Montreal’s ramen wave: Authentic? Not exactly. Bold? Absolutely.

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The first thing that hits you at NEO Tokyo, a downtown Montreal ramen joint, is the glowing counter beneath neon-lit billboards. Patrons line the stools, backs hunched, heads buried in steaming bowls of noodly goodness.

The second thing? That’d be the complimentary reads: a shelf of Japanese adult magazines.

The restaurant, owned by Yann Levy and Ilan Benhaim, collaborated with famed Japanese ramen chef Shigetoshi Nakamura to craft a menu that, along with the atmosphere, aims to transport you across the globe. Believe it, mon ami — it’s midnight and you’re in the heart of Tokyo.

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But for Shozo Toyoshima, the head chef, replicating bowls from Japan isn’t really the goal. As a matter of fact, he questions the very idea of “authentic” ramen.

“There are hundreds of types of ramen in Japan. I don’t even know what authentic ramen means,” he says, dunking the next load of noodles into boiling water.

“I want to make something better.”

Toyoshima, 54, joined NEO Tokyo around two years ago, soon after it opened. But he originally hails from Kobe, Japan, where his family ran restaurants.

Built like a brick wall, Toyoshima wields a razor-sharp focus in the kitchen but maintains a quiet politeness. He calls his colleagues by their first names followed by “san,” a Japanese gesture akin to mister or miss.

When explaining Japanese manners to Westerners, however, he reassures: “It’s okay, we don’t expect you to know.”

That said, he finds it amusing when diners sit down and immediately start playing with chopsticks.

“Imagine if they did that with a knife and fork,” he says while laughing.

When Toyoshima arrived in Montreal over two decades ago, ramen restaurants downtown were far from common. “I remember just one or two,” he recalls.

Today, ramen spots have mushroomed across the city, from the popular Yokato Yokabai’s to chains like Kinton Ramen. Even grocery stores like Maxi now stock some 170 different ramen products.

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This week will see the third annual Ramen Ramen festival kick off, running from Oct. 14 to 27, with 33 participating restaurants — including NEO Tokyo. The festival is a chance for Montrealers to contrast and compare signature takes on the iconic Japanese dish. It’s also a chance for chefs to push the boundaries of the ramen rules.

“It’s no longer a novelty,” explains Charles Nguyen, who is helping organize the festival. “Ramen has become mainstream, and the skills of the chefs have naturally improved over time. We’re also seeing more experts sharing their knowledge, which is helping push the ramen scene forward.”

Nguyen adds that the festival also serves as a broader celebration of how far Montreal’s ramen scene has come.

“We’re seeing more creativity than ever before,” he says. “Chefs are experimenting with everything from traditional recipes to innovative new flavours.”

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Ramen may have found its spiritual home in Japan, but it actually originated in China, only gaining popularity in Japan after World War II.

Regional styles of ramen now continue to shape the dish. Like shoyu, popular in Tokyo, which offers a soy sauce base. Or miso, from Sapporo, a 1960s newcomer that introduced fermented bean paste. Then there’s shio, the oldest style, which stays true to its Chinese roots with a sea-salt foundation, and tonkotsu — the heavyweight — made by simmering pork bones for hours until the broth becomes rich and cloudy, a favourite in southern Japan.

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Chef Toyoshima explains that ramen is a world apart from other noodle soups. Its chewy texture comes from alkaline wheat noodles made with kansui, otherwise known as Japanese lye water.

“The noodles can be thin or thick,” he says, “down to the millimetre.”

Then there’s the broth, which can range from clear and light (chintan) to rich and fatty (paitan). But Toyoshima points out that ramen doesn’t even need broth. Varieties like mazemen and abura ramen skip it entirely, putting the spotlight on the noodles and toppings instead. And toppings are infinite — the likes of silky pork belly, marinated eggs, green onion, and fats like chili oil or schmaltz.

“Westerners love eggs,” Toyoshima says, while Japanese diners may opt for ingredients like bamboo that are less familiar to Western palates. He keeps bamboo under the counter.

“It comes down to personal preferences,” says Pete Wells, the recently retired restaurant critic for The New York Times, in an interview.

He notes that New York has seen a similar ramen boom over the past decades — with the likes of the restaurant Momofuku leading the charge — and so much so that now it’s harder to be noticed as a new ramen restaurant.

“At one point, the whole city seemed obsessed with rich, umami-heavy broths. It was like a collective palate decision,” he says.

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“But now, there are so many ramen spots that you can find something to suit whatever you’re in the mood for.”

Wells recently stepped down from his role as The Times’ restaurant critic for health reasons. He is so disarmingly polite that you’d never guess this was the guy who spent years deciding which New York restaurants deserved to sleep with the fishes. Still, ask him his favourite ramen spot, and he handles the question like a soufflé. A little prodding, though, and he admits a preference for chicken ramen.

“I want my ramen scalding hot when it arrives,” he says. “You’re going to be sitting with it for a while, and you don’t want it cold by the time you hit the bottom.”

As for the noodles? “They’ve got to have some spring,” Wells adds. “When you pick your noodles up, it’s good to see the strands are not lying there limp. It’s good to see the strands aren’t there like a mop. Jiggle your chopsticks and they bounce around. You want to see that.”

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For Toyoshima, whether it’s experimenting with different broths, finding new ways to balance the flavours, or testing ingredients, he is always looking for ways to make his ramen better.

He notes that chefs across Japan do the same, always pushing new concepts.

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“Nobody is just trying to make a traditional style,” he says. “I look for ideas everywhere […] even in Italian cuisine.”

Toyoshima and NEO Tokyo are preparing a special dish for the Ramen Ramen festival: Mazesoba, a broth-less ramen that features beef soboro, sesame, rayu, nori, fish powder, chive, onion, cilantro, fried shallots, and egg yolk.

“It’s all about textures and layering flavours,” explains Toyoshima.

That layering? “It’s chemistry,” he says. “That’s my job: to make a good mix, a good balance — but anyone could do this.”

His advice for home cooks wanting to experiment: start with chicken broth powder and flavoured soy sauce.

“Just add hot water […] and you’ve got the foundation for a basic broth. Then grab some noodles and add your favourite toppings.”

And when it comes to Toyoshima’s favourite bowl of ramen? He’s tried too many to choose, but he does have a favourite restaurant:

“Mine.”

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