The ramen place that doesn't take cash - Marutama Ramen Robson

When you are in Vancouver, there are three things you are not short of are: sushi, yoga pants and ramen. There are many ramen places in Vancouver and when I choose a ramen place, I take into consideration price, quality, taste and location and Marutama is one of the best ramen places that meets those considerations.
   This location is usually busy, so it's best to come here right when they open. I usually get the original ramen (without the egg, let's be honest, if I had to pay $2 more for an egg I might as well make my own eggs at home for much cheaper). The ramen is pretty decent in size, however I usually get the extra noodles on the side (you can pay $1.50 for an extra bowl of noodles to add to your soup. Note, this is just noodles and it doesn't come with soup). I usually request the extra noodles to come at the same time as my ramen, then I add it together. The funny thing is that the noodles soak up all of the soup until there is practically no soup left.

That said, the taste of these noodles are really good. It isn't too greasy like many other ramen, and the noodles are the thin types that are very tasty. It reminds me of a type of noodles (they call them dry noodles) in Taiwan that I had when I was younger. They also have small jars of fried shallots, spices and sesame seeds on the tables. Adding these fried shallots add SO MUCH flavour to the ramen.

The interesting thing about this place is that they don't accept cash. That is definitely a very interesting move considering that many places are the opposite. I asked a waitress when I was here why that was and she wasn't able to give me an answer. I do suspect it might have something to do with how they don't want to deal with the hassle of handling cash (like counting and etc...). At the same time, I'm sure this would turn away many customers. Overall, I highly recommend this ramen place, and I would definitely come back again.

Fresh Sashimi and a funny owner (Yakinikuya Review)

Yakinikuya In a sea of Japanese restaurants in Vancouver, many of which aren't exactly "authentic", Yakinikuya is one of the few authentic Japanese restaurants around.
There are so many places that just squish rice and seaweed with a bit of overly fried shrimp together and called it sushi, but Yakinikuya stood out. It was around lunch time and I met with my friend to celebrate her birthday, and we were on Robson when their advertisement for the $8.95 lunch grabbed our attention.
Upon entering, the restaurant had a very authentic feel to it. The decor was all black and you can tell they've put a lot of thought into creating an atomosphere for their customers. We were immediately greeted by a very friendly waitress and seated. Looking around, we were surprisingly the only customer in the restaurant. She quickly brought us the menu and asked if we would like water or tea. The tea was the traditional Japanese matcha, which was pretty good.
 My friend and I decided to take selfies... So we took a bit longer than normal to order. I think because the restaurant was empty, the waitress came back at least 5 times before we made our order. It was hard to settle for what to order. There were so many things beside Japanese food such as Korean BBQ. My friend and I decided to get something we can share, so we decided to order two lunch boats. Our first boat is the sashimi boat while our other one was the Korean BBQ boat.
 While we were waiting, I noticed the owner (or what appears to be the owner, walking in and out of the restaurant as if he was patrolling. He seemed a bit bored and I see him rushing outside to remove a leaf that's fallen on to a table and cleaning up the leaves of the sidewalk. There was a moment when a couple walked in to the restaurant and he greeted them with joy. However they left after looking at the menu and the owner jokingly said "too expensive?'' This was definately the first time I've ever heard a restaurant owner saying something like this. After getting our order in, the waitress immediately brought us our miso soup and salad. The miso soup was very good and the flavour was just right. The salad was special too.
There was siracha sauce added to the salad, as well as a few pieces of sashimi (salmon and tuna). I must say, the Sashimi was very fresh and I was impressed. Right after the salads came, the boats came right after. My first impression of the boats was that they were very well presented. In many other Japanese restaurants, I noticed that they would just place their food on to the dishes without putting much thought into it. However, at Yakinikuya, there was thought put into the placement of food. Starting with the Korean BBQ boat, besides being very nicely presented, it tasted really good too. The pork had a texture where it was slightly harder on the outside but the center was full of juice and it was soft. The sashimi boat was very good too. The sashimi was fresh as mentioned before. Also, for both of the boats, asparagus bacon skewers were included. Besides being on the greasy side, the skewers were good too. The only downside to the two boats is that for $18.00 per boat, the amount of food that was included was not as much as I expected. I guess the trade off is that the quality of food was good. Overall, the service is good, the food is good, the price is on the higher end and I would definitely come back again (once my wallet stops crying).

