Marutama Ramen

I headed downtown with the girls from work last week for some ramen. Marutama Ramen is located at 778 Bidwell Street, quite far downtown. I usually don't head that way but Marutama is known for only using a chicken broth soup base for their ramen noodles so I had to try it. I ordered the classic ramen with the egg - it came with some seaweed and green onion on top. The noodles were the thin kind (think wonton soup noodles) which was good, though I prefer it to be thicker and more chewy. The best part were the garlic chips!

Kakuni - pork belly stewed in Marutama special sauce.

Fried garlic chips - there is a container at each table, and I poured it all over my ramen! Mmm!

Tamago Ramen - comes with a soft boiled flavoured egg in chicken broth.

VanVan Izakaya

VanVan Izakaya, a little restaurant on 1333 Robson St. in downtown Vancouver has a new menu and ChineseBites invited me to dine there earlier this week. VanVan serves small izakaya dishes, so it's great for sharing and being able to try a lot of different items on the menu. 

Very cool chalk wall in the restaurant!

Russian roulette takoyaki. A must try! You get 5 octopus balls and one of them is chock full of hot and spicy wasabi! If you can't take the heat, don't play!

Dried squid snack tempura. I love squid snacks with it's sweet and salty flavour and making them into tempura is an interesting idea. Unfortunately, because the strands of squid are so thin, you end up with more batter than anything.

BBQ eel rice in hot bowl.

Pork jewl with Japanese citrus sauce. The pork was very tender and flavoured well.

Ebi mayo - deep fried shrimp with sweet mayo sauce. They were crispy and sweet, the perfect combo!

Beef carpaccio with mayo, balsamic and cheese. There wasn't much beef in the dish, and was covered with the greens. It wasn't too flavourful either.

Seared beef with garlic dressing. Similar to the beef carpaccio, this was a lot tastier with the sauce to dip the beef in.

Chicken cutlet with sweet sour sauce. This was one of the favourites at the table, since the sweet sauce really worked with the chicken.

Beef short ribs came sizzling hot!

Chopped raw salmon with sweet garlic sauce. One of my favourite dishes - it was very light refreshing with the cucumber and sweet sauce. The seaweed comes with the dish so you can wrap it yourself!

An assortment of sashimi. Clockwise from top left: Octopus, raw tuna with avocado salad, scallop, marinated jellyfish salmon, tuna and shrimp sashimi.

We ordered everything on the dessert menu! Clockwise from top left: Green tea ice cream, rice cake wrapped strawberry, green tea soy milk pudding, black sesame ice cream. The soy milk pudding was very liquidy, and you almost had to drink it but it had a very interesting taste. The mochi had too much red bean inside for my liking. The ice cream was delicious!

All in all, VanVan Izakaya has great food with some hits and misses. They have some very creative items on the menu that you can't find elsewhere, which makes VanVan worth visiting at least once. Too bad I didn't have room to try them all! The price is comparable to other Japanese izakaya places on Robson, especially if you are sharing with friends.

Disclaimer: The products mentioned above was provided by ChineseBites and VanVan Izakaya for review. The opinions expressed in this post are those of Savvy Shopping, Deals and Reviews and have not been influenced in any other way.

G-Men @ Nan Chuu - Ramen Izakaya

My coworkers and I had a craving for ramen last week so we all headed down to Richmond to G-Men Ramen, a little restaurant on Alexandra Rd. The place was quite busy for a weeknight so be prepared to wait a while to be seated. They were able to seat our party of 9 without having to wait too long (I think they save the larger table in the back for big groups).

We all ordered a bowl of ramen and some sides, including AAA beef yukke, pan-fried ebi gyoza and chicken karaage. Unfortunately our group was so hungry they dug in before I could get pictures of everything!

Tonkotsu Miso Ramen with Ajitama

Tan Tan Men (Spicy sesame and peanut flavour pork brone broth)

The ramen broth was very thick and fatty and delicious. I added the ajitama (marinated egg) for $1.50 more to my miso ramen. There were plenty of noodles to fill you up but if you're extra hungry or want to have leftovers for another day, extra noodles only cost $1.50 more. There is crushed raw garlic on the table which you can add into your noodle bowl as well - yum! Overall, the food was excellent and one of the better ramen I've had. 

Aotoya Blue Door Japanese Restaurant

Blue Door, a little hole in the wall in my neighbourhood, was recommend by my coworker for authentic Japanese food. They offer teishoku and donburi combos with a main dish and several side dishes that change daily (according to what is available in the market).

Agedashi tofu.

Sushi combo - one of the only non-authentic dishes offered.

Spicy chicken.

Simmered mackerel teishoku.

Unagi donburi.

Ebi fry teishoku.

Green tea pudding.

Black sesame mochi with red bean.

A free dessert is offered when you spend $20. They also offer a 20% discount on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays. Blue Door is definitely a great place to try - my family has been back three more times since our first visit.

Itadakimasu Izakaya

J took me to Itadakimasu last week, a Japanese Izakaya place in her neighborhood. The place was small, but busy as it got near the dinner hour. While there was nothing too special, they did have a lot of great looking dishes that I saw coming out for other tables. I got a bit of food envy! I think I will go back to try some different things soon.

Tuna tataki with ponzu jelly.

Takoyaki.

Cute temari sushi box - round balls of sushi with different toppings.

Sashimi salad. Not really worth it since there were only a few pieces of fish. The salad is served on top of a deep fried rice cake.

Sushi Oyama

Sushi Oyama is always a great place to go for Japanese, as the food is good and the prices are decent. The restaurant is located on Kingsway in Burnaby, it feels like you are going to someone's house. I have heard the building was previously a funeral home, which  makes Sushi Oyama an even more intriguing place to eat. I have been here several times and it's always been very busy, so make sure to make a reservation beforehand!  

Salmon sashimi. The fish was very fresh.

Spicy tuna roll.

Green Dragon Roll - avocado on top of an unagi roll with masago and wasabi tobiko and bonito.

Awesome Roll - crab, cucumber, salmon, masago, green onion, covered in bonito.

Smoked Salmon Roll - crab, avocado, cucumber, masago, lettuce and smoked salmon.

Hukuya Sushi

Hukuya Sushi is a little Japanese restaurant in the Lougheed Mall area in Burnaby, right next to Red Robins. My company sometimes go here for lunch when we have a special occasion to celebrate. It's never too busy when we come (always on a weekday though) so the food we order comes quite quickly. Hukuya Sushi offers typical items that most Japanese restaurants will have. There are plenty of specials and unique rolls, all of them tasty, and the prices are decent. The only thing I wouldn't recommend ordering is the sashimi, because we tried the sockeye salmon sashimi and it was still frozen! You can order a la carte, or go for the all-you-can-eat option.

Wakame salad.

Gyoza.

Assorted tempura.

Catapillar roll.

Mango roll.

Super roll.

Dragon roll.

Sockeye salmon sashimi.