In Burnaby Central

Jinya Ramen Bar: Open at Metropolis at Metrotown in Burnaby

September 11, 2017

Jinya Ramen Bar has finally opened in Burnaby outside Metropolis at Metrotown. It’s been under construction for a while, but we are so happy they have opened their doors for a soft opening. Finally, I don’t have to always travel Downtown to get a taste of Jinya. They are a popular Ramen chain restaurant and they have 3 locations in Vancouver so far.

Interior

The space is gorgeous and is similar to the look of the Downtown location in Vancouver. It’s sleek, modern, and hip. They were extremely busy despite the empty seats. Our group of 5 waited 1.5 hours to get seated. Luckily, they have an electronic system through Yelp where it tells you how many tables are in front of you. We ended up going shopping to kill the time.

Chef’s Special: Karaage Chicken Ramen

This has a chicken broth topped with crispy chicken dressed in chili sauce, green onion, bamboo shoots, seasoned egg, nori dried seaweed. It is served with thin noodles but you can always ask for thicker noodles.

Spicy Creamy Vegan Ramen

This vegetable broth is amazing, I personally think it’s one of the best. It also has tofu, onion, green onion, spinach, crispy onion, garlic chips, garlic oil, chili oil, and sesame seeds. It is served with thick noodles instead of the thinner ones.

Pork Chashu

To go with the vegan ramen, I added a side of pork chashu. I put it into the bottom of the bowl and let the broth heat it up and man, was it melt in your mouth delicious!

Jinya Tonkotsu Black

This is one of the most popular flavours. It has a pork broth base with pork chashu, kikurage, green onion, nori dried seaweed, seasoned egg, garlic chips, garlic oil, fried onion, and a spicy sauce. It is served with thin noodles.

Premium Tonkotsu White

This has a mix of pork and chicken broth and served with pork chashu, kikurage, green onion, half seasoned egg, fried onion, and spicy sauce. This is served with thin noodles. My friend got this without the spicy sauce since she doesn’t like anything too spicy.

Sauces

At the table, there are a few sauces that you can add to your meal – seasoning suace, gyoza sauce and hot sauce.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I enjoyed the ramen here. The waits can be long, but you can always go shopping at the mall until you table is ready. The space is really nice and you’ll love the ramen. My personal top favourite ramen flavours are – Tonkotsu Black and Spicy Creamy Vegan ramen.

We Rate Jinya Ramen Bar:

Address:
4575 Central Blvd, Burnaby

Website:
https://jinya-ramenbar.com/

In Four Beakers

Rajio Japanese Public House: Osaka-Style Japanese Izakaya in Vancouver

September 10, 2017

It’s been 3 years since my last visit to Rajio Japanese Public House and I remember a lot of great nights here but I’m glad I’ve come back for more of their Osaka-style dishes.

Interior

The interior is fun and gives you a mix of traditional and modern feels. The space isn’t very large, but there are a decent number of tables.

Rajio’s Famous Fruit Punch

Their cute punch is served in a fresh watermelon or pineapple. Great for the Summer or what you need a smile on your face.

You cab have it with alcohol or without to customize your experience.

Beer

My favourite beverage to pair with Japanese food is beer as it helps cut the grease off some fried items. Plus, I love how light and refreshing it is.

Craft Ginger Ale

They have their original ginger ale recipe with freshly grated ginger, lime, lemon, and sweet brown sugar. It’s definitely different than the ginger ale at the stores since it has an extra kick of ginger balanced by the brown sugar.

Super Rib Steak

This $38 hug 2lb beef rib steak comes with sharp wasabi and a garlic soy sauce. I’ve always ordered their huge steaks before and they are a joy to eat. It is best to be shared among the table. Super tender and medium rare.

Modern Yaki

This is a featured dish, so it’s not on their permanent menu. It is a combination of Osaka Okonomiyaki and Yakisoba. I liked the concept, but the execution wasn’t ideal. As the dish cooled off, the okonomiyaki portion of it peeled off from the yakisoba hiding underneath. It was also quite rich and heavy compared to some other items that we had.

“Uni Bonara” Sea Urchin Carbonara

This was delicious item with the creamy udon paired with the fresh uni and the ikura. I enjoyed it and it was a good twist on an udon dish.

Y Mommy’s Assorted Oden

I love oden as it’s a warm bowl of comfort. There were so many items in this bowl with a bit of karashi, which is a spicy mustard. Put a little bit in as it really transforms the broth. Add more if you love the stingy wasabi-like feeling.

Chef’s Choice Sashimi

You can choose between 7 or 9 different types of sashimi chosen by the chef. It changes seasonally, but you can always ask ahead what you’ll get.

Hot Stone Crab Bibimbap

In the hot stone bibimbap bowl, there is snowcrab, crab miso, ikura, julienned omelet, shiso and scallions with a drizzle of their original sauce and a bit of ginger.

Kushikatsu

These skewers are Rajio’s signature skewers from Osaka. We got an assorted set with a mix of veggies and meat. One of my favourites are the shiitake mushroom, lotus root and eggplant.

Aburi Shime-Saba Sushi

There is delicious cured mackerel with Hokkaido kelp and vinegar is lightly seared and drizzled with a sesame mustard soy. Delicious and I love the taste of mackerel.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the atmosphere at Rajio is lively and fun. The food at Rajio is solid except for a few small misses in certain dishes.