Remember to ask for no mayo!!! (Donburiya Review)

Donburiya When it comes to how filling a meal is relative to its price, I would say that Japanese rice bowls are close to the top of my list. It was after the Canada Day parade when my friends and I visited Donburiya.
 From the outside, Donburiya doesn't look too big. Looking in the window, you can see a small collection of tables and a cramped ordering counter. The decor is very interesting as they had physical plastic rice bowls hung on the lights near the windows.
Walking in, you will see the menu above the cash register. I must say, when it comes to selection, there aren't that many selections. There are about a handful of selections from the menu that included three options of Ramen, curry, stir fry noodles and five dons(rice bowls). There's a mapo tofu don, teriyaki ton, beef don, kimchi and this other kind (that I don't really know what it is). Even though the options may sound very limited, it is good in a way because in theory, they will be more specialized.
I also noticed that on the menu, the rice bowls also had different sizes that range from small to extra large. There are samples of the bowl sizes on the wall that you can use for reference when ordering. In addition, as a side note, I noticed that almost all of the options have mayo added to the rice bowl. I'm not sure why people add mayo to the rice bowl, but all I know is the mayo goes right to the butt. There's so many calories in a teaspoon of mayo it's one of those things where if you read the nutrition fact after you eat the thing you would get nightmares (if you are health conscious that is).

 When it was my turn to order, I decided to take a large order of teriyaki don and I also asked if I can have one without the mayo. The cashier was very friendly and she informed me that the store is about to close. At this point, my friends and I decided to ask for our meals in to go containers. It was about $8 for a large teriyaki don, and after paying, the cashier handed me a number tag and I waited on the side.
What's interesting to note is that my friend asked for a cup of water (they have water in a counter at the exit, but you need to ask for cups). When my friend asked the cashier for cups, she looked frantically for a second for cup, then she took a two cups that were stacked on top of each other and wiped it and handed it to my friends. Not sure if it was clean or not, but it seemed cleaned.
After about 10 minutes, one of the cashiers came and brought me my teriyaki don. I have to say I really like the service and the respect they have for their customers here.

Because there was about 20 minutes to closing and everyone was starving, we all decided to eat from our take out containers. I must say, the portions were pretty good.
For my chicken teriyaki don, it was just right and there was a fair portion of chicken. The chicken was fresh and the layer of salad beneath it was very good too. The salad really adds some fiber to the mix. The chicken teriyaki don without any greens in it and its lack of fiber is like an episode of constipation waiting to happen.
Overall, I am very satisfied with this place. Not only are the portions good, the price and quality is good too. I would say because the seating is limited, the place is best for take out. I would definitely come back again. 

nice lean grilled chicken for $1.79/100grams (Greenday Salad Bar)

During lunch time, the streets of Downtown Vancouver is usually bustling with people (usually people who are at work) in their business attire trying to find food. I was also doing some work and it was lunch time and my friend wanted to meet up. She suggested going to this salad bar. Before coming in, I noticed that Fujiya next door was packed with people trying to get their sushi. Because it was so busy next door, this salad place was easy to miss as it was located deeper within this building complex.
The thing I love about salad bars, like this one is that you can walk in and choose whatever you like in whatever amount you like and pay for just the total weight (they call it gross weight I think... But it's abit weird to call the total weight of food gross, unless of course, the food itself is gross). Also, I think salad bars are rather better than going to a fast food places at the food court where you pay for a set amount of food and feel bad about not finishing it all.
   This salad bar contains over a few dozen varieties of vegetable dishes. All of these dishes looked relatively not greasy. Also, I think this salad bar is Korean owned because I noticed some of the items do have an Asian twist to it. In addition, when you walk into this salad bar, you immediately smell the aroma of freshly baked bread.
The way this salad bar is laid out is that the food is located around the corners while the middle of the store has a long table for people to sit. I would not recommend eating in here because the table looks abit uncomfortable to look at. Not to mention that with traffic of people going around getting food, I'd imagine it would feel abit pressuring for you to finish your food.
   Because I already have food with me, but I didn't want to make my friend feel bad, I decided to get something small. For $1.79 for 100grams I would say the price is decent. That said, it depends what you get. If you got something like potato wedges only, $1.79 for 100 grams is pretty expensive compared to getting 9 pieces of potato wedges at 7-11 which is roughly 100 grams for only 99 cents. I'm saying this because I got some potato wedges and grilled chicken thinking one piece or two shouldn't be that expensive.    The grilled chicken I got was pretty good. The seasoning was not too overwhelming, yet it wasn't too bland. In addition, what I liked most about the chicken was that it was relatively lean and not as fatty as some of the chicken I've had. With regards to the potato wedges, besides the fact that it was slightly over cooked, it tasted pretty decent.
   Overall, I would say this place is definitely tailored towards business folk who wants something like a quick lunch, yet want variety in their meals. The quality is pretty decent and it's definitely a good consideration if you are in the area and is looking for lunch.

