Since it’s not on a main street, and hidden almost amongst the residental homes in the West End, we would have never known this existed if we hadn’t taken the road to avoid the traffic on the major roads.

The exterior was very interesting with columns of wooden bars. Inside was very modern and seemed similar to some of the Japanese Izakaya restaurants in town. The chairs were interesting, wooden chairs with a hole in the middle, and beam across underneath so you could rest your feet – good if you’re a small Asian. I found it a bit awkward to sit on and noisy when pulling them across the floor. My company didn’t like it at all. The decor continued into the bathroom, with a cool sink faucet and pretty sink. The women’s has a red bowl, while the mens have a black one. (no, I didn’t go into the mens! but my company did take a photo when he was in there lol)

Cool exterior

Neat faucet and sink in bathroom

The staff seemed all Japanese. The servers wore beret hats – I guess to be more trendy and modern. But they were all cheery and friendly. The tables were a bit too close to each other for comfort…like with Santouka, you were sitting with strangers and having to hear their conversation and vice versa.

I ordered the Marutama Ramen with soft boiled flavoured egg $10.50 or otherwise known as Tamago-Ramen.

The ramen came super fast, so that was pretty impressive. The server gave us some fried garlic flakes to put on top of the ramen for extra flavouring. However, I was disappointed in the men (noodle)…it was really skinny and didn’t seem like I was eating a real ramen. However that same week when I was talking to a friend, she said she really liked the men…so I guess it’s subjective….depending on your personal taste.

The broth wasn’t impressive, nor did I feel like sipping on it either.
The ramen were much pricier than say Benkei or Menya which I thought was way better, than again, those two are more on the ‘traditional’ ramen…so maybe I’m just old fashioned. LOL

I don’t think I will be returning again unless a friend really wants to go or something. It wont be on my top ramen-ya list.

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