Located in downtown Quebec, TORA-YA RAMEN prepares delicious ramen served in a broth with love and care. You will also find a variety of dishes and Tsumami (Japanese tapas) from the traditional izakaya bistros. We also serve sake, beer, wine and alcohol-free beverages.
Tora-Ya Ramen offers an authentic and cozy dining experience in Quebec City, reminiscent of traditional Japanese ramen shops. Visitors consistently praise the flavorful and comforting broth, perfectly cooked noodles, and standout dishes like the crispy, juicy karaage chicken and takoyaki. The atmosphere is warm and intimate, complemented by a friendly and professional team that provides efficient service. While the restaurant is popular and can get quite busy, guests find that the delicious food and overall quality make it well worth the wait. It is a highly recommended destination for those seeking a genuine taste of Japan with generous portions and a welcoming environment.
This was my first time visiting Quebec, & missing Japanese ramen brought me to this cozy, charming little spot. The restaurant has a really nice atmosphere.
As for the food, the broth is a lighter soy sauce (shoyu) style. If you prefer authentic, heavy Japanese flavors, you might find it needs a bit more salt-personally, I'm a bigger fan of rich tonkotsu broth. However, the texture of the noodles was absolutely spot on & my favorite part of the meal.
They also offer drinks like Asahi beer & umeshu (plum wine). For me, wrapping up the day with a hot bowl of ramen & a cold beer is one of life's greatest pleasures!
I wonder why I never gave a review before since it's my favorite ramen shop in town. It's the only place I can practice my Japanese since every staff seems to speaks it. The place is small but typical of that kind of place in Japan. The most authentic atmosphere & experience in Quebec city. The food is also delicious & very similar to what you would find in a ramen/Izakaya shop in Japan.
I recommend it to everyone, I've been there multiple time in the past years.
May 2, 2026
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The ramen in Canada is often not hot enough, but at this place, it arrived steaming with smoke! It was a surprise! The ramen was authentic Japanese, simple flavor but it tasted very good.
My friend ordered the fried chicken, she said it was delicious!
The staff were very attentive. Even during busy hour, they noticed when guests finished their appetizers before serving the ramen. When our water ran low, they quickly refilled it.
Since I'm a vegetarian, I didn't eat my friend's fried chicken, & the staff noticed that & brought out my ramen first.
I didn't expect such thoughtful service at a ramen shop!
Let me start with the good things, because, well, there aren't many, but credit where it's due. The staff were very polite & efficient, the place was clean, & the location is fairly convenient if you're coming from Old Québec. So yes, that's pretty much everything nice I can say.
Now, onto the disappointing part, which is, unfortunately, most of the experience.
First, the portion. I'm not sure if the kitchen uses a jeweler's scale to weigh noodles, but my bowl couldn't have had more than 100 grams of ramen. The restaurant is called Tora-Ya,'Tiger's Den', but this portion isn't for a tiger. It's more like something you'd serve to a Neko, which means a kitten in Japanese.
Then, the flavor, or should I say… the salt. Because that's pretty much all there was. No depth, no complexity, no umami flavor, just salt. I kept drinking water to dilute it, & by the end, I felt like a water balloon. Even my burps afterward were tasteless. Honestly, this isn't just far from the ramen I had in Sapporo back in 2017...it's not even close to what you'd get at a Chinese-run Japanese restaurant in Toronto.
Oh, & one more awkward thing: the restrooms. There are two, & the signs were so'artistically' ambiguous that I genuinely couldn't tell which was for men & which was for women. I picked an empty one, only to be politely informed by other customers on my way out that I'd used the women's. Upon closer inspection, yeah, maybe that stick figure had a skirt. Or maybe it was a ghost. Who knows? I understand the store wants to be unique. But just put an'M' & an'F,' or'Homme/Femme,' or even the kanji ?/?.
All in all...my experience was disappointing, overpriced, & oddly confusing. I would not recommend unless you're on a very strict low-carb, low-flavor, high-sodium diet. & yeah enjoy the guessing games at the bathroom door.
Nice little cozy shop. Our family of 7 went there at dinner time. Initially they said may need to split us in 2 tables but in the end gave us one big table. Staff were friendly. I ordered a miso-vege with kale noodles. Fantastic. The vegetables were very fresh. Normally I don't like bamboo shoot in Japanese style, but their bamboo shoot was fresh & the best tasting bamboo shoot I ever ate. My brother who hates vegetables also thought the vegetables tasted really good. I also ordered Umeshu. Best plum wine I drank outside Japan. My family ordered Kara-age (fried chicken). It was juicy & meat was fresh, with not too much starch powder or oil.
Some drawback to improve...
Need a better queuing system for customer. Initially I was a bit confused where to wait & whether need to inform staff that we would like to dine in when a lot of people was crowding around at the door.
It only makes sense to be trying all the French food that Quebec City has to offer, but I missed Asian food after my 3rd day here. We found Tora-Ya, which was the highest rated ramen joint in Quebec City (on Yelp), & everything was delicious! Service was also friendly & attentive. May I add, we were greeted in Japanese by both Japanese & non-Japanese staff members, which was really welcoming! We ordered the miso & shoyu ramens plus takoyaki, tako wasabi & edamame & we couldn't have asked for a better meal!
Crowded when we arrived & waited about half an hour in total for a seat & our food to arrive. But it was a good call & there were some Asian looking folks which validated our choice.
The miso ramen was nicely done like what we had in Japan. Broth was rich but do note that the chashu is different. It was thicker & not torched. The egg was also abit over cooked & not as runny. But overall still a good bowl of ramen!
The star for me was the Yakisoba! Nicely stirred fried noodles which go really well with the vegetables. Again it's slightly salty which I guessed it's the norm for Canadians.
Recommend for anyone yearning for a some Japanese food in Quebec.
The Google need to have a bonus star for when things are more than 100% great. It was a cold days & we stopped in for ramen. I had the kimchi ramen & we shared the Japanese chicken bites. The chicken bites were quite remarkable but didn't hold a candle to the ramen broth. My partner thought the broth was too spicy, so maybe it's for those with a bit of a tolerance. There are no pictures as I was overcome with ravenous desire when the food was presented. The most disappointing thing about this visit was that the following day my partner wanted fried Chicken again but they were closed... We went to a fancier place up the road & it was very inferior....
