Ippai's Japanese Fusion Cuisine

Date: March 16, 2011

Location: 8865 Woodbine Avenue Unit D5 (Woodbine & 16th)

Website: http://www.ippai.ca/menu.html

Cuisine/Style: Japanese, specializing in ramen noodles

My thoughts:

Okay, I know that thus far, I haven't given much mention to restaurants' service, but that is only because they were decent or better (as one should expect). But I must start off with the service with this place, because it really detracted from my experience here. 

Be prepared for a long rant. If you don't want to read, skip this paragraph. I went on a Wednesday night and the place was less than half-full, and we were treated very poorly by one of the waiters (female). She was extremely impatient, rushed and literally out-of-breath (from what, I don't know, seeing as how it was quite empty). Anyway, here is what went down: I wanted to order a plain/vegetarian okonomiyaki (pancake) and asked if they could do that, since all the ones on the menu contained meat. And she answered - somehow, in several sentences - that the plain/vegetarian one has a lot of vegetables (duh! I said vegetarian). Then I said that I was aware of that, and asked her for the price. And she kind of sighed, exasperated for some reason, and said that it would be the same price as the chicken one. And I asked why, since the chicken also contained the vegetables and I'm just asking for them to omit the meat. And she made a clicking sound with her tongue and sighed again and said "It just is." And I just looked at her, and I guess I had a confused facial expression, and she said, "So do you want it?" That was when I said, "I want to talk to the male server," who I suppose was our primary server, and she walked off. Very, very rude!

Okay, now that I'm done my rant, here is a review on the food! Here is what we ordered:

- Milk Soup Ramen: Price $9.95 but large serving size. I liked the noodles and the soup was interesting, in a good way. It also had mushroom, seaweed, kelp, sesame, green onion and broccoli - all of which I like. What I didn't like was the pork, as it was a little fatty. But all in all, I would order this again.

- Garlic Butter Miso Soup Ramen: Price $9.95 but again, very large portion, so it wasn't too bad. However, as the name suggests, the soup literally tastes like an entire stick of butter and some raw garlic was just tossed into their soup base. There was also corn (a fan), kelp (a fan), boiled egg (a fan), mushrooms (a fan), seaweed (not a fan - seaweed was crispy but tasted like it was fried in butter) and fishcake wrapped in fried tofu (a fan). While the noodles' texture and most of the toppings, I just was not a fan of the soup. Will not order again.

- Chicken Okonomiyaki: If I had not experienced Guu's amazing okonomiyaki last weekend, I would think that this was not bad. But since I have, this really pales in comparison. I went with my mom, and she, having never tried okonomiyaki, was quite impressed. My complaints? It was too thick, floury, and did not have enough sauce - the best part of okonomiyaki's in my opinion!