Vancouver's Very Own Version of "Ding Tai Feng" (Dynasty Robson Review)

As you walk by this place, you would think to yourself that Dynasty is just another Chinese place. However, when you step in, you will realize it is something abit different. Compared to many Chinese restaurants, where there are round tables and people share food surrounded by interior designs that seem to be dollar store inspired, I must say Dynasty has a more boutique feel/twist to Chinese cuisine.
When I entered Dynasty, the first thing that comes to mind is Din Tai Feng. I remember the last time I was in Taiwan, I ate at a Din Tai Feng, where they had the kitchen all visible behind a glass wall. My friend and I were quickly seated by the hostess once we came in. They are very busy and I can tell that every seat was full, but we came in at the time when one group just left so luckily, we got a spot.
After we were seated, the waitress came over with the menu. It's interesting because there are many items on the menu that are Taiwanese. It's strange in the sense that in the Chinese restaurants I've been to, there never seem to be Taiwanese selections on their menu. I found out from a conversation that Dynasty is actually a Taiwanese owned restaurant.
I noticed that the menu prices seem abit on the expensive side. But because we haven't seen what the portions are like, it's hard to determine if the price was fair or not. After a few moments of mental brainstorming, we ordered the Taiwanese Omelette, red bean buns, seafood-pork buns, and the crispy rice.

The seafood-pork buns came first. It arrived in a relatively big bamboo steamer. The smell was really good, and once we opened the lid however, I was slightly shocked at how small the portions are. For $6.95, it was 6 pieces of bite sized dumpling buns (Xiao Long Bao). Despite the small portions, the taste was pretty good. You can tell that the meat was higher quality (it was relatively lean). So for the quality, I would say the price is alright, but on the higher side.
The next item that came was the crispy rice. Personally, I've never tried crispy rice and by the sounds of it, it seemed like it was something fried. When it arrived, it came in two separate dishes. One was a dish of something that seemed like Rice Krispie bars while the other was a soup like thing that had vegetables and sea food in it. The waitress set the dish with Krispie Bars on our table first followed by the soup like thing. Afterward, we stirred it and it became something that had the consistency of congee but with the crispiness of the rice. Overall, the dish was pretty good and I would say fairly priced.
Finally, the Taiwanese Omelette and the red bean buns came. I must say, it reminded me of my grandma when I took a bite into the Omelette. The Omelette has dried up radishes inside of them (it's a Taiwanese specialty), which gives the thing that the radish is in a slightly bittersweet taste.
The red bean buns are pretty special. I never seen red bean buns made using the same wrappers as the ones that they make dumplings/ (Xiaolongbao) with. Usually, the red bean buns have thicker pastries covering the red bean instead of the thin ones. Overall, I enjoyed the buns but I have to say that the price for them isn't cheap. For 6 bite sized pieces, it cost about $6.95.
In general, the location of Dynasty is pretty convenient as it is in Downtown Vancouver. The quality of food is pretty high too. However, when it comes to pricing, it is abit on the expensive side. That said, the service was decent and I would definitely come back again

Deep Fried Bananas? (Tropika (Robson))

