The King of Kings is a spicy bowl of pork and ramen (Image: Gizelle Lau)
Does the Annex really need another budget-friendly Japanese restaurant? After all, the strip of Bloor Street is flooded with dozens of spots serving up cheap options for students: $4 all-day breakfasts at Futures Bakery, $6 lunch specials at Sushi on Bloor, pad Thai at Thai Basil… The list goes on.
We say yes, yes it does, and you can forget the 50-plus-item menus, cream cheese maki rolls and mediocre miso soups that characterize the neighbourhood’s dining options. At Kenzo Ramen, owners Daniel and Rose Park (she’s the chef) are perfecting authentic Japanese ramen, a skill that Rose learned in Hokkaido under one of the city’s best-known ramen chefs. It’s their second location; the first is at Dundas and Bay. Unlike most frozen and restaurant ramen, Kenzo uses homemade ingredients and no MSG; Daniel’s allergic—and besides, as he says, “It’s not good for you.”
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Ken Zhang has been a sushi star going on a decade now, thanks to his time at Japango across from city hall, where he served some of the hardest-to-find fish in town. Now on his own, his cut fish and rolls at Couture are still excellent. His couture roll—rice and avocado wrapped in nori, topped with salmon and a scallop slice and flash-toasted with a blowtorch—is given a boost with scallion and roe. (But don’t order the o‑toro, a.k.a. bluefin tuna—it’s severely threatened, the marine equivalent of eating baby panda.) Zhang’s hot dishes, however, sometimes miss the mark. The $70 omakase option here is just $10 less than Sushi Kaji’s basic omakase and doesn’t begin to approach the master’s orbit. A soup of buttery shell clams, for instance, should be beautiful given its ingredients of sake, butter, yuzu zest and soy, but there’s far too much soy, so it’s too salty for more than a few sips. Roast duck salad brings cold, chewy slices as pallid as Lloyd Robertson’s wattle over mesclun mix that has started to brown. The tempura aji is exceptional, chopped and mixed with scallions, folded into a shiso leaf and quickly fried: the taste is creamy and full, balanced out with the sharp onions, the soapy leaf and crunchy shell. Unlicensed. Mains $19–$26.
THE BUYERS:
Not since the opening of Sam James have we seen so many re-tweets and wall postings about a new café. But it’s not the coffee that’s generating excitement for Snakes and Lattes, it’s the concept: customers can choose from more than 1,000 board games and play all day for just $5. 
No neighbourhood will react the same way to a burst bubble. We talked to market watchers, economists, mortgage brokers and seen-it-all real estate agents for the scoop on where to park your money, what streets to avoid and when to sell, sell, sell 
We visit Miga, a 905 favourite that has recently opened in the Annex, bringing its authentic take on Korean barbeque and DIY grilling.
