Shishinori - Vancouver, BC

This is not your ordinary Japanese food but rather a even more healthy twist. We saw the this restaurant was the talk of the town so we decided to go try it. How the cafe works is that you would go to the cashier to order your food first and then find a place to sit. 

I ordered the Wild Salmon Paradise bowl and Calvin ordered the Spicy Chicken cha siu bowl. We made it a meal with a drink and soup or dessert for $2.50.  

We get individual teapots for our teas. The decor and atmosphere was very relaxing. They have a projector playing Japanese anime on a wall. There are around 6 tables so I can imagine during lunch times, it would be harder to get a table. 

Calvin ordered miso soup while I got dessert instead. The miso soup is not like the typical miso soup made from powder. It has a stronger miso soup taste. Normally, with the miso soup from powder, it's more watery. I also enjoyed the fact that they put shinoki mushroom. 

This is the spicy chicken cha siu bowl. They had mandarin slices, unpeeled carrots slices. The spicy sauce of the chicken is similar to Korean spicy soybean sauce. It has a little sweetness to it. The sauce for the veggies is similar to Japanese vinaigrette with some sweetness and acidity. Then there's the brown rice at the bottom.

My Salmon Paradise bowl came with salmon, avocado, boiled egg, sprouts, raddish, edamame. Salmon and avocado was a great combo. All the ingredients were really fresh. I think I would've enjoyed it more if it was just a salad, without the rice.  The carrots were not peeled giving it a more raw feel. The vinaigrette was a little sour and sweet, like the yuzu vinaigrette which had a more subtle acidity.  

I personally do not like hard boiled egg and this egg was more on the hard boiled side than soft so I didn't like it.

My dessert was the green tea mini waffle. It was kind of bland. Nothing like the belgian waffles I've had before. It was a bit too soft as in like it was microwaved for too long and didn't retain the lightness and fluffiness of the dessert. 

Overall, this is not the restaurant you would enjoy if you are looking for traditional Japanese food. It's definitely a healthy option although I find Japanese is already quite healthy already. The price is reasonable and the atmosphere is quite soothing. However, I wouldn't go back for the food because I prefer more traditional Japanese food. It's a good choice for those who would want vegan option as well as healthier option as their food is really fresh. 

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.