Tag Archives: ramen

Gyoza Bar + Ramen

My friend was hosting birthday dinner for her friend, so about a dozen of us were dining at Gyoza Bar. A very trendy and Yaletown-ish restaurant on Pender that just opened in May 2014 – another sister of Minami and Miku restaurants.

From our table, we could see the inside of the kitchen. It wasn’t all that appetizing to see all these people crammed into a little space making gyoza like a factory with their wet blue gloves through the window. I think they should have left out the window. Poor design choice, in my opinion.

Window to kitchen right by our table. Is this necessary for a high end restaurant? It was full and busy, giving it a very lively atmosphere. I ordered the Free Range Chicken Broth Ramen with Mediterranean Salt base $13.50 topped with Chicken Char Sui and egg. The ramen was good, especially with a hint of garlic in the broth. I’m not sure of the price. I guess being a free range chicken adds cost – plus eating at a higher-end ramenya. I tried a sip of the soup of the miso ramen and it was sooooooo salty. I’m glad I didn’t order that one. In fact, it was miso flavour with a block of butter that you were suppose to melt in the hot broth…ick…For a person who buys a small block of unsalted butter PER YEAR and only uses up to half, seeing a chunk of butter in one bowl was…I dunno, I could almost feel the oil oozing out of my pores…LOL. In the end, several girls who ordered it ended up taking the block out after melting only a bit of it.

Free Range Chicken Broth Ramen with Mediterranean Salt base $13.50 Sauce for the Teppan Gyoza: spicy garlic soy or umami soy sauce

To share, we ordered the Fraser Valley Pork Teppan Gyoza 15pc $16. I thought it was a good deal, and it was very tasty. The other specialty gyozas on the other hand were pricey. For about 6-8 pieces, $12 for gyoza was over the top. It was fancy, but I actually preferred the more traditional taste from the Teppan Gyoza instead.

Service was excellent, and the atmosphere was nice, although the AC was a bit too strong on a cool wintery night. Would not mind returning again to give it another try, but keep in mind, you’ll be paying premium (probably the most expensive in Vancouver) for ramen and gyoza.

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Koika

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A newly opened Ramen-ya on Davie street. The interior is similar to other ramen-yas in town with the wooden interior and open concept where you could see the staff cooking up the noodles. Sheepie and I sat at the table at the back and the area was stacked with pop bottles and boxes. I ordered the Shio ramen $8.50. The men (noodle) weren’t the kind I liked, but it wasn’t too bad. The broth was pretty good. Service was satisfactory, a bit tight in terms of space at the back. I’d prefer to site elsewhere away from all the kitchen ‘storage’ and bathroom.

I think I’d like to come back to try their other flavours, though a bit pricey.

2nd TimeFor the second time, they had a new menu called Koika Red Ramen with 3 levels of spiciness. The last level, Level 3 is the Burning in Hell $9.95 and comes with a free soft drink. If you can finish the ramen and soup in 15 minutes, you get the ramen for free! Of course Sheepie could not resist with ‘Oh spice? No problem! Bring it on attitude’.

idearabbit-koika23 Burning in Hell $9.95

Maybe we all saw it coming, but it was really spicy!!! No kidding. I had just a sip of the soup and I started coughing…and my lips were burning. Terrible sensation. My other friend was choking too. However, my Taiwanese friend seemed to be ok with it LOL – maybe he should have took on the challenge, but he was satisfied with his Nagasaki Champon with a lot of seafood $12.95 (below)

I ordered the Queens Ramen $9.50 (above) and I thought that was a bit spicy! LOL.

So in the end, no Sheepie couldn’t finish it in time – however, he did manage to finish all the ramen (not the soup). So yay! But his lips seemed red and a bit swollen. It was nice that one of the servers came by and told us that one of the customers got a really bad heartburn or stomach ache and had to go to the hospital…yikes…perhaps you shouldn’t be giving out such ‘haphazardness’ food lol…but looking at the “Hall of Fame” photos of those that managed to finish it in time, (20 people or so) I guess it’s not impossible…

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Benkei Ramen

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I’m so sad to see all the other Benkei locations have closed and this is the only one left…I’d already seen Ezogiku disappear completely after opening more than one location. Ezogiku was the pioneers of bringing ramen into the Vancouver scene. In 1974, they were the first Ramen specialized restaurant in Hawaii. Then, in 1990, they established the first Ramen specialized restaurant in Vancouver. I still remember (though a bit foggy…since I was little) when they had their first small restaurant. It was super crammed (and a bit sketchy) and could only fit like 5-7 people. However, for our family that had just immigrated from Japan, it was the only place that had ramen in Vancouver. In fact, back then, there weren’t that many sushi places either. Hard to imagine right!? I still remember how my friends were grossed out at the nori (black seaweed). I wasn’t even eating raw fish. It was only kappa (cucumber). Since then, I never ate any sushi in front of non-Japanese people. Not until things changed. Sad when you think about it…

And with this change, time and new competition, Ezogiku was gone. Though I remember my last ramen at Ezogiku not being that good. It was a big portion, but noodle and soup wise, it wasn’t great. Now with all the negative comments on Benkei’s review, I am worried about Benkei following the same fate as Ezogiku.

Personally, Benkei is my favourite ramen-ya. I’m not into the really oily and heavy ramen at Santouka or Kintaro. The restaurant (even at other locations) usually has a very Japanese-ramen-ya feel. I remember those days when we would have to wait a bit a for a jam packed Benkei. Now when I go, it’s always only half full…but maybe it’s also because we go after 8pm.

You can collect stamps. Every time you dine, you get a stamp, and once you’ve accumulated 10 stamps on the card, you get a free bowl of ramen! Unfortunately, I never go enough, and they expire after a year.

The service is fast and efficient. The servers are friendly, though perhaps we’re biased on this as one of them is an acquaintance of Sheepie.

Gyoza $2.50 (part of combo) Tori Shio $7.50

The texture, how the noodle is cooked is just the way I like it. The broth is light, but flavorful. I feel I can eat 2 bowls…LOL. I usually order the Tori Shio $7.50 – really good The prices are quite cheaper than the currently popular ramen-ya in town. If you’re feeling quite hungry, getting a combo might be a good idea though the Gyoza $2.50 on the side is meh…nothing special to report…actually this time it was a bit burnt

I just hope they can survive the over saturated ramen-ya industry!

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