Kenzo Japanese Noodle House

For those of you who might be wondering ... this restaurant is different than the Kenzo Japanese Noodle House in Toronto and is owned by different people. This one is located in Burnaby by Griffiths and Kingsway. For the past several months, I've been making a mental note to try this place every time I drive by it. I finally went to try it out with a co-worker (Joanna) for lunch this past Friday.

The inside of the restaurant is pretty cozy - not too big, not too small; furnished with a lot of wood (very Korean/Japanese style - I'm fairly certain the owners are Korean). We came here around 12:30 pm and it wasn't super busy, but there were 3-4 other tables seated. Our waitress was very friendly and brought us over two cups off tea as soon as we sat down. Below are the pages of their menu that feature ramen:

I had a sore throat that day, so I was actively seeking out some non-spicy and slightly "healthier" options. Otherwise, I probably would've automatically opted for the "King of the Kings Ramen". I decided to go with the Don Ko Chi. Considering I was feeling a bit more health-conscious that day, their added description of: "it has very little oil", was really what sold me on it. Joanna ordered the Miso Ramen with a spicy level of 1.

Miso Ramen

Don Ko Chi

Unfortunately, I didn't try Joanna's (I didn't want to impose because I was feeling under the weather that day), so I can't comment on/rate hers. She said it was okay-good, but not better than Ramengers. 

Joanna and I tried Ramengers together a couple of months ago and we were both fans. Sadly, my food blog did not exist at that time. Click here to read my review of it on Yelp.

My first impression of the Don Ko Chi was that it did not resemble the picture in the menu at all. The broth for the noodles is a tonkotsu broth - soup boiled from pork bone. Tonksotsu broth tends to be milky and creamy (kind of like how it looked in the picture on the menu). The broth wasn't as milky as I was expecting, but it did retain a lot of flavour from the pork bone. The broth wasn't too salty or oily ... I actually enjoyed it a fair bit! I was able to drink a majority of the soup without the usual feeling of needing to follow up with 5 glasses of water. I highly suspect that it's MSG-free, but I didn't get a chance to confirm this with our waitress. The noodles were cooked well; just the right texture. As you can tell from the picture, there weren't a lot of toppings. The green onions complimented the broth very well, but I would've appreciated some other toppings too! The chashu was too rough, in my opinion. They likely chose a less fatty cut of pork to minimize the oil in the bowl, but the chashu was too lean for my liking.

Cynthia Approved Ramen Rating (CARR*)

*Click for the percentage weight breakdown for each factor (scroll down to CARR)

Toppings - 2.5/5
Meat - 2.5/5 
Broth - 4/5
Noodles - 4.5/5 
Presentation - 3/5 
Overall taste - 3/5

X(perience) Factor** - 1/2

**Click for explanation (scroll to the bottom of post)

Kenzo Japanese Noodle House gets a CARR of 72.0%