We Rate Rajio:

Address:
3763 W. 10th Ave.
Vancouver, BC

Facebook:
http://www.rajiopublichouse.com/

In Downtown

Yah Yah Ya Ramen in Downtown Vancouver

July 1, 2017

Yah Yah Ya Ramen opened their second location in Vancouver and they specialize in Yokohama-style ramen. The style of ramen blends tonkotsu and shoyu broth together to give a unique blend of broth. We were invited to try their special Cold Ramen only available in the summer.

Interior

There are 2 larger communal tables inside and a bunch of other smaller table. Lots of space for ramen lovers.

Japanese Ocha

Once of my favourite drinks to have at a ramen bar. You can have it sweetened or unsweetened. I would definitely recommend having it unsweetened so you can taste more of the tea.

Gyozas

These come in 6 pieces per order. A decent pan fried on one side. A good item to share among a table of friends, but it still felt a bit average.

NO. 1 Shoyu Ramen

You will find 3 pieces of toasted sesame, 2 pieces of chashu, egg, spinach, and their pork soy sauce ie-kei soup base. Very delicious and highly recommended if it’s your first time here. You can choose the texture of the noodle (hard, normal or soft), the richness (heavy, normal or light) and oil (more, normal, or less).

Black Ramen Tonkotsu

Inside you will find 3 pieces of toasted seaweed, bamboo shoots, 2 slices of chashu, and ramen egg. Delicious as well. It’s hard to choose between their bowls of ramen.

Mazesoba

In this bowl, you’ll find pork meat, toasted seaweed, bean sprouts, green onions, bamboo shoots and a golden egg yolk. You mix this all up really well and then enjoy. The flavour of all the items coat the noodles and is enjoyable.

Cold Ramen

This is only available in the Summer. It has sliced chashu, sliced red ginger, sliced egg, bean sprouts and cucumber. Mix it up and enjoy. A good choice to cool down for the Summer, but I still have a huge craving for a hot bowl of ramen even if it’s super hot outside.

Spicy Cold Ramen

If you want a kick of heat, they have a spicy cold ramen too. It has sliced chashu, kimchi, seaweed, bean sprouts and cucumber.

Salmon Don

You can have this as a combo with your ramen or on it’s own. The piece of salmon on top is very meaty.

Negi Chashu Don

Another don option if you like their chashu. I thought this was ok as the sauce felt a bit overpowering.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Yah Yah Ya Ramen is a pretty solid ramen shop. With so many ramen shops on Robson Street, they do stand out for their Yokohama style ramen. If you’re in the area, check it out.

We Rate Yah Yah Ya Ramen:

Address: 570 Robson St, Vancouver

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/downtownyahyahya/

In Four Beakers

Jinya Ramen in the Telus Garden on Robson Street

April 15, 2017

Jinya Ramen Bar is opening up on April 21st at the Telus Garden on Robson Street. They have all their classic ramen dishes with an expanded menu with more appetizers and drinks. Jinya has been one of my personal favourite ramen shops in Vancouver and it’s funny how they are moving a block to Telus Garden.

I came here for a preview of the space as well as to try a few items off the menu.

Interior

The interior is really nice and modern with some brick accents. There are large windows to let in a lot of natural light. The space is larger than their previous location, so should seat more people.

I love staring at their amazing chefs creating each bowl of ramen. Stacks and stacks of ramen bowls linking the kitchen.

Their staff were pumping out ramen non-stop.

I love this picture. “No Ramen, No Life” is absolutely correct.

Drinks

They have local craft beers on the menu, which is fantastic!

Moody Ales, Steel & Oak, Fuggles & Warlock, Parkside, and Four Winds. Love the local flair in this international ramen chain.

They also have spirits like sake on their menu. Of course they also have whiskey and other harder drinks too.

Appetizers

Brussel Sprouts Tempura

It is crisp on the outside because of the batter. It also have white truffle oil.

Salmon Poke Mini Tacos

The salmon poke is served in a crispy wonton taco shell. Very addictive!

Takoyaki

These are octopus balls. It has battered octopus over egg tartar topped with kewpie mayo, okonomiyaki sauce, green onion and bonito flakes. It came piping hot, so let it cool before popping it into your mouth.

Ramen

Cha Cha Cha Ramen

This is for garlic lovers. It has pork and fish broth, pork chashu, seasoned egg, bean sprouts, chopped onion, green onion, garlic, chili powder, and served with extra thick noodles.

Vegetable Soup Ramen

It has a vegetable broth, mushroom, greens, broccoli, cauliflower and pepper. It is served with thin noodles. This was ok, but not my favourite.

Spicy Creamy Vegan Ramen

It has their vegetable broth, tofu, green onion, onion, spinach, crisp onions, garlic chips, garlic oil, chili oil, sesame seeds and served with thick noodles. This was so good! The additional of the garlic and chili oil are so amazing. I thought I loved the Tonkotsu black broth, but this broth is killer!

Spicy Chicken Ramen

It has chicken broth: chicken chashu, spinach, spicy bean sprouts, green onion, and served with thin noodles. You can choose it to be mild, spicy or hot.

Kaedama Noodle Refill

If you are done slurping up your noodles and have extra broth, you can order an additional portion of noodles to keep on enjoying the ramen.

They have different types of noodles too.

