Santouka

The last few months, the ramen craze has hit Toronto!  There's ramen shops popping up on what feels like every corner of the city.  I'm a sucker for noodles so i've been trying to find the time, stomach & pant space to try them all.  I tried Santouka in the middle of December.  Yes i'm getting slow with the posts again :(.

The lineup at the time was crazy long since it was still I think in it's soft opening days.  I think at around 9pm, we had to wait for about an hour still!  According to the time stamps on my pictures, by the time the food arrived, it was already 10:30pm.  Good food is always worth the wait.  But was this one?

The ramen dishes ordered were:  Shio Ramen, Miso Ramen, and Tokusen Toroniku Ramen.

Miso Ramen

Shio Ramen

Tokusen Toroniku Ramen

The flavours of the broth were pretty good.  Lighter than Kinton, but just as flavourful.  For the regular ramen dishes, we found the pork to be on the dry side, and not much flavour.  The Tokusen Toroniku Ramen, the pork was the highlight of the evening.  Good flavour, moist and very tender.  The one thing which makes me like Kinton more is the noodles.  Santouka's noodles are the thin variety.  Cooked very well.  Still a bit chewy.  But it reminded me of wonton noodles.  I'm not a huge fan of wonton noodles.

Santouka vs Kinton?  I would say Kinton wins.

Santouka

91 Dundas Street East, 

Toronto, ON

M5B 2C8

647-748-1717

Hours: 11am-11pm
http://www.santouka.co.jp/en/index.html

Jumbo Empanadas

My coworker told me that there's this great empanada place in Kensington.  No idea what an empanada is supposed to be.  Googled it and looked good.  So after class on a Saturday in December.  Walked over to Kensington to give it a try.  First thing I noticed was this place was full.  The restaurant is not a big place by any means, it had a great 'homey' feeling to it.  The tables were filled by students and families with little kids.  The lineup was long too!  All the way to the door.  I had one objective, order an empanada to go.  But which one?  Chicken, Cheese or Beef?

I ended up settling for a chicken empanada.  Very fresh, and calzone like.  It was STUFFED with tender shredded chicken with a spice-y (not hot) flavour, boiled eggs, olives, celery and onions.  The salsa/hot sauce that they give for you to eat with empanada was amazing!  Since it's been a while, I can't remember the price exactly, I think it was around $5.  Will be back to try the other empanadas for sure!

Empanada Outside

Empanada inside

Jumbo Empanada

245 Augusta Ave, Toronto, ON, M5T 1M5

416-977-0566

Hours: Monday - Saturday 9am-8pm

            Sunday 11am-6pm

http://jumboempanadas.com