Ramen Butcher - Vancouver, BC

Being a ramen lover, after hearing a new ramen shop opened up, we had to go try it. Given that we went on a stat holiday, we expected a line. We waited around 40 min. What caught our eyes was that the first Kaedama, which mean extra noodles was free. Every ramen shop charges at least $1.25 for more noodles.

They seem to have a very organized system going. As soon as we were seated, water and menu were immediately brought to us. There were five different styles of noodles. Other than the classic one, there's green, black, orange and red. There's also chicken ramen and vegetarian ramen. It was very overwhelming and took us a while to order. I ordered the black because I love garlic and he ordered the red because he likes spicy.

We also ordered original gyoza.

The decor is very chic, not the layout of a typical Japanese ramen shop. It has its own character.


















The gyoza came shortly after. I definitely would prefer this gyoza over the gyoza from Gyoza Bar. Not only is the skin much thinner, the ratio of the meat and vegetable was more even. They've minced everything very finely so the flavours were very packed. It was a little under seasoned but with the sauce, it was very delicious.

I tried the broth without mixing it with the black garlic oil and it had a very interesting taste. I could taste the pork flavour but it was more mild than Kintaro. Mixing the black garlic oil with the broth definitely tasted much better. The garlic oil blended very well with the broth and it enhanced the broth, adding more flavour and complexity. Calvin said mine was too garlic-y but I didn't think so. I could still taste the pork flavour but the garlic flavour was also definitely there. I especially liked their cha siu. There are not a lot of Ramen places in Vancouver where I like their fatty cha siu but this was an exception. I was glad I ordered the fat. We've noticed they torch the pork at the end to add smokiness to the pork. That's why it wasn't dry and yet a very distinct smoky flavour. I regret they only have one slice, although customers can always order extra.

Their egg wasn't one of my favourite but it was still soft boiled and marinated. It was just slightly overcooked and a bit harder than a soft boiled egg.















Their noodles were not the type I like either. Their noodles are on the softer side. I enjoy noodles which are al dente. The noodles were bad but just not as al dente as I wanted them to be.

Overall, this was decent ramen, but I don't know if I would go all the way to Chinatown and wait that long for a bowl.