Shang Noodle House - Richmond

We were craving noodles so we stopped by Shang Noodle House in Richmond. It’s located near Richmond Centre on Saba road.  We’ve visited the Shang Noodle in the New Westminster Casino months ago so this will be a good chance for us to compare.

This location is a lot smaller than New Westminster's.  It had lots of windows letting in natural light though.  It was not too busy as we arrived Sunday for an early lunch just minutes after they opened.

We got the Groupon deal which comes with an appetizer, noodle, drink and dessert.

For this first appetizer we chose takoyaki.

We got 6 in total. These were good and not too mushy.  It had a generous amount of shredded seaweed on top.

The 2nd appetizer we selected pot stickers.

The skin on these pot stickers were a bit too chewy and rough. Inside had juicy pork and veggies.

For the first noodle we chose spicy beef tendon noodle.

It had a generous serving of beef tendon. The tendon was very tender and tasty.  As well, the noodles were very al dante.  These are Chinese style ramen noodles,

For the 2nd noodle we had the house special spinach noodle. It had quite of bit of meats including bbq pork, some scallops, and shrimp and also chicken.  The noodles were unique in that they were spinach green so it felt healthy.

For the 3rd noodle (not part of groupon) we got the dandan noodles.  This had a huge amount of peanuts on top as it should. 

It also had a deep garlicky peanut sauce.  Dandan noodles are not mean to have too much soup.  I’d say it’s a half dry noodle. The noodles were also very al dante.

At the end we got mango pudding dessert which we took home instead since we were all full.

Service was quick and our server was very friendly and attentive.  Even without the Groupon, the regular prices at Shang Noodle are very reasonable.  The only downside is that parking is limited here.  You’ll have to do pay street parking or find a nearby mall if it’s on the way.

SFDD gives 4 out of 5 Delights.

Jinya Ramen Bar – Kerrisdale

We tried out the Jinya Ramen’s Kerrisdale location after a nice summer hike near UBC.  They are located on W41 Ave near West Boulevard.

It wasn’t too busy as it was way past lunch time.  It is quite a modern looking restaurant. This is their bar area and open kitchen.

Normal tables

It was during happy hour so the server introduced us to the specials:

Daily drink specials:

Their regular menu is colorful with many pictures of their food.  However, we noticed the prices for ramen at this location are a lot more than the downtown location when we last visited. It is quite a jump, about $15 a ramen!  I’m pretty sure it was about $11 not too long ago? 

We started with their crispy chicken from the happy hour menu:

There were 5 plump pieces of boneless dark meat chicken. It comes with a tiny salad as garnish and some dipping sauce.  The chicken was crispy like it should be and the meat itself was juicy.

We ordered a sukiyaki beef rice bowl:

It had lots of tender beef and had a good portion of rice.  While in the middle of eating this, the server suddenly came by and apologized and dropped off these dishes:

It was a soft cooked cold egg, some ginger and chili powder.  I think she was trying to tell me that they forgot to serve these items with the rice.  I was not aware these were included.  Perhaps the egg is to mix into the hot rice?   If so, my rice was already cold and half gone by the time this arrived.  I just slurped down the egg by itself.

They have lots of ramen choices with unique names.  We ordered the Sprouting Up Ramen.

It is served with thick ramen and has these items for toppings:  pork and chicken broth, pork chashu, kikurage, spicy bean sprouts, green onion, half seasoned egg*, crispy brussels sprouts, black pepper, ginger.

The soup was very rich with deep flavour without being too salty.  The ramen had good chewy texture too.

The ramen here is a bit pricey but was presented very well. However it was not good enough to justify such a high price.  We prefer the ramen shops that let you choose options like broth richness, spicy level, pork fat level etc.

SFDD gives 3 out of 5 Delights.

Ramen Danbo - Robson St

While taking a stroll down Robson St, we got a little hungry and noticed a line up of people outside a rather new ramen shop.  We decided to give it a try since the line up was not too long.

Danbo’s menu:

If you are ordering ramen, you have many options to choose from compared to other ramen shops.  Here, you must choose the denseness of noodles, the thickness of soup and noodles, even the fattiness of the pork and soup, and finally the spiciness.

We started off with gyoza:

The gyoza was pan fried to a light crisp.  It has pork filling and was done quite well.

