped by during their soft opening to slurp up a hot bowl of noodles and munch on a few of my favourite izakaya items.

Disclaimer: All food and drinks reviewed below were provided complimentary. All opinions expressed below are wholly mine.

Stephen and I arrived at Kinton just after 8pm on Thursday and I was shocked at the line outside, especially considering the restaurant hadn’t even officially opened yet. That night the servers were clearly overwhelmed by the crowd and in fact, they weren’t even fully staffed yet. Once the wrinkles are ironed out I expect there will still be a wait for tables but more due to the volume of customers rather than waiting.

We started dinner with two bottles of Kinka Ramune, a sweet carbonated soda that has a special glass ball to create bubbles when “popped”. Launched in 2014, for each bottle of ramune sold at Kinka family restaurants, the company donated $0.50 to SickKids foundation. To date over $10,000 has been donated to the great cause. The Hubs spent a few months at SickKids when he was younger, so it’s a cause close to us that I happily support.

For ramen we went with our defaults, pork miso broth with thick noodle, topped with extra nori for him and a seasoned egg for me. I noticed that it was no longer an option to customize the level of fat (rich, etc) in the broth. Both our bowls came with one slice each of pork shoulder and pork belly. Usually, if Stephen’s hungry he’ll opt for the “extra” flavour (+$4.60), which comes with 3 times the meat topping, but with the extended tapas menu, I’d rather order a side dish. The ramen was on point with a rich, savoury broth and perfect chewy noodles.

Looking at the tapas menu, I really wanted to order everything. Most of the dishes are available all day, only a few are dinner only. 100% Kinka’s (and Kinton’s) Original Karaage is my favourite in the city. I pretty much always order this and the juicy, tender bites of fried chicken always satisfies. We also tried the Salmon Tataki, seared salmon sashimi with ponzu, wasabi mayo and fried slices of garlic. The dish was refreshing and had a great balance of sweet and sour flavours, a nice contrast to the the heavy ramen. Our last dish was the Ebi Mayo, a classic served with spicy mayo. I would also recommend the Gindara, Hokke, Kakimayo, Tuna Tartar and Tako Wasabi. Yes, I realize this is pretty much the entire menu. I always have a hard time narrowing down my order at Kinka as well.