Today we were at Kinton Ramen to check out their upcoming promotion. In celebration of their one year anniversary they are offering their original bowls of ramen for $9.99 each.
For one day only Saturday, March 29th from 11pm to 12am you can get either their veggie, chicken, beef, or pork ramen at that special pricd.
Each is served in their own colour coded bowl that includes an identifying logo. Green with a leaf, yellow with a chicken, red for beef, and black for pork. We would try one of each. With each you get the option of having the broth original, left as is; done shoyu style, miso, or spicy. We would mix and match, but for my preference I recommend miso or spicy for the most flavour. I found shoyu just salty with no depth, and given the amount of noodles I wanted more body.
The Veggie Shoyu is soy sauce, inari tofu, bamboo shoots, wood ear mushrooms, sweet corn, garlic oil, pickled red ginger, and scallion. The veggie broth is fairly lean, the toppings is what gives this serving its flavour and textural interest, I just wanted more of it all, for a better noodle to topping ratio. We were left with more noodles and not enough broth.
The Chicken Shoyu is the second leanest broth, whereas I like my ramen richer. Soy sauce, chicken, bamboo shoots, nori, wood ear mushrooms, scallions, and pickled red ginger. Same critiques here as above, I wanted more toppings. I did like the punchier contrast of the seaweed and pickled ginger against the clean breast meat. Although this was not quite the satisfying ramen I was looking for.
The Beef we had with miso and I got the creaminess in broth I wanted here. Miso soybean paste, beef, sweet corn, bamboo shoots, garlic oil, and scallions. I enjoyed the wonderful char of the caramelized slices of fatty beef. A small nibble off a piece was enough to carry a mouthful of otherwise plain noodles. More soup would have been nice here as well.
My favourite and the one I recommend is the Pork Miso with soybean paste, pork, bamboo shoots, sweet corn, garlic oil, and scallions. Tasty for $9.99, but I would add on a soft boiled egg, more pork meat and soup to have it closer to what I want in a complete bowl of ramen.
To round out your meal you can also look to their appetizers. The Tokyo Fries are thicker cut french fries dusted in bonito flakes and nori, served with ketchup. Salty and crispy, they were a nice break in between bites of noodles.
An order of Takoyaki comes with four pieces of deep fried octopus balls dressed in tonkatsu sauce, mayo, and bonito flakes. Soft and doughy, I was pleasantly surprised by how noticeable the piece of the octopus at the centre was.
An order of gyoza comes with four in either vegetable or pork. We got the latter deep fried and dressed in their original sweet chili sauce. I loved the extra crunch the bubbly crust gave, equally decadent surrounding the fatty filling. The tangy sauce added some needed acidity for balance.
Their fried chicken Karaage is three pieces per order, available in original lemon or spicy. Meaty and salty, I ended up eating this with all the excess ramen noodle we had left.
Overall, this is a great deal and a fantastic reason to check them out, if you have been meaning to.
Kinton Ramen Robson
420 Robson St, Vancouver, BC V6B OH3
(604) 428-0999
kintonramen.com