Final Thoughts

Their new location will bring more menu items that are pretty standard with their other North American locations. Plus, the decor and space is a lot nicer, but nothing was wrong with their previous location either. You still get the same great ramen, but this time I found my other favourite ramen – spicy creamy vegan ramen. Jinya Tonkotsu Black is awesome too.

We Rate Jinya Ramen Bar:

Address:
541 Robson Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://jinya-ramenbar.com/

In Fairview

Benkei Ramen: Peko Ramen and Vegan Ramen in Vancouver

March 3, 2017

Benkei Ramen in Vancouver has always been innovating their ramen to cater to those who love authentic Japanese ramen as well as those with dietary restrictions. I was invited with a friend to try their new Peko Ramen as well as some other items off the menu. As my friend has a seafood allergy, they have a few vegan options.

Interior

The interior is nice with wooden walls and bamboo. The staff are nice and friendly.

Green Tea

Start off with a hot cup of green tea.

Housemade Gyoza

You can order it as a side portion with your ramen or a full order for the table. They only have a pork filled gyoza but are working on a veggie gyoza to add to their menu in the near future.

The pork gyoza was a good accompaniment with a hot bowl of ramen. Great to share with a friend too.

Peko Ramen

Their Peko Ramen is a silky milk broth made of tonkotsu broth, milk, shio-dare and brandy. The broth is very clean, rich and not oily at all. It wasn’t salty at all and with the amount of veggies in this bowl and the slices of lean chicken meat. I slurped up the bowl.

This is back for a limited time until March 31.

Black Vegan Ramen

For those with dietary restrictions, it’s hard to enjoy ramen. Benkei introduced their 2nd vegan ramen – Black Vegan Ramen along side their vegan miso ramen.

Vegan black is deliciously rich. The broth is made with rich vegetable stock, black sesame miso, and drizzle with coconut milk and roasted red pepper. The noodles are also eggless.

More Vegan Ramen

A sneak peek into another vegan ramen they are in the process of creating. They introduced this to me as their white vegan ramen, but they are still tweaking the recipe and name.

I really do appreciate how they are expanding their menu to those ramen eaters with dietary restrictions.

Sauce

Raw Garlic and chili sauce is available for free, all you have to do is ask for it. It’s helpful to enhance the broth if you are feeling its a bit bland.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Benkei Ramen has a lot more to offer than just their usual ramen. I’m impressed they are continually trying new ramen creations.

We Rate Benkei Ramen:

Address:
545 W Broadway, Vancouver

Website:
benkeiramen.com

In Japanese

Men no Kura: Ramen in Vancouver

January 11, 2017

Men-no Kura is another new addition to the ramen community on Robson Street in Downtown Vancouver. There are several ramen shops in close proximity, so competition is high.

I came here at night with a few friends to have 2nd dinner.

Interior

There is a large communal table and then a few smaller tables for other groups. Tables are clean and there is a nice modern industrial look to the space. Staff are nice and helpful too.

Dashimaki

There are 2 types of dashimaki – Japanese rolled omelette at Men-no kura.

Dashimaki mentaiko
Dashimaki cheese

The omelette was soft, warm and the center was filled with either of those salty delicious filling. Delicious. Of the 2 types, I liked the cheese one a bit more.

Japanese deep fried chicken karaage

Japanese deep fried chicken karaage is their most popular item. It is very tender and super juicy with a nice crisp exterior. Very enjoyable and a great item to share.

Tonkotsu Black Garlic

Tonkotsu Black Garlic Ramen is one of their most popular ramen on the menu. It has a rich broth, chashu, garlic chips, and green onions.

Tsukemen

They have Tsukemen on their menu. You can have the noodles hot or cold. You have a choice of 3 different broths to choose from:

Original
Garlic Miso
Spicy

Deluxe Tsukemen

Deluxe Tsukemen comes with extra toppings of ramen egg, bamboo shoots and chashu. The broth is served in a mini hotpot so it stays warm. There was also some fried garlic chips on the side. The broth is quite rich, so without the hot flame underneath, it would congeal. The broth is very favourful and if it’s too rich for your liking, they can dilute it a bit more for you.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the ramen at Men-no-Kura was good. Their broth is much richer than other ramen shops, but I prefer it that way. It was good ramen, but with so many other ramen shops out there, it’s hard to choose. I still have another favourite, but if I was close by, I would come here again.

We Rate Men-no-Kura :

Address:
1773 Robson Street, Vancouver

In Commercial Drive / Grandview

Natsumi Ramen: Ramen on Commercial Drive

November 16, 2016

Natsumi Ramen on Commercial Drive is one of the newer ramen shops to pop up in Vancouver. There aren’t any ramen shops in the area, so I was surprised this was here. I was walking along Commercial Drive with a few friends and we decided to stop here, avoid the rain and have a hearty bowl of ramen.

Interior

The interior has a lot of cat silhouettes. No problems here since I love cats. Dog lovers are welcome here too.

There are a decent number of tables here for small and large groups.

Side Dish

Before the ramen arrives, everyone was given pickled and marinated onions. Surprisingly really good. Something to munch on before the ramen arrives.

Ramen

Tsukemen has a soy sauce based broth with noodles on the side. There is also diced pork belly, soft boiled egg, bamboo shoot, green onion, and roasted seaweed. This is a dipping ramen, so you take some noodle and dip it in the broth, then slurp it up.

