Ramen Tabetai is a bustling Toronto spot, alive with customers clamouring to get their hands on revered chef Masaki Saito's Jiro-style ramen.

A chef who began his career training under some of Japan's most respected sushi masters, Saito has found unparalleled success at his eponymous, two-Michelin-starred Yorkville restaurant, Sushi Masaki Saito.

He's also the man behind MSSM, its apprentice-run sister spot, and the exclusive, nine-seater, LSL, which he co-owns with chefs Didier Leroy and Christian Le Squer.

For his newest venture — a raucous, modern spot adorned with playful cartoons by Vancouver-based artist Carson Ting — chef Saito has traded seafood for pork, building a restaurant centred on Japan's beloved noodle soup, with a name that translates to "I want to eat ramen."

Attacking his new mark with the same perfectionism, attention to detail and obsession with quality he brings to every project, he serves bowls that are fragrant and fat with flavour.

Made in the Jiro style, they're plunge-pool-sized meals crowded with a potent mix of food-coma-inducing morsels. In fact, they're distracting enough to make you forget that there's hardly anything else on the menu.

"We serve about 100 bowls every day," says head ramen chef Hiro Tsugami. Once those are gone, he adds, they're gone. Yes, there are also onigiri flavoured with Japanese plum, smoked fish or pork ($2, or three for $5), but it's unlikely that anyone is scrambling to get to Ramen Tabetai for seasoned balls of rice.

What they're here for, what they wait in line salivating for, is a bowl of ramen ($22.88) built from collagen-rich, 12-hour tonkotsu broth (apologies to the vegetarians among you), a bouncy tangle of robust noodles, heaps of veggies, a ladleful of pork fat, hefty slice of chashu and noticeable amount of garlic.

Each bowl is also laced with a generous splash of Saito's secret umami essence, which adds indefinable depth to every slurp. "I cannot say exactly what it is," admits Tsugami. "Some special Japanese soy sauce, some special fish sauce. Only he knows."

Bowls can be customized — bulked up with an onsen egg ($2.50) or extra chashu ($5), say, or with bold finishing add-ons like parmesan cheese ($3) or curry powder ($1.50).

Sauces, whether garlic mayo ($2) or spicy tare ($2), build on the broth's considerable innate charms, adding punchy layers of zingy, tongue-rousing flavour to every drop.  

Though there's little that's likely to slow the impending somnolence from finishing a bowl, while the restaurant awaits its liquor license, diners can try tea and imported soft drinks, such as Ramune ($5) and Choya Yuzu Soda ($7.50).

Students with a healthy obsession for Jiro ramen take note: join Ramen Tabetai's ramen club ($10) and every bowl rings in at just $17.88.

Chef Masaki Saito may not be in the kitchen at Ramen Tabetai, but his influence extends from its saucy urban style to every unapologetically heavy, heady order. Ramen that's "not for the faint of heart," according to the team, these bowls are bound to attract a healthy mix of avid supporters and persnickety critics.

Ramen Tabetai is located at 154 Cumberland Street.