Raku Ramen & Izakaya

There was a new Ramen and Izakaya place that opened in the Asian plaza at Kennedy and Highway 7! 

It's a new place and small but the they offer pretty unique things! They not only serve the popular Ramen but also fried rice/fried rice with curry in hot stone bowls and cool dishes such as "Fried Tofu with Eel on top". They also offer normal dishes that you'd find in Japanese restaurants like sushi rolls and stuff like that..........

This is what we ordered: 

1) Pork Bone Soup Base Ramen 

• thoughts: I thought the soup was really good, it wasn't too salty and there wasn't a lot of MSG (which is good)! The noodles were nice and chewy which I like. Now the portion was just right for me but it may be a bit too small for some people. Also, It didn't come with much pork; I think it only came with 4 slices of pork which was kind of disappointing. Overall, I liked the soup and noodles a lot but the toppings were mediocre. 

2) Stone Pot Chicken Don 

• thoughts: Okay I don't ACTUALLY remember the name of this dish but it was something like that :) It was rice in a hot stone bowl with egg (which was still cooking in the stone bowl so that's super cool) with chicken and onions and other stuff.........Overall, it was decent! I really liked the rice because it was more on the chewier side AND it became crunchy when it stuck onto the stone bowl long enough (which is also very yummy). The flavours on the other hand weren't that strong so to me, it was more on the bland side. 

Overall, I think this place is alright. The ramen soup base and noodles are really good so if you check this place out, definitely order the ramen! The flavours in my opinion could be stronger though and the dishes could maybe consist of more "toppings" I guess. 

There are a lot of unique side dishes that I would also want to try next time I go like that fried tofu eel thing. The place is very clean and service is decent. The only thing about this restaurant is that parking is REALLY HARD to find since the plaza is always packed!