Located at 91 Dundas St E in Toronto

After we had our fill of desserts and festival food at the first ever Sweetery Toronto Food Festival, the five of us headed over to Santouka for dinner since Wayne had never had ramen in Toronto before (…).  I really wanted to try their Cold Ramen after seeing friends post occasional pictures of it on social media.  It is also Sarah’s beloved spot for ramen so it was a good spot for us to go to!

It was an early dinner for us and we arrived a little before 6 p.m. on a Saturday evening.  Santouka is always one of the busiest and most popular ramen houses in Toronto, and for good reason too!  Their ramen is undeniably delicious, authentic, fresh, and has the creamiest broths.  I remember coming here last year and loving it!  For that reason, I wasn’t too surprised that even before the dinner rush, there was a small line-up.

Santouka is located within walking distance of Dundas Subway Station or Eaton Centre

The place isn’t too big but the spaces are tight and the turn-over is high

The host took our name and we waited around 5 to 10 minutes before we got a table.  It wasn’t too bad.  I already knew what I was going to get; the summer salad ramen!  This is a bowl of ramen that is cold and doesn’t come with a broth (despite how I complimented on their creamy broths).  (It is not a cold soba noodle since it is actually ramen that is served cold.)  I wanted to try it since I’ve heard some great reviews about it.  The rest of my friends chose the traditional hot soup ramen bowls.

Salad Ramen only available during the summer!

Only 20 bowls a day?!

Service here is efficient and fast since they have to have a high-turner of customers to prevent the lines from becoming even longer than they are.

My Summer Special Salad Ramen arrived (they only serve this ramen during the summer in the months of July and August and apparently only 20 bowls each day!).  It was a beautiful piece of work — colourful because of the greens since it was a salad.  It contained ramen in a light soy sauce, strips of egg, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and shrimp.  It was a big portion since the noodle portion was 1.5 times the amount of a regular ramen order.

Salad Ramen. $12.95
Santouka Style Cold Salad Ramen

A salad ramen indeed! So healthy :3

I loved this.  Part of the reason why I wanted a cold salad ramen was that we were in the heat all day and I really wanted to have something to cool me down.  This was perfect!  After eating it, I didn’t feel hot at all.  The ramen noodles were chewy and submerged in just enough of the soy sauce that it was tasty yet not overwhelming.  It was a very light and refreshing ramen; not something that you would typically say.  The tomatoes and lettuce were fresh and the shrimp was decent.  I would love to have this again!

What the others’ ramen bowls looked like in general; this was Christian’s order

That’s all for this review; I only wanted to review the Salad Ramen. 🙂  Have you guys had this ramen from Santouka yet?  It’s worth a try! 🙂