Miso Ramen has pork belly, bean sprout, bamboo sprouts, blacktree fungus, fried onion, green onion, corn and roasted seaweed. My friend added an egg to this.

Cheese Kimchi Ramen has a soy sauce based broth, pork belly, soft boiled egg, bean sprout, green onion, corn, mozzarella, chopped kimchi, and roasted seaweed. This loaded ramen had an interesting concept, but the cheese easily dissolves into the ramen and doesn’t hold together well after it melts.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the meal, cute little candies come in a box to finish up the meal. The ramen was pretty average, but it was nice to have a ramen shop in the area.

We Rate Natsumi Ramen:

Address:
1179 Commercial Dr, Vancouver

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ramennatsumi/

In Japanese

Koyuki Sapporo Ramen: New Ramen Shop near Robson

July 29, 2016

Koyuki Sapporo Ramen is the newest ramen joint to appear near Robson Street. With so many other ramen shops in the area, I was curious how it would compare.

I came here with Dee from Gastrofork to see if it would tickle our tastebuds.

We came during dinner time and they provided us with their lunch time menu. Apparently, the only difference is that the portion is larger. They didn’t have a dinner menu printed out, which I thought was strange.

Interior

The interior hasn’t changed too much as it still had the same structure of the previous restaurant that was here. There are lots of seats but it was very dead when we were here.

Ramen

Tonkotsu Ramen has a rich and creamy broth made from pork bones. it is topped with bean sprouts, cha-shu, green onion, seaweed, black garlic, and an aitsuke egg.

The egg was over cooked and didn’t have that gooey consistency like the other places in town. There was a lot of noodles, but it was chewy and bland. The cha-shu was really good.

Miso Ramen is their Sapporo style with miso flavour, bamboo shoots, green onions, bean sprouts, seaweed and cha-shu.

Gyoza

Gyozas come in 5 pieces and were pretty bad too. Even though it was pan fried, it was limp.

Overall, there wasn’t anything about this place that stood out except their cha-shu, but then again you can’t really go wrong with cha-shu. I didn’t like the texture of the noodles as it was chewy and soggy. The egg wasn’t done right. The service was also pretty awful too.

I’ve never been to Sapporo to have authentic Sapporo style ramen, but all I know is that Koyuki’s ramen was pretty meh.

They have a lot to improve on.

We Rate Koyuki Ramen:

Address:
795 Jervis Street, Vancouver

In Japanese

Ramen Koika: Ramen on Davie Street

June 28, 2016

Ramen Koika is located on Davie Street opened by Caleb Lee. He traveled to Japan to learn how to make ramen in Chiba, Tokyo and Osaka. Did you know he also was a banker before getting into the restaurant industry? Vancouver Sun has a pretty good article talking about it how they began their journey into creating Ramen Koika.

We were invited to try a few items off their menu. I was pretty excited since I haven’t been here yet.

The restaurant is a good size for small and large groups. You can see right into the kitchen to see the staff cooking up a storm.

Snacks

Tako Wasabi is fresh octopus marinated in wasabi. The portion size was very good and had a nice subtle kick of wasabi.

Chashu Wrap is grilled in a panini press before serving. A nice snack if you are coming here and want something small.

Gyoza comes with 5 pieces in either veggie or pork. Nice crisp bottom and savoury filling.

Chashu panini has cream cheese, cajun honey chashu, lettuce, and wasabi mayo. Not a usual item you would find in a ramen shop, but the option is there.

Kakuni is pork belly stewed in a secret Koika soy sauce and topped with a marsala wine sauce. Delicious!

Tornado Potato Stick starts out as a potato that is sliced in a spiral shape and then deep fried. It wasn’t as crispy as other places that have it in town. It might be because of the potatoes they chose to use.

Ramen

Sapporo Miso Ramen has bamboo shoots, ground pork, bean sprouts, green onion and corn. It had a goo balance of flavours and if you usually like miso, you’ll enjoy this.

Kara Miso Ramen is the spicy version of the Sapporo Miso Ramen and it has the same toppings inside like bamboo shoots, ground pork, bean sprouts, green onion and corn. It has a decent amount of spice but it isn’t too spicy.

Chiba Black Ramen has bamboo shoots, roasted seaweed, soft boiled egg, chashu, black tree fungus, green onion, garlic chip, black garlic oil. You can choose the chashu to be lean or fatty.

The egg was cooked perfectly. Look at that egg. Yum. The ramen tasted good and a lot of people enjoyed this dish, but I always find it comes down to personal preference. I still prefer the Black Garlic Ramen from Jinya.

Kings Ramen uses their Wok Smoky Cuisine-Chicken Broth and can be mild or spicy. It also has carrot, cabbage, mushroom, green onion, bean sprouts, shredded pork, seaweed, bamboo shoot, and the soft boiled ramen egg. There’s definitely a lot of flavours going on in this dish.

Okinawa Umi Ramen has fresh mussels, garlic, green pepper, red pepper, green ramen and ramen in the veggie and seafood broth. A very unique ramen dish but the amount of pepper inside was quite strong.

Kimchi Ramen has shredded pork, kimchi, mushroom, spring onion, onion, cabbage, and green onions. There was a good amount of kimchi taste with subtle sour notes.

