I’ve said it before that Montreal’s ramen scene is strong. Some might even argue; too strong. What’s great about having so may options is that everyone is relatively on the same playing field. When everyone is lined up next to each other doing the same thing, that’s only when the stars will shine the brightest. My gold medal standard bowl of ramen is from Yokato Yokabai. Their classic tonkotsu is undefeated. Although (don’t tell anyone) I’ve become a big fan of their Gomami broth – a sesame based broth. This week I went to check out the new location of Kumamoto Ramen in Ville Saint Laurent to see where they stack up.
Food
We’re going to start 2023 with a bang. Literally. A meal at this place felt like a straight body-shot to the gut. You may not know it but not only does Montreal have great Chinese restaurants, but we are home to restaurants that represent the various regional cuisines of China – as per my article for Tourism Montreal. The majority of restaurants in the city serve Cantonese cuisine- fried noodles, sweet and sour deep this and thats, rice dishes, sizzling platters, dumplings. It’s once you get into regional specialties can you tell the difference. The spices, the techniques, the ingredients. The regional cuisine that stands out is Szechuan. I recently discovered the small Szechuan restaurant – Mala Express – in one of the most obvious neighbourhoods in the city… Kirkland.
In the past several years, it seems like the city has experienced an exponential boom in fried chicken spots. You’ve got the OGs like, Triple Crown, Icehouse, Mon Ami, Comon, to the new kids, Olivia’s, Corilla, Cali and Maffeo’s. I’d like to say that the fried chicken frenzy has peaked but with a few more spots that I have lined to to write about, I don’t see an end in sight… for now. That being said, this week, I hit up one of our home-grown fried chicken chains to pop up, Jack Le Coq.
