Hi there. I revisit Ramen Isshin in Toronto. This location is near Little Italy, Chinatown Toronto and it is near the University of Toronto downtown campus.
Ramen Isshin is a Japanese restaurant Franchise with many locations in the Ontario province and in Quebec.
Their Toronto locations are mostly in the Toronto and surrounding area. These are:
College Street (near Toronto Chinatown and University of Toronto)
Queen Street West (near Spadina, south of Chinatown)
Vaughan (north of Toronto near Canada's Wonderland)
Hamilton, Ontario (near Niagara Falls)
Ottawa
Mississauga (west of Toronto, near Toronto's Pearson Airport)
With their Quebec locations, they have more stores.
Terrebone
Thérèse
Dorion
Anjou
Pointe-Claire
Centre-ville de Montréal
Verdun
Mont Royal
Dix30 Brossard
Longueuil
For this post, I revisit the one at College Street in Toronto.
Around 7 to 8 years ago, the price of their Ramen bowls were around 13 to 15 CAD. These days their soups are mostly at 19 CAD to 23 CAD. Restaurant food prices everywhere in Toronto and surrounding area have gone up over the years.
Knowing that they have a lunch special from Mondays to Fridays from 11:30 AM to 5PM (College location), I revisit this place. I try the Vegetarian Mini bowls this time. Last time I had their Mini Shoyu Chicken Ramen bowl plus Pork Chashu mini bowl. That was good.
For 10 CAD, you can get this nice lunch special. It only applies to their College Street location and their Queen Street West location in Toronto. It was in small print on their physical menu and not on their website.
In my first taste of the red miso soup, I did notice a slight bitterness flavour. Other than that, the ramen noodle soup was very good.
The rice bowl had minced pork (I think) with a mix of chili and sugar. The sugar made it flavourful and reduced the chili spice. It was not very spicy. Less spicy than Sriracha hot sauce. This bowl was okay. I did like the Pork Chashu mini rice bowl a bit better.
Rating: 9 out of 10.
I do enjoy visiting Ramen Isshin. Food was really good and service was great also. Tipping culture in Canada is kind of crazy but I did give a 20% tip. This is something I don't normally do. The service was good as the lunch special could've been priced higher at 11 or 12 CAD.
There was no one else at 11:35 AM on a Friday. When I left around noon, there was no one either. Maybe it gets busy for lunch at 12:20 PM onwards on a weekday. Do note that the inside is small and kind of dark. Some people may not like that.
Thank you for reading.