Nagasaki Champon Ramen is topped with Black tree fungus, bok choy, onion, cabbage, red pepper, green pepper, Thai chili, prawns, scallop, mussel, squid, and bean sprouts. There’s so many ingredients in there that took away from the noodles and the broth.

They also serve beer here, which is great if you want a drink with your ramen.

I find that with some of the ramen, it has a lot of toppings that didn’t add too much flavour to the ramen. Perhaps it’s just a style that wasn’t what I liked at Ramen Koika. My personal preference for ramen is very rich and fatty with less amount of toppings.

It’s good that they offer more options than just ramen, so if you are with friends that don’t want ramen, they can find other types of items on their menu.

We rate Ramen Koika:

Address:
1231 Davie Street, Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.ramenkoika.com/

In Downtown

Ramen Gojiro: Gatsuri-Style Ramen in Vancouver

March 20, 2016

Ramen Gojiro is a new ramen shop in Downtown Vancouver and it is part of the Menya Kouji group that also owns Ramen Butcher and Taishoken.

They specialize in jiro-style/gatsuri-style ramen that has lots of noodles and toppings. They are trying something new that differentiates themselves from the other ramen shops.

It was a rainy day in Vancouver, no surprise right? My friend and I came here before heading off to work.

They are still very new, so there were grand opening flowers out front.

We came at 12:30pm on a Sunday, but there wasn’t a line up until about 1pm. We were pretty lucky to get a table as I’ve only heard people lining up outside during peak hours.

The interior is nice and simple with wood and cement textures. There’s even a painting of Godzilla.

The staff in the kitchen were wearing t-shirts from Ramen Butcher.

The menu is simple and you have the choice between 2 size, 2 toppings and 2 broths.

Beer, fried rice and tsukemen aren’t available just yet, but at some point, it will be.

After putting in our order, the server asked if we wanted an apron. Seemed like a good idea at the time. The paper napkin helps prevent any noodle slurping splatter from hitting your clothes or bags. As we put on our aprons, we realized NO ONE else in the restaurant had one on. We didn’t hear them offering these to other tables.

Regardless of how ugly it was, we kept it on and it really did help with the splatter.

Basic Chashu has their signature broth with pork and chicken. Noodles are made in-house.

The thickness of the noodles were in between udon and ramen. There is also lots of bean sprouts. My friend said the chashu was fatty and delicious, but the broth was meh.

Basic Bakamori with karaage is a mountain of food. It has the same broth but with more topping, more noodles, and more meat. If you are a big eater, you will want this option.

I wasn’t thrilled with the broth either. It was rich but lacked much depth to it and it was salty.

The chicken karaage was crispy and full of flavour, but I didn’t like the noodles. The option garlic on top was pungent as well.

Ramen Gojiro has its high points and low points, but I don’t think I would return. It’s just didn’t appeal to my tastebuds.

We Rate Ramen Gojiro:

Address:
501 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://ramengojiro.com/

In Japanese

Ramen Danbo: Fukuoka Style Tonkotsu Ramen on Robson

February 5, 2016

Ramen Danbo has their 2nd location on Robson Street. With Robson Street already having a huge cluster of ramen shops, you would think its hard adding another into the mix. On a Sunday night, this place was packed for dinner. I’ve been to their West 4th location and loved it.

What makes them unique is that you can customize the ramen you order by selecting:

amount of spicy tare sauce
firmness of noodles
amount of lard
thickness of broth

At first I was overwhelmed by the amount of choices.

I took my food blogger friend – Sherman and MissVancouverPiggy to indulge in some good ramen.

They have taken over the VanVan Izakaya and made slight modifications to the interior. Mostly removed the chalkboard walls and put the white textured pattern on the walls which is much nicer.

After waiting about 15 minutes, we got a seat at the bar.

Classic Tonkotsu Ramen with egg has their signature Tonkotsu Pork Broth and is essential to those who are new to Ramen Danbo. Don’t forget to order it with their egg!

It makes the whole bowl like a smiley face…a delicious smiley face.

Classic Tonkotsu Ramen ‘Shio’ is slightly different with their simple Tonkotsu soup broth and special Shio ramen-dare soup base. Can’t go wrong with this either.

Blazing Hot Rekka Ramen is 5x the spiciness of their classic ramen. It uses their Ichimi Togarashi red pepper imported from Japan to ignite your palete. You can select from 5, 10, 15, or 20 times the standard spiciness. I went and got the 15x amount of spiciness. It is awesome for people who love spicy. Good flavours.

Pan-fried Yaki Gyoza is a pork and scallion dumpling. Crispy on one side. These were ok.

Overall, I love their rich broth and the ability to customize a lot aspect of the dish.

We Rate Ramen Danbo:

Address:
1333 Robson Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://ramendanbo.com/

In Chinatown

Ramen Butcher: Tsukemen

January 6, 2016

Another lunch visit to Ramen Butcher means trying something new on the menu with my coworkers. The space is nice and its never too crowded during lunch as most people head to Phnom Penh. This area has definitely changed a lot. The Menya Kouji group has opened up The Ramen Butcher and they own over 150 ramen shop locations around the world.

Such a cute drawing of a pig and its different cuts of meat.

The tall window really give this place a lot of natural light.

Tsukenmen is a Japanese noodle dish consisting of ramen which is eaten after dipping in a separate bowl of soup. When I saw this new item on the menu, I had to give it a try. Seeing that this restaurant has changed a few items on their menu since their opening, I thought I would give it a try.

