Ramen Koika - Vancouver, BC

It was New Years Eve. We were walking down Robson looking for Santouka ramen. Then about a block from the Santouka, we saw this ramen place and there was no line. Aha ! We looked at the menu outside and it looked pretty promising. So we walked in and were greeted right away. We opted to sit at the bar seating area facing outside.

I ordered the triple black garlic ramen and hubby got the spicy tsukemen aka dipping ramen. I liked that we can customize our ramen. I wanted lean char siu and softer noodle. But for hubby's dipping ramen he could only choose spicy or non spicy. We also got an order of pork gyoza.

The surprising part of the whole experience was how long it took to get our food. It was like 15 minutes and the restaurant wasn't even that busy. The waitress was very apologetic about it. Our theory was they were trying to keep people in so the restaurant looked fuller. Psychologically people are attracted to busy restaurant or restaurant with line of waiting people.



But seriously we find the ramen very good. The dipping ramen quality was as good as the one we had in Japan. The dipping ramen used a thicker noodle so beware of that if you want to try it. Also the noodle is served cold with the broth on the side. You are supposed to dip your noodle in the broth before eating it. The broth was deeper in flavor with shredded pork in it. We both found the broth very flavorful. And though it was labeled as spicy we didn't find it spicy at all.

My triple garlic ramen was indeed garlicky. I thought that the broth was going to be garlicky but the triple garlic was in the form of garlic chips. Plenty of them. I found it to be flavorful because I love garlic. The noodle for my ramen was thinner ramen and just cooked to my liking. I was glad that I ordered it to be soft. It wasn't mushy soft but it was less chewy. But I found it perfect since hubby's ramen was pretty thick and chewy. They sort of balanced each other out.

For you guys who craves carb, the dipping noodle offered huge portion of carb. Though you may want to order extra meat if you like more meat to go with the noodle. We found it fine with the amount of meat served.

The gyozas weren't like the one I expected. But they were crunchy on one side nonetheless. So I was pleasantly surprised.

Ramen Koika
1231 Davie St, Vancouver, BC V6E 1N4
(604) 336-2779
www.ramenkoika.com