Ramen restaurants in Toronto have multiplied at a frenetic pace in the past few years, but recently it seems the trend has come to a slow simmer. Even still, there are some notable new destinations worth checking out, including some distinguishing themselves with hand-pulled noodles and unusual seafood toppings.

Here are my picks for the top new ramen restaurants in Toronto.

Homemade Ramen
Chewy, slippery hand-pulled noodles make their way into bowls of Chinese-style ramen at this newly-opened noodle house in Chinatown. Enjoy the light bone broth topped with uncommon additions like braised beef, beef offal, tomato with egg, or pickled cabbage.

Hakata Shoryuken Ramen
The noodle shop opened this past fall in Willowdale dishing out slippery noodles in bowls of authentic Hakata-style Tonkotsu ramen. Highlights on the menu include the Red Hot Tonkotsu with Korean chili paste to add a little kick.

Japanese Ramen King
On Midland north of Finch, find this year-old noodle house serving up deluxe bowls of ramen crowned with unusual toppings such as spicy chicken or seafoods like squid or mussels.

Touhenboku
This quickly expanding chain of ramen shops had a big year in 2014, opening a location at Yonge & Eg in May, and another sushi-focused outpost in The Distillery in December. House favourites include the Original Touhenboku Ramen with rich, creamy chicken broth flavoured with soya or sea salt, plus mushrooms, seaweed, green onion and egg.

Ramen Isshin
The spin-off from the same owners as Kingyo Izakaya recently celebrated its first year anniversary. Since opening, they've perfected the recipes and expanded the menu to include a variety of of vegetarian soups.

Photo from Japanese Ramen King Facebook page.