ULTRAMEN Japanese Noodle Bar
Anju Road Rating: ★★★
This Japanese chain takes a stab at it's first Toronto location.
After living in my neighbourhood near Liberty Village, with many varieties of food, the one that that was always missing was ramen. I had to trek for what seemed like kilometers before finding a decent place. But not anymore.
This is my thoughts on the Ramen from ULTRAMEN in Liberty Village, Toronto.
First Visit
Upon entering the small shop on the corner of King St W and Antlantic Ave, you are greeted by the wonderful staff and are directed to your seat. Not before I chuckled at the figurines on the wall. The name all began to make sense, Ultraman is a Japanese Superhero from way back in the 1960's. It's a funny play on words combining the idea of Ultraman becomes Ultra-麺(men, the Japanese character for 'noodle').
But I digress, we are both here for ramen.
My first bowl was the signature Shio Ramen - $11.49. The broth was bold in flavour, hitting the palette with pork fat and salt. Lots of salt. However, since I did expect it to be salty (since it is a Shio Ramen), I was quite delighted to say it was a perfect balance of saltiness and richness. The noodles were a bit overcooked for my first order but nice and al dente for my refill. The pickled vegetables add a nice burst of acid to cut in on the fat when necessary.
Second Visit
ULTRAMEN had done good enough that I craved yet another bowl. I decided to come back a few days later to try some of their other offerings. This time around I decided to go another route, the Shio Tsukemen - $12.99.
One of my personal favourite styles of ramen is Tsukemen, where the noodles are served cold and the broth hot, for you to dip as you please. This is not a bowl to dump your noodles into.
Normally, the Tsukemen broth is quite thick, allowing for the soup to really cling to the noodles. In this case, it seemed to be simply the shio broth, served on it's own. Minus one point there.
However, the thicker noodle was very easy to grab, pull, dunk and slurp, all while hanging onto the broth more than I thought it would! The standard serving of noodles for Tsukemen is usually time and a half a regular portion and that was the case here as well (or was it two times?). I didn't need any refills this time, one bowl was enough.
The main disappointing factor for me was once I got towards the end of the bowl, the overwhelming saltiness of the broth really started getting to me and it was very difficult to finish. I decided to man up and swig the broth down near the end, and I whole-heatedly regret doing that. Next time, I'll just try and get more broth with each slurp of noodles.
Third Visit
It seemed months had gone by and I had all but forgotten my encounter with a seriously salty bowl of Tsukemen. It was laundry day and I had an hour to wait for my load to finish when that craving kicked in once again. It was ramen time.
I didn't have time to head downtown to any of my usual places but I knew that there was one bowl I still hadn't tried at ULTRAMEN. The Shoyu Ramen - $11.99.
I'll keep my thoughts on this one brief as this time I was mainly there to slurp it down and get back to my laundry.
The broth itself was more of what I was expecting from a traditional fishy, yet porky Shoyu broth. The smooth broth hits you first and is quickly followed up by a wave of soy. It was very well balanced and is probably my favourite bowl of the three.
The noodles were the same as the Shio ramen, so see my comments above for those.
Fourth Visit
I ended here decided to try something different. I ordered the Pork Cutlet Katsu Curry. It was sitting on a bed of white rice and served with your choice of Shio or Shoyu Broth on the side (which was an interesting addition!). I chose the Shoyu as I felt there would already be enough sodium in the curry sauce.
Overall the meal was quite good; the pork wasn't over-cooked, the breading was light and crispy. and the curry sauce, although I'm sure was made in house, did not seem drastically different than the S&B blocks you can buy.
Final Verdict
All in all, four visits, three bowls + a curry dish and a couple months apart. My final thoughts on ULTRAMEN is this:
Although I am delighted to have a Ramen shop in my neighbourhood, I am sad it is not one I would recommend for anything more than to try a decent bowl of Shio Ramen.
ULTRAMEN Japanese Noodle Bar
134 Atlantic Ave, Toronto, ON M6K 1X9
@ultramen.to
Total Visits: 4 Anju Road Rating: ★★★