Searching for a different Friday lunch option near work, I was happy to discover a ramen place nearby! Ippai Japanese Fusion Cuisine is a Japanese restaurant that along with decent sounding lunch specials, has a surprisingly large ramen selection.
Supreme Pork Ramen $10.95
I generally judge a ramen place by its pork bone/tonkotsu ramen, which at Ippai is called the Supreme Pork Ramen. The strong milky broth was flavourful, but not as porky as Kenzo’s. I particularly liked that along with the naruto maki, corn, seaweed, mushrooms and pink ginger, were thicker slices of char siu. Most ramen places seem to only provide a measly slice or two or char siu that feel more decorative than substantial. The noodles had a decent chewiness, but verge on the spaghetti end of things.
Tenderous Rib Ramen $10.95
P ordered the Chinglishy “Tenderous Rib Ramen” which was surprisingly accurate to its name. Although the broth was slightly on the saltier side, the meat was tender, and tasted pretty good. The ramen also had broccoli, nappa, thin slices of naruto maki, corn, mushroom and seaweed. One thing that Ippai could improve on is to cut the broccoli into bite-sized pieces, to maximize ramen-enjoyment level.
I would definitely return to Ippai, largely due to its proximity to work, and to try the Extreme Spicy Ramen (five levels of spice!) or the sushi lunch combos. Ippai also offers lobster sashimi options as well as whole fish sashimi.
Current “Toronto” Ramen Rankings (of places I’ve tried and remember):
Kenzo
Ippai
Niwatei
Inatei
Jyuban (no MSG is a tough sell)
Ajisan (mostly because I hate their spaghetti-noodles)
Yes, we will be going to Kinton Ramen next!
–
Friday afternoon, May 18, 2012.
Ippai
8865 Woodbine Ave, Markham