Located in the heart of downtown Vancouver on Robson street, this restaurant is both convenient and a good place to go for a date. Although I wasn't here for a date, I was here for a group outing/meeting. It was 8PM on a Saturday night and we made a reservation for 10 people on last minute noticed and I was surprised that there was room. We made the reservation about half an hour before we arrived too.
   When it comes to parking, you will need to park on the street. If the time was earlier, I'd imagine that finding a place to park would be a difficult thing. But because the hours were late, we were able to find a spot. So if you are planning to come here, I recommend taking public transit. It might sound unclassy if you are bringing a date here to go by public transit... but hey, it could be a new sustainability trend to date by transit ;).
   After we finished parking, we entered the restaurant. Because the restaurant itself was upstairs, we had to walk up a flight of stairs. The appearance from the front counter reminds me a Chinese restaurant because they had one of those tanks that have crabs inside of them. We were directed to our seats. I'll admit, because we had 10 people in our party,the table space felt abit cramp. The amount of seats inside the restaurant is adequate, but to fit more seats in the restaurant, I noticed that alot of the seats are crammed in together.
   At the beginning, when we were about to order, everyone had a hard time deciding what to get. So eventually we came to the conclusion of getting two appetizers, a few entrees and a dessert per person. We ordered the Malaysian pastry and skewers. The skewers were good but it was slightly burnt. You could taste the juicy flavour inside the chicken, while the pastry was good but I would recommend eating it as soon as it comes (or else risk it becoming abit mushy if you leave it out for too long).
When we were finished with our appetizers, the fried rice came. Also, we ordered barbecue chicken. I would say the fried rice wasn't anything too special but there was a dish of fried rice that came that was pretty special. I forgot what the name was called, but it looked slightly dark purple and the rice seemed like the long grain Thai rice. The special thing about it was that it was spicy, but it wasn't the regular spicy taste where you taste the spice right away. It's one of those where the spice slowly work its way into your palate.

What was really cool was the dessert. I saw on the menu that they had deep fried bananas. It's written on the menu as something in Malaysian but they have (deep fried bananas) in parentheses. At first I thought, "eww that sounds gross". But being an adventurous person, my curiosity took the better side of me and I decided to give it a try. I had to tell myself to not think about the calories too much because anything deep fried is guaranteed to come packed with calories. Not to mention, the dish also came with a ball of ice cream and two balls of whipped cream. This does sound like a heart attack waiting to happen.
When the dish came, I decided to split it with my friends at the table. I gave them the whipped cream and ice cream and one of the bananas while I took the other. When I took a bite into the banana, I was surprised. It didn't have the squishy banana taste to it. Being warm and slightly crispy, the texture on the inside sort of taste like marshmallows, yet the sweet taste is a natural sweet and not the sugary taste that you get with marshmallows. If we ignored the calorie count, I would say the deep fried bananas are pretty good. That said, the dish was about $6, so it is abit on the expensive side. Other than that, I would say Tropika is a pretty decent place to have dinner.

Can taste funky but yet inexpensive Japanese Dons (Gyudon Ya Review)

I am not really sure why the reviews on Urbanspoon are so bad when it comes to Gyudon Ya, I decided to go at lunch to give them a try. I would say that given the small space, this place is best for people who is on the go. The restaurant itself contains two rows of benches/tables with stools. Both the rows of the benches face away from each other, meaning that if you sit on one of rows, your back will be facing the back of the others that are sitting on the other bench. The seats themselves were not too comfortable and it feels abit cramped.  

   That said, this reminds me of the restaurants in Japan where because the space is limited, the seating is usually placed uncomfortably. When I entered the restaurant, I was greeted by the waitress and I had to find myself a place to sit. I sat on the front counter facing the huge menu sign. Soon after, the waitress brought me tea. The tea itself was matcha and the quality of it feels above average (given that it was free). Afterward, I took a look at the menu and stared at it for a few seconds before making my decision on what to order.
  Just as the name of GyuDonYa reveals, they sell only rice bowls. There are only a handful of rice bowls to choose from. There's the veggie bowl, pork bowl, chicken teriyaki bowl, mabo tofu bowl and etc... but nothing that's out of the ordinary. I was at the restaurant with my mom, so she decided to get the salmon bowl and I got the mabo tofu bowl.
   The two bowls that we ordered came relatively quickly. We had the option of making our meal a combo (highly recommended because the salad is a ball of potato salad and miso soup), but we didn't do the combo because we weren't feeling like eating all the carbs. When our bowls came, the bowls themselves look exactly like the picture in the menu. The salmon bowl was abit of a surprise because we thought the salmon would be cooked, but it was not. The salmon was raw and the shrimp was not raw, but it was cold. Not sure if it was the style of the bowl, but it definitely was abit funky tasting because I don't really understand why the shrimp was cold. It wasn't like the bowl was supposed to be a don that is all made out of raw fish, so it would make sense to have some consistency.
   That said, the mabo tofu dish was pretty good though, I really liked the taste of it. The way that it was prepared did not make the bowl feel greasy. The tofu and the pieces of minced pork was just right. Because I ordered a large, the portion was just right as well. For about $8 for a large don, I would say that the price is inexpensive and the portion is just right.
  Overall, I would recommend this place if you are on the go and is craving some Japanese rice bowls. However, if you are looking for something high end, or

Ebi Ten (Downtown Vancouver)

Looking for some legit Japanese fast food? I would say this is probably one of the best places I like to go. The location is conveniently located across the street from the Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch. The place is not hard to spot because of their huge orange sign that says "Ebi Ten". It was about 7:00PM on Saturday night when my family and I were downtown trying to find a place that was fast (because we were on a rush to see a show at the Orpheum Theatre).

