I'm Only Here for the Food!

Kenzo Japanese Noodle House
6907 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC V5E

We are all aware of the ramen restaurants in Downtown Vancouver (Benkei, Motomachi Shokudo and Kintaro). With their popularity, it was just a matter of time for that type of shops to expand to other neighborhoods, like Menya near Broadway @ Cambie. And then there is Kenzo, located in the Middlegate area in Kingsway…

Observant readers will notice something “interesting”… In addition to kanji, you see hangul. Was this a sign of my to-be meal? Probably, but I was determined to find out rather than guess how it might have been. Anyway, I was quickly seated and given the menu.

Restaurant interior. OK, there is your bar if you need some booze.

The menu had a mix of noodle dishes plus some Korean dishes (bi bim bap, bulgogi, et al). Now, the reason for this visit was for ramen so I focused on that. And this is what I ordered:

“The King of The Kings Ramen” ($10), spicy. It was the bowl with all the toppings and I saw no reason to not order it. Now, one thing that can’t be easily observed from this shot is the size of the bowl, so let’s try again.

The bowl was huge! Also since they have Korean dishes, once again, I saw no reason why I should not order… Kimchi! OK, that was stereotyping but, hey, food is food…

A complain I have had in several ramen shops is the over-use of bean sprouts and Kenzo has the same issue.

But, putting that aside, how was the food? Unfortunately, there was nothing exciting about the food. The ramen was just OK. The pork had no redeeming qualities and the broth, though spicy as requested, had no other other qualities. Finally, the kimchi, well, it tasted as if it came from a plastic jar. This might be literally, as it had some funny plastic-like aftertaste I have not had from other Korean restaurants. Overall, it was a filling meal but that was about it.