Donburi-Ya

Donburi-Ya
#5-1329 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC

About a month ago, I was looking for lunch and ended up going to Sushi Bento Express. The dish I ended up ordering was donburi, that simple rice bowl dish with different toppings. On that post, I made note of a donburi-ya (or donburi “shop”) preparing themselves for opening. But, alas, similar to the shenanigans of Wok Box’s opening, I chose to go a couple of days after opening day just to find a sign saying it would be closed that day, not to mention I would be on my trip to Florida not long after… Fortunately, fellow blogger Tana of Cheap Appettite had that covered and made an early report of that place so I knew what to expect when I came back and go there myself.

While donburi would unconsciously tell me “rice”, it was good to see they added some additional items to attract other customers. These “other” items ended up being ramen and takoyaki. Now, I am not sure if that is a good move or not; however, the fact is that the option exist is a good thing. After all, sometimes you want something else beside rice… (Run for cover!)

Occupying the old Ezogiku place, I knew space would be limited so, to a certain extent, to accommodate as many customers as possible, it was the question of how fast they would be able to dish out the food. And, my yardstick for this test was oyakodon, that egg/chicken concoction over a bed of rice… However, that’s where I ran into a wall: They don’t serve it. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Now, before anybody starts wondering about this reaction, I must mention that one of my favourite, comfort food dishes is Chinese steamed egg. When my mom noticed I was “down”, she would always prepare that for me. Even when I was not “down”, the serving she would make would be larger than the one served on restaurants – and we were only four. It was something we would eat, almost no question asked. While oyakodon bears absolutely no resemblance to the steamed egg dish (for the Japanese, that would be chawanmushi), it is that chicken and egg combination that attracts me the same way as steamed egg does. Needless to say, I was sorely disappointed they did not have that. Then, it was a matter of deciding what to go for as an alternative. That alternative ended up being…

Buta-mayo don, or pork-mayo donburi. Doesn’t that sounds familiar? As in kurobuta of Japadog? Well, in this case, it was just pork, not necessarily Berkshire pork; however, the fact it include (regular Japanese?) mayo, you can’t help “shake” away that comparison. To the question of taste… Well, I will have to say my reaction was mixed. On one side, I wished the pork was cooked a bit more, as in seared a bit more for flavour. Here, it feels it was barely cooked, though, in their defence, it was quite “juicy”. If there was a bit more pork… And the coleslaw bed between the pork did not add anything to the combination. Actually, it had the opposite effect as it was slightly bitter and “not crunchy” enough. But, here is the key element, the make-or-break part of this dish: the rice…

It might be an overstatement to say we Asian people are nuts about rice and, while I myself have been partially successful on breaking that “you must eat rice in each meal” mantra, once in a while, I end up having large servings of rice. In this case, it was whether how “well” the rice ended up, not to mention the type of rice. In this case, short grain made it. No, had it been, say, basmati, though fragrant, it would have had a different texture, one that might not work together with the toppings. And, for me, the short grain made it for this dish.

Normally, I would write a blog post after the first visit (as a reminder, my post are never reviews, they are more on the lines of first thoughts/impressions) but I wanted to try something more. So, the day after, I went there again, this time, though, for ramen, specifically, teriyaki ramen.

I will go straight to the point on this one: this ain’t Kintaro or Motomachi Shokudo so I won’t even try to make such comparisons. The noodles were a bit subpar, but have to mention they are quite good if we take into consideration the price range. No fancy toppings, aside from the corn and green onions on the top but won’t complain as it wasn’t loaded with bean sprouts. The broth was average at best, it was slightly salty but did not have the complexity from the before-mentioned ramen shops. But, the chicken… If there was one thing that “made” this dish was the chicken. Unlike most “teriyaki” chicken were they are usually fried piece of chicken laden with a sweet sauce, here, it had a grilled/broiled feeling to it and the sweetness was embedded into the chicken itself. After all, the broth did not “wash” that flavour out…

One question that I left out was that of speed, i.e., how fast were the dishes prepared. In the case of the donburi, it was quite fast, I must say. However, given that the rice was already pre-cooked and waiting in the rice cooker, it was a matter of just putting some of the toppings on the rice. So, it did not really surprise me the fact I got my order a minute or so after I made my order (and barely sat down). The ramen, on the other hand, took a bit longer. However, assuming they were preparing the ramen from “scratch” (noodles aside, of course), couldn’t they also prepare oyakodon???

Overall, I like the concept and would certainly want to come back to try other dishes. Mapo-tofu, anybody? However, I can’t help myself ask this question: Given that Hon’s is a just a couple of doors down, if we made a head to head comparison of their lunch offerings, who would emerge a winner? But, in the end, I don’t think it matter that much as it provides a really good lunch alternative in the area (specially if you are a person who *must* have rice).

Tagged under: Downtown • Japanese • Lunch • West End