When we go to Ebi Ten, the place wasn't too packed, but it looked packed because of how small the restaurant is. There are a very limited amount of seating at this place, (maybe 20 all together?). I think this restaurant is targeted at people who want to grab a quick lunch/dinner and go rather than eat in. 

When you enter the restaurant, you will see a cooler of already made sushi on the side with some Japanese drinks like Ramune and snacks. They also have salads as well.  Also right beside the cold foods, the warm foods are there too. There is a heater that contains potato croquettes, as well as other warm Japanese delicacies. 

Because it was dinner, we decided to go for something more filling instead. The things that are usually more filling are the rice bowl because the rice can usually fill one up. Something that I found that is very interesting is that they offered sizes for their rice bowls. This is very cool because sometimes if you aren't feeling like eating a regular rice bowl and feel like eating less, you can order a small one. Not only do you save money, you prevent wasting food. That said, they also have a large size as well if you feel like you are super hungry. Also on the side note, they add how much they give you for each size (like as in the amount in grams)

I ordered a chicken teriyaki rice bowl. They added a hint of oil in the rice to give them abit of texture that is more on the bouncy side (ok not literally bouncy... lack of a descriptive word here). Besides of having chicken, they also had some lettuce under the chicken along with some salad sauces. The portion was pretty good too. The medium was about 1lb of food and it was filling and somewhat good valued (at $7). The only down side I did not like was that I think they added too much sauce too it, so it's abit on the greasy side. Next time I come here, I might go and ask for less sauce.

My mom ordered the Mabo Tofu while my brother got the spicy chicken bowl. We also got two sides of sushi, a tuna roll and a california roll. The sushi are abit on the small size compared to other sushi places around. But I think the sushi rolls in Japan are originally small.

Just a note on the location, the restuarant itself is very small. It is very well maintained and clean, but just not a good place to dine in because of how small it is. I would recommend coming here for take out though. Overall, I like this place and I would recommend it!

Zac Zac Japanese Curry House (Downtown Vancouver)

Hidden in a small corner at the food court (or should I say food corner because of how small the location is) of H Mart in Downtown Vancouver, is this Japanese take out place. I never knew that H Mart had such a place because my friend and I decided to go exploring and see what was behind the corner after the customer service counter. 

When you go past the customer service counter, there are quite a few places to eat. There is a Japanese/ Korean Sushi Place, a Korean place (that sells hotpot and Korean rice) and then this Japanese place that is called Zac Zac that is all in the corner by itself. There were many options to choose from when it comes to food, so my friend and I was walking back and forth for atleast 5 minutes before we could decide what we would like. 

At the end, my friend was craving curry while I became interested in the Japanese food when I heard the cook/ barista (or whatever they call the people that are at the front taking orders. I think calling them cashier would also fly) speak Japanese. 

There were many options for curry and rice, but the options aren't too special. Almost all of them are options you would expect to see at a Japanese curry place (chicken, pork, katsu, with rice or udon type of things). The price ranges of the items starts at $7 and goes up to around $10.
 I ordered the Oyako Don while my friend ordered the Curry Chicken. We waited for about 10-15 minutes for our order to arrive. During then, we found ourselves a spot beside the window. I must say, this food court is very crowded feeling, the space is small and they have many chairs and tables here. Almost too much for the small space, as it felt clustered.
  When we were called up to get our order, we quickly got it and returned to our table. The presentation of what we ordered looked exactly like what it looked like in the pictures.
   My Oyako Don tasted pretty good. It wasn't anything too special, but the chicken was pretty fresh. The only downside is that the chicken skin, which is essential fat is stuck to the chicken. If you are on a diet, I would recommend taking that piece of fat off. Also, it seemed like there was just a tad bit too much sauce, so the rice was slightly damp at the bottom. Other than that, it tasted pretty good and the portion was pretty good too. Overall the price, I would say is fair and quality is fair as well and I would definitely come back again.