Date: April 5, 2013
Location: 690 College St (east of Ossington), Downtown Toronto
Website: http://www.ryojiofcanada.com/
Cuisine: Japanese
Meal: dinner
My thoughts:
If you read my previous posts, you'll know that I have only recently developed a love for ramen. I happened to stumble upon this place on my way to a spa appointment just a few steps away. I looked up this place and found out it was opened just and was really excited about trying this place.
I invited one of my sisters to join me. She had just had an exam so I felt like spoiling her a bit. The first that I noticed when I stepped foot inside the establishment was the fact that over 75% of the workers were Caucasian (all of which were blond). Let me quickly clarify that I have nothing against either Caucasians or blonds, but given the fact that this is a Japanese restaurant, I was afraid that the food might not be authentic if it was run by a non-Japanese operator.
I also noticed that a lot of the things on the menu were a bit more expensive Everything was relatively pricy for what a lot of other places charge. But I decided not to let this preface my take on the food.
We decided on the following:
TAKOYAKIS ($7): Fried mashed potato balls with octopus, tonkatsu sauce and mayo. All I can say is, blech! Hands down the worst takoyakis I have ever had. Major miss!
POKI SALAD ($10): Hawaiian-style salad with fresh fish sashimi and fruits on top of mixed greens with Ryoji sweet chili dressing. The moment I saw this, I knew I wanted it. This salad was featured on the Hawaiian episode of Guy Fieri's Triple-D show on the Food Network. It looked so good on the show. When it came, I was somewhat crestfallen to see that it was a rather simple salad. Taste-wise, there was a lot of less common tropical fruits, like star fruit, which gave it more value, but way overpriced for what it was worth.
OTOKO-AJI/TONKOTSU RAMEN ($11): Original Ryoji style pork bone broth, topped with pork belly Chashu, bean sprout, scallion and kirage mushroom. My second least favourite today. Non-chewy noodles, salty yet bland soup. A miss.
TON-TORO ($11): Grilled pork neck with freshly chopped wasabi. Holy cow, this was soooo good. Pork neck is rather common in Asian cuisine and is known to be rather fatty and therefore juicy. I'm no pork aficionado by any means, but this is one of the few exceptions! A must try! A hit.
So two misses, one hit and one mediocre. This place does show some promise. It is on the pricey side, which I think in part reflects the ambiance. Add pretentious service to all that.. No, I will not be back.
TAKOYAKIS ($7): Fried mashed potato balls with octopus, tonkatsu sauce and mayo. All I can say is, blech! Hands down the worst takoyakis I have ever had. Major miss!
POKI SALAD ($10): Hawaiian-style salad with fresh fish sashimi and fruits on top of mixed greens with Ryoji sweet chili dressing. The moment I saw this, I knew I wanted it. This salad was featured on the Hawaiian episode of Guy Fieri's Triple-D show on the Food Network. It looked so good on the show. When it came, I was somewhat crestfallen to see that it was a rather simple salad. Taste-wise, there was a lot of less common tropical fruits, like star fruit, which gave it more value, but way overpriced for what it was worth.
OTOKO-AJI/TONKOTSU RAMEN ($11): Original Ryoji style pork bone broth, topped with pork belly Chashu, bean sprout, scallion and kirage mushroom. My second least favourite today. Non-chewy noodles, salty yet bland soup. A miss.
TON-TORO ($11): Grilled pork neck with freshly chopped wasabi. Holy cow, this was soooo good. Pork neck is rather common in Asian cuisine and is known to be rather fatty and therefore juicy. I'm no pork aficionado by any means, but this is one of the few exceptions! A must try! A hit.
So two misses, one hit and one mediocre. This place does show some promise. It is on the pricey side, which I think in part reflects the ambiance. Add pretentious service to all that.. No, I will not be back.
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