Hakata Ramen

FRIED CHICKEN

HAKATA TONKOTSU

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka

If you're a local Vancouverite, then this probably won't come as news to you. It turns out that the West End (by Robson St and Denman St) of the city is ramen central! There are about 4 to 5 different ramen joints within a very short walking distance (some even directly across the street from each other).

For those of you who are not familiar with Santouka -- the restaurant first originated in Hokkaido, Japan, and has since expanded to various locations around the world. The momentum behind its quick expansion was largely a result of the popularity of their Shio Ramen (which was actually the only item on their menu) when they first opened for business. I've been to the Santouka in Toronto (one of my favourite ramen places), but I wanted to try this one out to test their consistency in quality. For me, consistency in quality plays a big role in how I rate a chain restaurant.

When we first got there, it seemed like there was going to be quite a bit of a wait. Lucky for us, they have a very efficient system going on. The waiters take your order before you are even seated! I can see how this might rub some people the wrong way. But, for me - I don't go to eat ramen for the ambiance, so this was A-OK with me. Two thumbs up for efficiency! The restaurant isn't too spacious and most of the tables are meant for shared seating. I don't mind getting cozy. 

I ordered their specialty; white tonkotsu soup ramen - the Shio Ramen. Sameer decided to go with the Spicy Miso Ramen

Shio Ramen

Spicy Miso Ramen

We each ordered a Hanjuku tamago (seasoned soft-boiled egg) to have with our ramen. (Almost) everything tastes better with an egg. 

So, let me start off by saying that this Santouka was just as good as the one I've tried in Toronto. Everything from the soup base, to the meat, to the noodles ... and even the egg tasted great! The soup (especially the Shio one) was very creamy, flavourful, and aromatic ... but, not too salty. I loved the texture of the ramen noodles - they were chewy, without being too tough or hard. The pork slices were soft, with a relatively thin lining of fat. I don't like it when there is too much fat or if there is no fat at all. I would've liked it if the slices were a little bit thicker and if there was a bit more meat in the bowl. THE EGG! On their website, they describe the texture of the egg to be "viscous". I would say that they were pretty accurate in their word choice. I find that the best way to enjoy the egg is to first immerse it into the soup. Since the egg yolk isn't too runny, the yolk is able to stay in place while soaking up the soup. 

Cynthia Approved Ramen Rating (CARR*)

*Percentage weight of each factor in calculating the total CARR: Toppings - 10%; Meat - 15%; Broth - 20%; Noodles - 20%; Presentation - 5%; and Overall Taste - 30%. 

Toppings - 4/5

Meat - 3.5/5 
Broth - 5/5
Noodles - 5/5 
Presentation - 3.5/5 
Overall taste - 4.5/5

X(perience) Factor** - 2/2

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

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka gets a CARR of 91.0%

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%

Ramen Gojiro

Last night, Sameer and I went to dinner with a good friend from law school (Omar!). I haven't seen Omar since I was last in Windsor and was very happy to find out that he would be in town for the week. I've been meaning to try Ramen Gojiro ever since it opened up downtown.  So, I suggested that we go there to test it out.

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.

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 ...

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.

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

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

Ramen Gojiro gets a CARR of 67.5%

Hakkaku Ramen

One of the things that held me back from starting this blog was the thought of all the restaurants I've already tried and didn't write about. I feel like my opinion (or anyone's opinion for that matter) about food is largely based on comparison. That's why I wish had documented everything from the beginning, so that I can easily compare notes (for the sake of objectivity!). For now, you'll just have to bare with me as I build up new notes and make comparisons based on memory.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am a huge fan of ramen. So, I make it a point to try many different places! Among the many that I've tried in Toronto, I would say my 3 favourites are: 1) Santouka, 2) Kinton, and 3) Kenzo (in that order - if my memory serves me right).

Since I've moved to Vancouver, I've tried: Ramenger, Ramen Butcher, Kamamarui, Kintaro, and of course Hakkaku Ramen. With that being said, I'm sad to say that Hakkaku probably ranks at the bottom of that list.

Hakkaku is located by Willingdon and Hastings in North Burnaby. Their ramen menu is simple, with a choice between Miso (or Hot Miso), Shio, or Shoyu. Similar to most ramen places, there's a choice between: regular or rich soup base and pork shoulder or belly. I went with the Hot Miso because the waitress said it was the most popular. As always, I went with the pork belly and a rich soup base.

There weren't a lot of toppings that came with the ramen - the usual: bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, corn, green onions, and a marinated soft-boiled egg. I found that the soup base wasn't very well-blended (as you can almost tell in the picture). Initially, I thought it was just a matter of having to mix the soup. However, I found that as much as I mixed the soup, it wasn't coming together. There was  a lot (too much) of garlic in the mix. The taste of the garlic was so overpowering that I couldn't even enjoy the soup base. The egg was quite tasty, but the pork belly wasn't quite tender enough ... and there wasn't enough of it! 

The texture of the ramen noodles were good at first ... but softened too much during the course of my meal. And so...

Cynthia Approved Ramen Rating (CARR*)
*Percentage weight of each factor in calculating the total CARR: Toppings - 10%; Meat - 15%; Broth - 20%; Noodles - 20%; Presentation - 5%; and Overall Taste - 30%. You better believe I'm going to get technical with this.

Toppings - 4/5 
Meat - 2/5 
Broth - 3/5
Noodles - 3/5 
Presentation - 3.5/5 
Overall taste - 3/5

X(perience) Factor** - 0/2
**Click for explanation (scroll to the bottom of the post)

Hakkuku Ramen gets a CARR of 59.5%