Sansotei Ramen

Please say "hello" to Sansotei Ramen, the newest addition to join Toronto's crave for ramen. It had a quiet opening, but it didn't take long for me to find out about it.

The place is a small and narrow with limited seating.

Anyways, on to the most important part, the RAMEN.

Both RY (author on this blog) and I got the Tonkotsu Ramen which is simmered pork bones soup until it becomes creamy served with 2 slices of pork belly, soft broiled egg, black fungus and topped with diced green onion.

Tonkotsu Ramen $9.50

The soup was very tasty and flavourful and contained no MSG because I was not thirsty after dinner. This is the best soup for ramen I had in Toronto. It was not overly salty (my tolerance for sodium is low), however, it did get a little salty after 5 spoonfuls of soup. The soft broiled egg was cooked to perfection. I felt the egg could of used a little more seasoning. The two slices of pork belly had the perfect ratio of fat and meat. It was tender and well seasoned. I enjoyed this much more than the Kinton pork belly as Kinton's version had a very prominent pig taste that I was not fond of. One suggestion is that they could of julienne the black fugus instead of just leaving them as it is. Lastly, the noodle. It was a white noodle, different that the yellow noodle served at Kinton. The noodle was okay. It wasn't soft but it's not as al dente as Kinton's noodle. Overall, it worked fine with the soup. As of now, this is my favorite ramen place in Toronto. I will be back to try the other options.

Side note: We left the place around 6:30pm and they had a sign saying "SOLD OUT, be back around 7pm" They had a full house around 5:15pm and the line up formed outside the restaurant. I did not like their line up system as they didn't even taken our names and number of people. I thought it can get quite messy if the line ups got any bigger.

***UPDATE*** November 21, 2012 - Revisited again for lunch and at 11:45 am, there was a lineup already. This was my 3rd visit and I have to say, I'm impressed. So the owners have heard our voices and now offer a choice between thin and thick noodle. Don't be fooled by the name, it's not what you are thinking. The thin noodle are the ones Sansotei previously offered with it's ramen selection. The texture is soft, little springiness. Some people, like myself, prefer a chewier noodle. As a result, Sonsotei introduced thick noodle which are more like the ones offered at Kinton and Santouka. I decided not to be adventurous and just ordered what they did best, tonkotsu ramen. This time, it was wonderful. Perfect broth paired with al dente noodles was just heaven on a chilly day like today. Thank you Sansotei~

Final Verdict: Above Par