Being summer, my teaching schedule was light compared to the first few months of the year. Taking advantage of it, I brought along my sister, niece and my nephew to go food trippin’ with me downtown. All three of them have a love for Japanese cuisine and because Japanese noodles are on the top of Jeremy’s list, I thought it would be a perfect to get them down to Kinton Ramen . I was half apprehensive about bringing Jeremy there as he is quite selective with his food and always preferred his usual fare. I was hoping his love for Japanese noodles would make him overlook that this was a new restaurant.
Since my schedule was light, we headed downtown for a really early dinner. I have read that Kinton Ramen’s queue could considerably get long during the peak hours. I chose to drive downtown and as I was looking for parking, I got all three of my companions to get ourselves listed. I was hoping that the line would be shorter as we arrived at 5:45pm. For anyone assuming the same as me, there was still a wait. It took about 25 minutes to finally be seated on the bar, all of us side by side. Having gone over several reviews, I explained it to Jeremy, Gabrielle and Ayen and we opted to go for two ramens with extra noodles, Miso Ramen for Jeremy and me, Shio Ramen for Gabrielle and Ayen. I thought it would take sometime to prep so I ordered gyoza and the original karaage too.
As we waited, I spent some time taking pictures of the interiors of the restaurant. Just like the other Guu restaurants, it used wood in its design predominantly. Naturally, I am in love with the design :D . What made it different was the repeated use of small figurines of pigs. That should be a given as the soup base of all the ramen served at Kinton Ramen was majorly pork bone broth blended with chicken, fish and vegetable stocks. As we waited, I could not resist going closer to the open kitchen to take some images. Jeremy and Gabrielle followed me and watched with interest as the cooks went into their organized chaos of boisterous banter as they go through countless orders of ramen.
The food came surprisingly quick. I was thankful of that as I always stress that my niece and my nephew were not used to the waiting game. Seeing the big bowls of soup, I was also glad that we only ordered two for our party of four. There was no way that I would finish one on my own. I took some quick shots of both soups and then started splitting the ramen into two smaller bowls. The house-made noodles were cooked perfectly and gave that satisfying thump to my tummy. I tasted the pork shoulder meat that came along our ramen and it was tender and was easy to slice through using my chopsticks. I asked Jeremy what he thought of it and he gave me an approval sign as he ate. For someone so picky, I was happy that he was into it. I decided to give him most of the pork meat and I opted to pile my own ramen share with two gyozas instead. Curious about the Shio Ramen that Ayen and Gabrielle was having, I stood up and tasted their soup. It was just as hearty as our own Miso soup. If given the choice, I would still go with the miso one but it was not because it was more delicious. It was more for the reason that I always had a bias for anything that has miso on it. To break the monotony of the noodles, I smuggled in bites of the Original Karaage. Dunking it on its garlicky dip, it sure did whet my appetite for more. I looked over my niece Gabrielle and I think her enthusiastic appetite have spoken out louder than words. She had full intent to finish everything on their bowl of Shio Ramen. Like so many times in the past, I questioned again how someone so tiny can eat as much as I do? I do think when she gets older, she would be a bigger foodie than I am.
As we leave the restaurant with full bellies, I asked Ayen, Jeremy and Gabrielle if they want to make our Wednesdays family food trippin’ days for the summer break. I got a collective yes from the three. Seem like I don’t have a shortage for company when I get hungry :D
Food Trippin' 
Posted on July 15, 2012
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