Hokkaido Ramen Santouka

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka

Location: 91 Dundas Street East (Dundas & Church St.)

Access: Along TTC bus and street car routes, street parking available

Price: Avgerage $12-15 per person

Blogsters' Rating: 3/5

We finally have the chance to try out Hokkaido Ramen Santouka.  This ramen place was recommended by many of our friends.  All of them said Santouka has one of the best ramen in Toronto and here we are giving it a try.

I would say Santouka is mid-size for a ramen place.  It could fit around 40 customers at a time.  When we got there after work (around 6:30ish), there was a line up already, but luckily we only waited for 10-15 minutes. The design of the restaurant is very modern, yet it also has a raw and rustic feeling.  It is very different from other ramen places we have been to where the whole place is decorated with Japanese decor.

This platform is located in the centre of the bar area.  Customers can see their ramen being prepared by chefs in the kitchen.  The wait staffs can also easily access this area, and making sure the ramen is served to customers the moment they are ready.

Santouka is famous for their Shio ramen as it is the only item on the menu when the very first Sankouka was found in 1988 - Hokkaido, Japan.  After having the first sip of the soup, I can totally understand the hype of this place.  The soup is pearl colour, very creamy, and has a very rich pork bone flavour.  We later found out that they simmer the pork bones for over 20 hours (before adding any other ingredients), coaxing out all the flavours and keeping the richness and purity of the pork bones.

Like most other miso ramen I had, the miso soup base was very rich but a little too salty. The ramen had a very good texture that was neither too soft or too hard and the pork had an even distribution of fat on it which made it very soft. The Grilled Salmon Bowl on the other hand was not that great.  It tasted very salty and fishy.  The saltiness of the salmon was to the point where you couldn't eat it alone, and had to eat it with rice to balance out the saltiness.  A sip of water was needed for every bite of the fish. With this combo, I drank almost 3 cups of ice water.

During the whole time at Santouka, staff were friendly and attentive to the customers.  However, in the meantime, we also felt like we were being rushed.  The wait staff was asking what we would like to drink the moment we sat down at our table.  Two minutes later, the same waiter came back to ask if we're ready to place an order for ramen.  They also tried to take away my ramen before I was done with it.  And needless to say the bill was brought to our table without asking for it.  We were not very pleased with their customer service.  If their service was better, our rating for Santouka would be much higher.

Bye for now Hokkaido Ramen Santouka, until next time.