This is the classic ramen:

For the options, we chose normal for everything.  The soup was very good and not overly salty.  The noodle texture was perfect while the pork was very tender.  If you are craving for more, you can request more noodles for a small charge:

We enjoyed our visit to Danbo because the food was great and also the seating arrangement was very comfortable.  The restaurant did not feel overly crowded nor was it stuffy even though it was a full house.  The servers were all Japanese and they were very friendly.

We definitely recommend you try it out if you were craving for Ramen after doing your downtown shopping.

SFDD gives 4 out of 5 Delights.

Shang Noodle House - New Westminster

Shang Noodle House is located in New Westminster’s Starlight Casino.  We found a Groupon deal for this place so we decided to try it out.  There is also a location in Richmond too but we thought New West would have less people.  They serve a variety of Asian noodles.

We got here at around 6pm Saturday and the place was rather quiet but more people trekked in to fill up the place after 6:30pm or so.

The restaurant is large with a lot of seating.  It’s a rather casual dining area. When we first walked in it felt like a cafeteria because it was so big.  The service was quite good as the servers were quite attentive and friendly to bring us to our tables, take our orders and bring us tea.

For the Groupon deal for 2, you get a selection of appetizers, a choice of noodles from their menu, 2 pops and dessert.

The spicy wonton came first:

There were 5 pieces of the wonton in a spicy soy sauce.  It was a plump average wonton.

Then came the fried chicken wings:

It came topped with some fried garlic.  The wings had a good zing to it and was not too oily nor overly fried.  It would have been better if the wings were consistently sized.  As you can see there were a couple of mini wings.

For the main noodle dish, we both chose the featured ramen in lobster bisque soup with grilled pork chop.

The noodle was a rather large portion.  In terms of taste, the soup was not overly seasoned/MSG.  The noodles may have been a tad too soggy for our liking.  We would prefer the noodles to be more chewy (al dante).

The pork chops came on a side dish like this.

They were already sliced but as you can see, the pork chop was rather thin.

The dessert was mango pudding:

The mango pudding was quite good, it had pieces of real mango inside and was not too sweet.  We were quite full from this Groupon deal.  Overall the food was good and they did not skimp because we were using a Groupon.

This location’s parking was quite convenient as you can use the large casino parking lot.  You also don’t have to walk through the casino to get to the restaurant as it’s located outside of the actual casino.  The servers all seemed very friendly.

We’d certainly like to come back to try their other noodles too. Even without a Groupon, their regular prices are very reasonable for the portion they serve.

SFDD gives 3.5 out of 4 Delights.

Ramen Jinya - Downtown Vancouver

Jinya is located on Robson street but on the east side just between the Vancouver library and BC Place.  We got here for an early dinner just before 5pm and the place was nearly empty.  It looks to be a usually busy place as they have the sign in sheet ready to go outside the entrance.

They’ve got counter seats as well as booths but it’s not very big so I can imagine it will fill up fast during the lunch or dinner peak time.

Their menu is a simple with where you can opt for a variety of combos with drink.

First combo is Tonkatsu Classic Ramen with a side order of Gyoza and ginger ale combo.

The soup was very rich so it tasted a bit salty.  It comes with 2 slices of pork.  The pork was extremely tender, it felt like it melts in your mouth.  The pork was very fatty though.  As for the ramen, it seemed to be thinner than other restaurants.  It had a good chewy, al Dante texture.

The side order of gyoza coms with 3 pieces with dipping sauce.  The gyozas were rather small but were pan fried nice and crispy on one side.  The meat inside was tasty.

The second combo was Jinya tonkatsu black ramen with a side order of takoyaki with hot green tea.  This one was a couple of dollars more and comes with a flavoured boiled egg some seaweed and garlic chips.  The egg was a big overcooked though. 

The combo Takoyaki comes with 4 pieces. These tasted quite fresh without too much of the batter overwhelming the pieces.

The green tea is just a simple matcha tea bag.

Service was friendly and quick.  Prices here seemed to be a couple of bucks higher than the ramen joints down on the west side of Robson towards Dunbar.  I was a bit annoyed that my ginger ale was not filled up to the top.  Only our waitress did this from our observation she did the same on drinks when serving other customers.  The other waitress filled the beverages to the top of the glass. Oh well.

We saw other customers ordering the iced green tea which you can order sweet or unsweetened.  I kind of regret not trying the iced tea but will be sure to try it next time we are there.

SFDD gives 3 out of 4 Delights.