Menya Japanese Noodle
401 W Broadway
Vancouver, BC
This might be a difficult task to those not living in Metro Vancouver but, if you are, you will notice that most of the restaurants I have visited are located in Downtown Vancouver and east of Main Street. Translation? There is a huge area I have not even considered. As to why, well, that’s a long story… Anyway, one night, I started to drive almost aimlessly finding a spot for dinner. Suddenly, I thought “noodles”! Not wanting to go all the way to Downtown Vancouver for one of the best known ramen shops (read: Kintaro, Motomachi Shokudo, Benkei, Ezogiku), I chose to go to Menya Japanese Noodle, located just outside of Downtown Vancouver.
Sure, I wanted noodles but that’s not the problem. How about which soup base? Which toppings? What other extras? Anyway, I went with the “first item from the menu” approach and went from there. OK, actually, I did ordered some “extras”…
Condiments on the table
An onigiri or rice ball
Gyoza
The gyoza and onigiri were part of a combo with a bowl of ramen. Talk about carbs on top of carbs! Anyway, the rice ball was tasty, despite I don’t think it had a meat filling. The gyoza, unfortunately, was a total miss. It did not taste like anything at all and that was even after trying some of the condiments (see below).
Anyway, I was hoping for the ramen to be better. And here is what I ordered: nagahama ramen, listed as “Authentic Tonkotsu Ramen, Pork bone soup with Menya special soy sauce seasoning”. The good thing is that, while slightly cheaper than the ramen shops in Vancouver, the serving is also smaller (more on this in a moment). However, there is another caveat: it is somewhat light of default toppings. OK! While I have complained about excessive amount of bean sprouts, here, what you see is exactly what you get. Nothing more. The most important topping here would be the pork slices. It was a miss, as it was not that fatty nor flavourful enough.
Wait, what is this? Well, if you finish your noodles but still have some remaining broth, you can order the noodles on its own for you to add it. Fortunately, they brought it fast enough, as it was just starting to stick together. Talk about timing!
Overall, while it was a good option outside of Downtown Vancouver, it falls short if we compare it to Kintaro and Motomachi Shokudo. Yet, in the ramen totem pole, it is still better than Ezogiku and about par with Benkei. Would I come back? Might be an option if I am in the area; otherwise, I would rather gone all the way to Downtown…
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that rice ball is so cool!
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