I now have a new ramen review for the first time in half a year. This review is different from previous ramen reviews, because I can’t recommend the restaurant this time. Ramen Isshin is located by the Bathurst and College intersection. It’s a pretty popular place.
Food
Stone bowl shoyu kotteri tsukemen ($19.2)
This is one of the signature dishes and I haven’t had a tsukemen dish in a while, so I decided to go with it. All ramen dishes can be ordered with extra noodles.
The broth comes in a heated stone bowl so it stays hot. Mine was actually so hot that some broth overflowed from boiling. The noodles were thick and very chewy, which I like. I think Ramen Isshin has the best noodles out of the places I tried. I got a few green onion and bamboo shoot slices, two slices of pork, and a boiled egg. The pork was very good, I wish there was a little more.
For those not familiar with tsukemen, it’s basically ramen but you manually dip your noodles in the broth. Because it’s supposed to be dipped in, the broth is much saltier than normal. You (normally) shouldn’t drink the broth, because it’ll taste like brine.
The dish was overall pretty good. The broth is rich and punchy, and it’s hot enough to heat up the noodles just by dipping for a few seconds. I think it’s a bit expensive for the quantity, but tsukemen is uncommon so maybe deservedly so.
Thoughts
The food itself is good. If the review ended at that, then I could recommend Ramen Isshin. It would join the group of ramen stores around Toronto that are worth going to, even if it is on the pricey side.
The real problem I have with Ramen Isshin is the pre-included gratuity. Either the waiter did not mention anything or said it very quietly, but there is a 15% tip already included in the price. I didn’t see this and ended up paying extra. Sure, paying an extra $2-3 isn’t a large sum in absolute numbers, but this bumps up the tip percentage to almost 30%. I think tipping culture is stupid, so to see a restaurant already include “gratuity” is honestly disgusting.
So overall, I’m not going to recommend Ramen Isshin. Ramen Isshin really burnt me with that pre-included gratuity. If it wasn’t there, I would be ok with recommending the store.