Miki Japanese Ramen

Miki Japanese Ramen
5212 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

ET of Doesn’t TaZte Like Chicken once asked me “How long does it take you to write a post?” Back then (almost a year ago), I told something about ~1 hour post processing pictures plus another 30 or so minutes writing the actual post. That, is of course, not counting the time it takes to decide what restaurant to go, etc. etc. That was back then… The question is, what about now? So, as a test, I asked myself, if I didn’t have a post in the queue (the original post for today was that of Pho Hong, which will be rescheduled for this coming Monday), how long would it take me write a post from scratch? Well, there are of course some things that takes time of its own, for example, where? To avoid spending some time figuring that out, I decided to go to the same restaurant Sherman visited yesterday plus the order the exact same dish(es). That restaurant was Miki Japanese Ramen.

Now, it is not like I didn’t have Miki in my queue of places to visit. However, I was detracted from doing so due to a post from shokutsu of Foodosophy. While I haven’t met shokutsu in person (though, he/she claims he/she has seen me in restaurants!), it is the fact, a lot of times, that what he/she writes are in line to what I like. But, this time, I needed a place to try (and then write) so I had to set aside any previous preconceptions about this restaurant.

When I walked in, there were four covers in two separate tables. Unlike, say, Kintaro or Santouka, I wasn’t greeted with the usual irashaimase you hear in Japanese restaurants. But, you know what? My concept of authenticity has gone in odd ways so, despite I wasn’t greeted that way, it is what ends up on the plate (or in this case, bowl) that matters. So, after giving the menu but without actually looking through it, I ordered their Miki ramen – our most popular ramen bowl! Chewy ramen, pan fried chashu & bamboo, sweet corn, full serving of golden egg, house recipe kimchi… the works! At $10, it is actually more expensive than the bowls at Benkei, though still far from the $13 toroniku in Santouka.

My expectations were quite low to begin with, given Sherman’s and shokutsu’s thoughts. But, still, that didn’t prepare me for the disappointment I was about to experience. For one, notice something missing? When I take pictures of bowl of noodles (Vietnamese pho, Taiwanese beef noodle, et al), I show the noodles and some of the meat and other toppings. Based on the description of the dish, I would expect some slices of pork but, that wasn’t the case, the pork was chopped. As for the rest, the noodles were as described, i.e., chewy (though the description is accurate, it was just OK) and the amount of ingredients was quite balanced, though the kimchi does not seem to fit in the overall theme and the shredded seaweed didn’t really add much savoury overtones. And then there is what really killed the bowl of noodles: the broth. There wasn’t much to describe, it was just a basic broth. Compared to what I have had in other ramen shops, there wasn’t anything exciting, anything that would have made me want to come back.

While I also like tongue, unlike Sherman, I am not as vocal as him. Here, it was served with a mayo and a sauce similar to hoisin. It had the qualities of this cut of meat but, at $5, I think I was expecting a bit more (quantity wise). Otherwise, it was decent.

Overall, I am not sure if I can even say it is “average” at best. And, Sherman might give me hell for saying this but I found Kawawa Ramen to be better than Miki’s offerings…

Finally, as for the question of how long it took me to write this? ~90 minutes… ^_^;;;

Tagged under: Burnaby • Japanese • Ramen