Tsukemen ($11.55) has a bowl of their house cold thick noodle and then their bowl of their special dipping soup. The noodles seems a bit overcooked and a bit thick for my liking. They stuck together a lot more than I would have liked.

The egg and the pork were delicious. Look at that beauty. The only thing that bothered me about the taste was the strong fish meal taste. It was warmed in the menu, but it was pretty darn fishy.

I would still prefer Taishoken’s Tsukemen a lot more. If you come here, definitely get Ramen Butcher’s other ramen.

We Rate The Ramen Butcher:

Address:
223 E Georgia St
Vancouver BC

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/theramenbutcher/

In Kid Friendly

Harvest Community Foods: Ramen and Grocery Store

November 15, 2015

Established in 2012, Harvest Community Foods is a community-driven retail space. As voted on by Chinatown-Strathcona residents, the grocery provides local, seasonal food products. The business also offers Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares, further fostering accessibility to B.C. produce.

Chef and owner, Andrea Carlson has revamped prepared grocery eats with heartwarming and sophisticated ramen dishes. More than a market, the store serves as a community gathering place for good eats, conversation, and appreciation of local fare.

When you walk into the store, you will see a variety of products like:

To Die For Fine Foods
Namasthé Tea
Vancouver Island Salt
Bittered Slings
Vancouver Honey
Noble Handcrafted Maple
Sapadilla Soaps
Earnest Ice Cream
Solefood Greens
Sugo Sauce

Of course many more items. It’s not a large store, but you’ll find a bit of everything you need.

Freshly made jams are available too.

Harvest Community Foods draws large crowds during lunch for their Harvest noodles.

It’s made all in-house.

The most popular ramen on the menu is the #39 Ramen with pork shoulder, radish, egg, and candied bacon.

How can you not say no to this beautiful creation. It’s not authentic Japanese ramen, but they put their own twist on it. This is my favourite dish too. The bacon and egg are just amazing.

They also sell some cold sweet treats like Brown Paper Packages Ice Cream and Earnest Ice Cream.

Really, how can you say no to Ice Cream? I used to come here often for Earnest Ice Cream before they opened another location on Quebec and 2nd close to Science World.

They even have drinking vinegar from Pok Pok. No more trips to the states are needed to get these.

If you’re ever in the area, stop by for a bowl of ramen and check out some cool local products.

We Rate Harvest Community Foods:

Address:
243 Union Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://harvestunion.ca/

In Four Beakers

The Ramenman: New Ramen Shop in Vancouver

October 27, 2015

The Ramenman is the newest Japanese ramen joint to open up on the West End of Downtown Vancouver. After seeing Sean’s beautiful pictures on instagram of The Ramenman, I had to check it out. Surprisingly, when I came here to have dinner with a CanuckGirl, guess who was there? Sean. Always good to bump into another foodie friend.

The restaurant is small, so there is one large communal table and 2 tables in the back. I think this place can fit about 20ish people comfortably.

They are still in their Soft Opening phase, so I’m not sure how much their menu is going to transform once they are done their soft opening. The menu has 3 type of ramen, a few appetizers, and drinks. Pretty cool to see beer on tap in a ramen restaurant.

The 3 ramen they offer are:

Chicken x Clam
chicken x Stew
Chicken x Regular

Appetizer Plate ($5.50) has your choice of charsui (chicken or pork), ramen egg, Japanese Leek, Bamboo Shoots, Spinach, green onion and chili pepper. There are more like items that you can dump into your ramen.

I got this with 2 slices of pork. The pork looks like ham, but it’s not. It’s tender and seemed more like sous vide pork. It’s a French cooking method that is cooked at a lower temperature for longer periods of time to get the inside is pork cooked without overcooking the outside, and retain more moisture.

Chicken x Clam ($11.50) has your choice of charsui (pork, chicken or both), clams, green onions, red onion, parsley, garlic, black pepper, green onion oil and truffle oil.

I got mine with both pork and chicken charsui to taste the difference. It was both very good. The chicken probably has the same cooking method ask the pork. The broth was nice and not too salty.

Chicken x Regular ($9.50) has your choice of charsui (pork, chicken or both), ramen egg, bamboo shoots, Japanese leek, green onion, garlic, black pepper, green onion oil and truffle oil.

The spoon is pretty big. Think of it as like a mini bowl with a handle.

Overall, it’s good to have another chicken ramen base alternative. Marutama also has chicken ramen, but what I like about the Ramenman is the good balance between all the ingredients in the bowl. Service is great and the interior is quite comfortable. I do enjoy chicken broths, but not everyone will agree.

We Rate Ramenman:

Address:
841 Bidwell Street, Vancouver

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/The-Ramenman-172684076409030/

In Ramen

Torafuku: Modern-Asian Restaurant on Main Street

August 17, 2015

Torafuku is located on Main Street right outside Chinatown in Vancouver. The restaurant is opened by Le Tigre food truck owners Clement Chan and Steve Kuan.

The 48-seat modern-Asian restaurant delivers bold interpretations on flavours traditionally found in Japanese, Taiwanese, Korean, and Vietnamese cuisine. Every plate features seasonal ingredients, straight from local farmers. Torafuku’s menu is designed for sharing. Dishes are playful yet skillfully prepared.

