By: Maegan Cheng
By: Amy Uyeda On May 2nd, 2017 the Toronto Hot Docs film festival hosted the world premiere of Ukiyo-e Heroes as part of a special programme of Made In Japan…
Brace yourselves, matcha lovers. Tsujiri, the popular Japanese tea brand from Kyoto, has landed in Toronto, and finally has an answer to all of your green tea-filled dreams.
Located just steps away from Yonge & Dundas Square, the new Toronto location is the first outside of Asia for the nearly 156-year-old brand, and marks the beginning of a large-scale global expansion into markets including the U.S., the U.K., and Australia.
Ryus Noodle Bar is a small but packed little place with wonderful service! We were a big group of 8 and since Ryus doesn’t take reservations we had to wait for about 20 minutes. But it was definitely worth the wait for some uniquely flavoured ramen options. (more…)
In my pursuit to find tasty bowls of ramen in the Toronto food scene, I think back to when all that the city had was two out-of-the-way Ajisen Ramen joints. I celebrated when the third downtown location opened at Spadina and Dundas; even though it served just slightly above cup ramen quality noodles (no disrespect to cup ramen intended), it was Japanese ramen with similar ingredients as a Japanese salaryman might order and get in a similar-looking restaurant in Sapporo.
With that in mind, I had marked expectations for one of the newest ramen shops in town: Santouka Ramen, by the corner of Church and Dundas.
Continuing his search for a great bowl of ramen, Johnson Kong steps into Sansotei Ramen on Dundas.
For me, one of the delights on a cold winter day in Japan would be to
step out of the cold and dig into a steaming bowl of noodles at a
corner ramen shop. Nothing fancy about décor or style necessary – a
personal touch of history here and there perhaps. My favourite finds
were the holes-in-the-wall places where you were pretty much sitting
in someone’s tatami living room; often there would be an old TV
perched in a corner wafting the bland voice of an NHK announcer
reading the local news.
While there isn’t a TV (or at least one that I could see, anyway) in
Sansotei, as one of the newest ramen shops on the Toronto scene, it
stands out for its little-ramen-shop feel that I’ve been looking for
here since returning from Japan. Located on Dundas between Bay and
University, the sign on the store is so small that I walked past it
twice and had to look at what the window-counter singles were eating
to enter. Whereupon, I had to wait in line for one of the 34 seats –
though theoretically more people could probably fit on the benches.
Missing good ramen with an atmosphere to match? Johnson Kong reviews this great new place in Baldwin Village.
Toronto ramen aficionados, rejoice! No longer do our stomachs have to gurgle with hunger and envy as friends in Vancouver or New York gush about their options for restaurants serving Japanese-style ramen. Nor do we have to put up with feeble renditions of “Irasshaimase!” when we enter a Toronto ramen restaurant, or make do with pale limp noodles and chewy char siew pork slices that disappoints our memories of delicious Japanese ramen.
