The restaurant is located downtown Vancouver, right at the intersection of Dunsmuir and Richards. Being the gentleman that Omar is, he got there early to wait in line outside for a table. It was 7:30 pm on a Tuesday night and the place was packed. However, the line seemed to move pretty quickly.
Gojiro specializes in jiro-style (aka gatsuri-style) ramen. I actually didn't know this fact until after, but Ramen Gojiro is actually the first ramen restaurant in Canada that offers jiro-style ramen! They also make their noodles in-house. This style of ramen is currently very popular in Japan. Jiro-style noodles are thicker, chewier, and not as yellow or egg-y as what most of us are used to. Similar to regular ramen, the soup base tends to be a tonkotsu broth with shoyu added, but thinner in consistency and with more suspended fat on the surface.
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| GODZILLAAAAA. How fitting. |
Gojiro's menu is simple - Basic or Spicy. Both features their signature broth with a choice of karaage (chicken) or chashu (pork). If your appetite allows for it, you can up-size either one to a bakamori (I've been told that this directly translates to "stupid big") that has more of everything.
All of us decided to go with the Basic ramen (regular size) with chashu. We picked chashu because we had already ordered a plate of karaage to share. I've heard a lot of hype about the karaage, so I was excited to try. I was also interested to try the gyozas because they are made in-house based on a "secret recipe". We ordered a plate of those as well.
I thought the karaage was overrated. I've had some pretty amazing ones before (Le Cafe Michi in Scarborough being the best I've had so far), so the bar is set quite high. At Gojiro, you can order the karaage without any sauce (original), or with sauce: tartar, oroshi (grated daikon), or terispa (spicy mayo & terriyaki). We ordered the karaage with terispa. There were some parts that were juicier than others, but overall I thought the chicken pieces could have been more tender.
The gyozas, on the other hand, tasted (unexpectedly) amazing! I usually don't have very high expectations for gyozas and am very easily turned off by ones with thick or overly chewy "wrappers" (the doughy skin that the meat is wrapped in). Thick wrappers are just distracting and often take away from the taste of the meat on the inside. These ones were paper thin and soft. I could tell that they were not previously frozen. The meat inside was well-seasoned. I couldn't exactly put my finger on the ingredient that made it stand out. Must have been something in that secret recipe! The gyozas came with a dipping sauce that tasted like a mix of soy sauce, vinegar ... and chilli pepper sauce (I think). It was tangy and spicy and I loved it.
Onto the star of the show ...
All of us decided to go with the Basic ramen (regular size) with chashu. We picked chashu because we had already ordered a plate of karaage to share. I've heard a lot of hype about the karaage, so I was excited to try. I was also interested to try the gyozas because they are made in-house based on a "secret recipe". We ordered a plate of those as well.
I thought the karaage was overrated. I've had some pretty amazing ones before (Le Cafe Michi in Scarborough being the best I've had so far), so the bar is set quite high. At Gojiro, you can order the karaage without any sauce (original), or with sauce: tartar, oroshi (grated daikon), or terispa (spicy mayo & terriyaki). We ordered the karaage with terispa. There were some parts that were juicier than others, but overall I thought the chicken pieces could have been more tender.
The gyozas, on the other hand, tasted (unexpectedly) amazing! I usually don't have very high expectations for gyozas and am very easily turned off by ones with thick or overly chewy "wrappers" (the doughy skin that the meat is wrapped in). Thick wrappers are just distracting and often take away from the taste of the meat on the inside. These ones were paper thin and soft. I could tell that they were not previously frozen. The meat inside was well-seasoned. I couldn't exactly put my finger on the ingredient that made it stand out. Must have been something in that secret recipe! The gyozas came with a dipping sauce that tasted like a mix of soy sauce, vinegar ... and chilli pepper sauce (I think). It was tangy and spicy and I loved it.
Onto the star of the show ...
I'm just going to cut to the chase - I was disappointed. It wasn't bad, but it didn't live up to the hype. The soup could've had more flavour. There were three levels of spice that you could choose from: mild, spicy, or atomic breath. As badass as "atomic breath" sounded, I chose "spicy" out of precaution. I know my spice tolerance is likely higher than the average person, but the broth wasn't spicy at all. Everyone at the table agreed with this. I appreciate that the broth is thinner for jiro-style ramen than regular ramen, but my issue with the broth wasn't just limited to its richness. I've had ramen where the broth tasted so good, I had to restrain myself from picking up my bowl and drinking it all. Let's just say that I didn't have that problem here.
The chashu was 90% fat, which I wasn't too crazy about. However, I can't critique the fattiness too harshly as I learned afterwards that this is another main feature of jiro-style ramen. It's probably safe to say that jiro-style ramen is not for the health conscious.
Toppings - 3.5/5
Meat - 2.5/5
Broth - 3/5
Noodles - 4.5/5
Presentation - 3.5/5
Overall taste - 3/5
X(perience) Factor** - 1.5/2
The chashu was 90% fat, which I wasn't too crazy about. However, I can't critique the fattiness too harshly as I learned afterwards that this is another main feature of jiro-style ramen. It's probably safe to say that jiro-style ramen is not for the health conscious.
The egg didn't come with the ramen. It's a topping that you can add on for $1.00 extra. The first thing I did (after taking a picture of the ramen) was split the egg to check out its centre. I'd give the egg two thumbs up - it's worth the dollar. The yolk was just to my liking.
The noodles were fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I was a little surprised when I first dug them up from under the broth. I've never had ramen noodles like this before - definitely thicker and chewier than the regular ramen noodles. In my opinion, they bear a stronger resemblance to shanghai noodles (but with more bite).
And now, for honourable mentions...
1. Bibs!
Self-explanatorily awesome. We all know how much noodles in soup can splash. Gojiro offers free bibs for those of us who would prefer our food not to intermingle with our clothes.
2. Practical spoons!
You might not be able to see it clearly in the picture above, but their soup spoons have an indented cliff by the base of the handle (on both sides). This allows you to rest your spoon (face up or down) idly on the edge of your bowl without it slipping into the broth. I'm all about practicality and there's nothing more annoying than your spoon falling completely into the soup when you go to grab it.
3. Friendly Japanese-speaking staff!
The service was good and the staff wwere all very helpful and friendly. The fact that they could all speak Japanese added to the authenticity of the experience.
Cynthia Approved Ramen Rating (CARR*)
*Click for the percentage weight breakdown for each factor (scroll down to CARR)Toppings - 3.5/5
Meat - 2.5/5
Broth - 3/5
Noodles - 4.5/5
Presentation - 3.5/5
Overall taste - 3/5
X(perience) Factor** - 1.5/2
Ramen Gojiro gets a CARR of 67.5%
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