They don’t take reservations, so it’s first come first serve.
Torafuku is open from Tuesday to Sunday for dinner, starting at 5:30 p.m.

33 Acres of Sunshine, Blanche ($6) is one of their beers on top. It is a French blanchè ale lightly hopped with Styrian Golding and flavoured with orange peel, coriander, and anise. It was a nice light beer to go with the meal.

Cocchi-Doodle Cobbler ($12) has BeefEater Gin, cocchi americano, hibiscus, Osmanthus, raspberries, and mandarin orange. This was recommended by the waitress.

Torafuku Ramen ($12) has braised duck leg, bean sprouts, leeks, scallions, seasonal veggies, yummy tonkotsu broth, fried egg. The broth was pretty good and the ramen was really packed with a lot of ingredients. I thought the noodles were ok, but I much prefer firm ramen noodles.

Dr. Octopus vs Mr Tuna ($12) has a pretty unique name, which compelled us to order the dish. on one side there is the octopus salad with tomato, jalapenos, scallions, and crispy nori. On the other side, you have the tuna crudo with romesco sauce.

I enjoyed the octopus as it was very tender. The tuna wasn’t as tasty.

Rye So Messy Chicken Wings ($12) was crowned the 2015 Chicken Fight Best Dish — rye and gochujang marinate, mango glaze, ramen crumble, KFC sauce. You can really taste the stronger gochujang sauce in the chicken wings. The wings were ok, but I left there were too many things going on in this dish.

Calamari Done The Right Way ($10) uses Humboldt squid, onion, tomato, lychee, arugula, and a sweet chilli dressing. The dish was ok, but the star of the dish – calamari fell a bit flat.

Brown Cow ($13) has Shaoxing braised oxtail, tomato, shiitake, cabbage, basil, fried egg, and sticky rice cake. This is comfort food right here. I personally didn’t like the rice cakes since they don’t soak up the delicious sauce from the dish.

Overall, we found the food was very well presented but the flavours were lacking. There wasn’t a a dish that we thought was outstanding. The service was ok, but we did find a fly in one of our beers, so we scooped it out and showed it to our waitress. She didn’t offer us a new drink out of courtesy which was odd.

We Rate Torafuku:

Address:
958 Main Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://torafuku.ca/

In Japanese

Ramen Danbo: Ramen in Kitsilano

July 19, 2015

Ramen Danbo is the newest ramen shop to open up in Vancouver. They are known for their Fukuoka-Style Tonkotsu ramen. Ramen Danbo is a chain restaurant from Japan and the first location in North America.

What makes them unique is that you can customize the ramen you order by selecting

amount of spicy tare sauce
firmness of noodles
amount of lard
thickness of broth

At first I was overwhelmed by the amount of choices.

The interior is simple and there aren’t a lot of seats.

Pan-fried yaki gyoza ($4.75) is a crispy pork and scallion dumpling. Its nice and crisp on the outside and the pork inside is very delicious. Even a little bit of soup comes out.

You can dip them in their gyoza and chili sauce.

Mentaiko Rice ($3.50) has a bed of rice with spicy cod roe, sesame and seaweed. I mixed everything up and there really needs to be more roe. I wouldn’t recommend this. perhaps their Yakibuta chashu pork donburi or yakibuta tanka rice is more flavourful.

Yakibuta Chashu Pork Ramen with soft boiled egg topping ($11.95 + $1.50) it has size chashu slices that are tender and flavourful. The signature tonkotsu broth is delicious. We found the price pretty good since there are six slices of chashu.

If you are still hungry after this, you can order extra noodles for $2 or have a half order for $1.

Negi-goma Tonkotsu Ramen ($11.45) has scallions and toasted sesame with two slices of chashu pork slices. It is in their signature Tonkotsu pork broth.

I got it with firm noodles and standard amount of lard, thickness, and spice. The options were confusing so I stuck with the standard. It was good, but there is a lot of sesame seeds in it. Check your teeth before you head out of the restaurant because you don’t want to have a teeth full of sesame seed.

They also have garlic paste and pepper at the table if you want to enhance the taste.

Overall, I would say it is my third favourite ramen place in Vancouver. It’s quite subjective based on the type of ramen you like. I still prefer Santouka and Jinya.

We Rate Ramen Danbo:

Address:
1833 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver

Website:
http://ramendanbo.com

In Chinatown

The Ramen Butcher: New Ramen Restaurant in Chinatown

February 2, 2015

The Ramen Butcher hasn’t even officially opened yet, but there is a line up. They have a soft opening from February 1st till February 4th with $5 ramen. They open at 11am and close when they run out of noodles and broth. They officially open February 6th with regular hours from 11:00am – 10:30pm.

Since it’s only a few blocks away from my office, a few of us headed over there for lunch. We arrived at 11:30 and there was a bit of a wait. We found that most people came in large groups, so seating groups is difficult. It’s best to come here with smaller groups so you can get seated faster.

The Menya Kouji group has opened up The Ramen Butcher and they own over 150 ramen shop locations. At The Ramen Butcher, they serve up 7 types of ramen, rice bowls, gyozas, and beer.

They have taken over the previous location of East of Main, but most of the interior is similar.

Did you notice the FREE Kaedama extra noodles? I love how they make sure their customers leave full. It’s great for people who are big eaters. I was full from one bowl, but some people could always use more noodle.

