PicoBlog

HOKKAIDO RAMEN SANTOUKA is a short walk away from the central hub of Broadway and Cambie. Unassuming, small, with surgically white lights, it is nonetheless a place that comes highly reviewed by YVR locals. MJ was not impressed as much as A, who loved it and ate faster (a historic first) than everyone else.

This time we were joined by our guest Hoélune, who tagged along and mostly drank Oolong tea. (She liked it.)

A ordered the “toroniku shio ramen” as recommended by a fellow foodie friend, who stated that most people don’t look deep into the menu and just order “one shio tonkotsu ramen”.

Everybody was impressed by the delicate, perfectly salted slices of A’s toroniku. It was cooked to crumbly perfection, and was tender in both texture and taste. MJ and Hoélune were very impressed - A less so, but she ate most of it. Perhaps scarcity meant that we treasured it more - but MJ remembers the first bite and how he gave a visible reaction to how freakin’ amazing it tasted.

As for MJ, who didn’t look deep into the menu and ordered the shio ramen, he wasn’t super happy with the food (but ate it all anyways). The chasu was a little tough, the ramen unassuming, but the soup hit all the right notes and carried the dish. I mean, we’ve been eating so much ramen now, so I guess we can start being a little more critical? I don’t know.

Both of us found this weird round thing in our dish. We both tried it - it was not pleasant but probably helped with flavouring the dish. We’re not sure if it was supposed to be edible anyways.

As for the little rice thing that none of us can remember the name of? “It was nice,” says Hoélune. She got it more for sentimental reasons, but there’s an option for non-noodley lovers at this resturant.

Hoélune recommended that the restuarant invest more money in their Covid separotors. “It felt like I was in a shower, but I was into it.” Shower curtain-like separators kept us safe from the virus (?), but also obstructed the view of the very cute kid that sat next to us. 5/10.

It’s also run by real Japanese people (as opposed to fake ones, A comments) and there’s Ainu art on the walls. We love Indigenous Japanese representation.

It’s a hit and miss from the Vancouver Noodle Blog team - A’s was amazing, but MJ’s food was neh and the atmosphere was slightly lacking. MJ personally probably won’t come back. A feels sad that MJ feels like that - she’s a repeat customer (and therefore a Vancouver local.)

Nobody asked, but we went for bingsoo afterwards. It was delicious.

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