Hello Ramen, my good old friend

Ramen, one of the greatest things ever created. I love noodles and soup, I grew up on this combination and still love it to this day. For those that don't know what ramen is I'll let my good friend wikipedia explain what it is: "ramen consists of Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a meat- or (occasionally) fish-based broth, often flavored with soy sauce or miso, and uses toppings such as sliced pork, dried seaweed, kamaboko, green onions, and occasionally corn." I like ramen so much that I'll even the instant stuff all day long if it wasn't so bad for my health, however there is still nothing better then a freshly made noodles in a home made broth.

For a good bowl of ambrosia, I ventured all the way to Steeles and Woodbine to eat at Niwatei in J-Town (a Japanese answer to China town). Niwatei is a small ramen shop set up in the area that serves a mean bowl of ramen and udon (after 5 pm). The shop is decorated with a lot of cute picture and Ikea furniture, which kind of made feel like i was walking into an Ikea catalogue.


I didn't come for the decor, I came to satisfy my appetite with some delicious noodles. I was with my favourite dining partner this day and we decided that we would order an appetizer and ramen each: karaage chicken and tonkatsu ramen for me, gyoza and miso ramen for my partner in crime.

Karaage chicken

Karaage chicken, Japanese style fried chicken, was presented to our table with a little bit of cabbage and a lemon wedge. The pieces of fried chicken (or what I like to call, golden nuggets) were lightly battered and seasoned with spices that I couldn't even guess what they were. The pieces of chicken were moist, tender and were a little bit spicy from seasoning, pure perfection once you've placed a freshly cooked piece in your mouth(as you can tell, I like fried chicken). 

Gyzoa, pan fried dumplings, came to our table next to keep our karaage chicken company. These were a little bit of a disappointment for me because I'm a bit of a dumpling connoisseur and these didn't really live up to some of the good ones that I've had before.  The feeling was nice but the problem was that they didn't have a crispy exterior and were kind of mushy.  This may have been an off day and maybe next time they will be better? maybe I'll find out later if I decide to order it again.

Tonkatsu Ramen

Now on to the stars of the show, the ramen. My order of Tonkatsu ramen, ramen with a pork based broth, came to our table piping hot and was ready to be devoured. Once you dove in and sipped your first spoonful of broth you are going to need to restrain yourself from picking up the bowl and chugging the rest of the soup (my dinning mate stopped me). The tonkatsu ramen had a really deep flavour and you could really taste the pork from the broth which really complimented the toppings, especially the chashu (slices of pork).  The noodles were firm and had a great texture that i think all good ramen should have. You may not be able to tell from the picture but the bowl of ramen was large and contained quite a large amount of noodles and was definitely a filling dish.

Miso Ramen

The miso ramen also had perfectly prepared noodles and a different array of toppings. The miso broth was just as tasty as the tonkatsu ramen's broth and I thought the bean sprouts were a nice addition which gave it a crunchy texture. 

For the ramen enthusiasts, I would definitely recommend checking this place out. Niwatei tries to be as authentic as possible down to the wait staff (minus the ikea furniture and utensils) and they seem know seem to know what they are doing in the kitchen. Their ramen was so good that i'm thinking about how to plan an evening trip just so i can see how they tackle udon.

For more information
Niwatei