Classic Ramen ($8.95) is their signature tonkotsu (pork) broth. The noodles are made in-house. You can add an extra ajitama marinated egg for $1.

You can choose to have your pork fatty or lean. Most of us at the table chose to have it lean.

Black Ramen ($10.95) has tonkotsu pork broth with roasted garlic oil, freshly made noodles, aburi pork chashu and their medium boiled marinated egg.

Orange Ramen ($11.55) has tonkotsu pork broth with rich miso marinated ground pork, noodles, aburi pork chashu, and their medium boiled marinated egg.

Mags chose to have fatty pork and it looked like pork belly because it looked like a thick bacon strip.

Red Ramen ($10.95) has tonkotsu pork broth with spicy garlic paste, noodles, aburi pork chashu, with their medium boiled marinated egg. You can choose how spicy you would like this ramen.

The broth is rich and great for people who like spicy foods. I had to choose the fatty pork. Go big or go home right? There is a large amount of fat content, but it’s pretty delicious.

Original Gyoza ($5.35) is made of pork and its pan-fried. It has a little bit of a char, but it was decent.

Okonomi Gyoza ($5.95) is the original gyoza topped with mayo, bonito flakes, and green onions. This was definitely a unique experience.

The table had mixed reactions. Some said it was salty, but I just gobbled it up. It reminded me of a JapaDog, but with Gyozas.

Overall, The Ramen Butcher was good but it still wasn’t the best Ramen I’ve had. There could be a little bit more meat but you can always order additional meat. The best part is the free extra portion of noodles!

We Rate The Ramen Butcher:

Address:
223 E Georgia St
Vancouver BC

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/theramenbutcher/

In Downtown

Gyoza Bar + Ramen: Lunch Time Combos

September 29, 2014

Gyoza Bar + Ramen is the third restaurant created by the Aburi Restaurant, which also own upscale restaurants Miku and Minami. Seeing they have 2 killer restaurants, I really wanted to see how Gyoza Bar + Ramen could compare with the other restaurants in town. I came here with CandiedZen for some lunch.

Their signature items here are Teppan Gyoza and their Kaisen Tomato Ramen. You won’t find any sushi here.

Gyoza Bar is located in Downtown in an old heritage building and you can see the classic brick walls. You will see the mixture of old and new.

The kitchen is open concept, so you can see what they are doing. It’s cool how the staff in the kitchen all wear plaid shirts. Seems so fun and casual.

Gyoza Bar Zen ($17) comes with brown rice, house salad, kale gomae and 12 pieces of pork Teppan Gyoza. The first part of this dish is super healthy. The kale gomae is pretty good.

Teppan Gyoza uses the ancient cooking technique of using the cast iron pans. They use Fraser Valley pork inside. I had lots of hope for these gyozas but they fell a but flat. one side was a tad crispy and the other side was soft like it had been boiled. These were nothing special.

The gyozas are also served with a spicy garlic soy sauce and an umami sauce.

Umami Lunch Duo ($17) gives you a medium ramen of your choice and 7 pieces of Pork Teppan Gyoza. The Ramen ordered was the Pork Tonkotsu Broth topped with Aburi Pork Char Siu and an egg.

CandiedZen thought it was quite rich, but the over flavour fell flat as there didnt seem to be much depth to the broth.

Teppan Gyoza (7 pieces) came in a smaller iron pan. The gyozas definitely need more crunch!

Overall, I wasn’t very impressed by the meal considering it was quite expensive for lunch. I’m sure they use high quality ingredients, but the flavours and textures didn’t shine.

We Rate Gyoza Bar + Ramen:

Address:
622 W Pender St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://gyozabar.ca/

Ramen

Interior

Menu

Chef’s Special: Karaage Chicken Ramen

Spicy Creamy Vegan Ramen

Pork Chashu

Jinya Tonkotsu Black

Premium Tonkotsu White

Sauces

Final Thoughts

Interior

Rajio’s Famous Fruit Punch

Beer

Craft Ginger Ale

Super Rib Steak

Modern Yaki

“Uni Bonara” Sea Urchin Carbonara

Y Mommy’s Assorted Oden

Chef’s Choice Sashimi

Hot Stone Crab Bibimbap

Kushikatsu

Aburi Shime-Saba Sushi

Final Thoughts

Interior

Menu

Japanese Ocha

Gyozas

NO. 1 Shoyu Ramen

Black Ramen Tonkotsu

Mazesoba

Cold Ramen

Spicy Cold Ramen

Salmon Don

Negi Chashu Don

Final Thoughts

Interior

Drinks

Appetizers

Brussel Sprouts Tempura

Salmon Poke Mini Tacos

Takoyaki

Ramen

Cha Cha Cha Ramen

Vegetable Soup Ramen

Spicy Creamy Vegan Ramen

Spicy Chicken Ramen

Kaedama Noodle Refill

Final Thoughts

Interior

Green Tea

Housemade Gyoza

Peko Ramen

Black Vegan Ramen

More Vegan Ramen

Sauce

Final Thoughts

Interior

Dashimaki

Japanese deep fried chicken karaage

Tonkotsu Black Garlic

Tsukemen

Deluxe Tsukemen

Final Thoughts

Interior

Side Dish

Ramen

Final Thoughts

Interior

Ramen

Gyoza

Snacks

Ramen