Maruhachi Ra-men Metrotown — Restaurant in Burnaby

If you’re a ramen lover in Vancouver, you’ve probably heard of Marutama Ra-men. This iconic chain founded in Japan back in 2001 has spread across the globe and is known for their signature creamy chicken broth with aosa seaweed. Recently, they opened up a new location near Metrotown (in the former Ramen Raijin spot on Kingsway) and I visited during their soft opening.

Knowing how fanatical ramen people are, I made sure to show up early to avoid the lineups. I was maybe 5 minutes past their opening time and the place was already packed. I managed to get one of their last open seats at the large communal table and perused their rather limited menu offering. Although they don’t have a large number of items on their menu, you can somewhat customize your ramen bowl to your liking. However, I just stuck with the basic Tamago Ramen ($11.25) and asked for the mild option. After that, I waited, and waited, and waited… they seemed rather slow but that could be because it was their soft opening.

When my food finally arrived, there was already a lineup of diners outside the restaurant waiting patiently for a table. The bowl comes with 2 pieces of chashu which I found to be okay but not the tenderest that I’ve had before (I’ve had much better elsewhere). The ajitama (soft-boiled egg) was nicely prepared with a creamy and partly runny yolk. While you can add a noodle refil for $1.50, I thought there was an adequate amount of noodles already in the bowl. The thing that most people are here for is the broth. I did enjoy how the aosa seaweed and green onions melded with the flavours and the broth was fairly creamy. That being said, I felt the broth was overly salty and I carried that feeling in my mouth for a few hours after my meal.

Is this the best ramen spot in the Vancouver area? That’s probably a bit of a personal question (and, to be fair, this was their soft opening). IMOH, the broth was overly salty and the service was slow. Probably not something that I would line up for. That being said… I decided to give them another try and returned for a revisit about a month later. This time around, I ordered the Cha-Shu Tamago Ramen ($14.75) and Gyoza ($5.50)

The Gyoza was the first to arrive and had a light crispness to the exterior with a warm pork and veggie filling and tart dipping sauce. These actually weren’t too bad (maybe things are looking up?)

I have to admit that this bowl of ramen was much better than what I tried on my first visit. The pieces of cha-shu were larger and a lot more tender than on my first visit and the broth, while still somewhat salty, was much less salty than on my initial go around. In the bowl, you also get a marinated ajitama (egg) with a somewhat creamy yolk. If you go for the spicy option with your ramen, you might notice that the spicy kick creeps up on you as you drink the broth.

My thoughts? I’m assuming my experience on the first visit is a bit of a throwaway and that they were still working things out. The second visit was much better. That being said, this place is super duper busy (even when they first open up). The menu is fairly limited with just variations on the same staples but I guess that allows them to control their quality. If you’re really into ramen and have never been here before, then you might want to try this place out… just show up early or be prepared for a wait. If you’re not a big ramen fan, I wouldn’t bother...

Summary: Excellent ramen, but not up to quality with Marutama Westend yet. Consistency of the ramen still need work.

Experience: over 50 bowls of the same order at Westend location: Tamago ramen, spicy with katamen

1st visit, 2 days after opening, 1:30PM: location is reasonably busy around and when I order my usual ramen choice, it understandably took a bit of time to arrive. However, when it arrived the soup line in the bowl is noticeably lower. When I bite in the noodle I know right away that it's been soaking in the soup for awhile (hence the lower line in the bowl). there is a texture difference when they cook it as regular (ie, wrong order), or left it soaking (katamen turn into futsumen). When I ordered kaedama I let the staff know and they were very apologetic and made sure I got the right noodle (thumbs up). Slightly disappointed but the location just opened so I can understand. Soup, egg, chashu tastes just as great as the downtown location I go to usually. Also ordered gyoza which is not available in the downtown location. Gyoza is nothing special and wouldn't recommend (Santouka has a much better gyoza)

2nd visit, 8 days after opening, 11:35AM: went early and probably the first round of ppl that got seated. When my usual order arrives, the noodle is definitely katamen which is really nice. However, the soup is a bit watery and not as creamy as usual, and seems to lack flavor/dashi (that salt liquid they give you when you order kaedama). I notice the top layer of the soup near the edge of the bowl is much more clear/watery than usual. This could only mean that the cooking staff either didn't emulsify the soup properly, or they didn't drain the noodle properly (which the water from the ramen diluted the soup). The kaedama I order came quite quickly but is probably barikata instead of just kata. I like harder noodles so that's fine but still, uneven order/cooking. Egg and noodle is great this time, but chashu was really small. The two pieces of chashu that came is the same size as one piece of chashu that you normally get... side note, when I was trying to order katamen, I had my hand up but I had eye contact with multiple staff but none of them approached to take an order. The floor manager(i guess) noticed me and asked someone to come over because she was in the process of helping another customer, but no one came. The rest of the staffs just kinda wonders aimless for some reason while I have my hand in the air, for 2-3 minutes... Eventually the floor manager had to finish what she was doing and come by to take my order. All in all, still very enjoyable, but needs improvement.

Conclusion: I am happy that a new location opened near where I work. The soup, egg, chashu, flavoring is same with the Westend location. However, the consistency of combing the ingredients and make a great bowl of ramen still needs work. This is forgivable that the location is new, and the staffs are still smoothing out the wrinkles. I am optimistic that given a few more weeks the consistency...

**Update / Dec 31, 2023:

Came in at around 2PM on a Sunday afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't need to wait to get seated! 🤩

The service was "great out of excellent" on my book. Our server was attentive, super well mannered, warm and friendly. But please keep in mind that the shop wasn't crowded or busy at this visit.

My bowl of ramen was on par with the downtown location that I visited two weeks ago. Which was excellent. Not much of a difference

The hot tea was nice and warm. Not boiling hot. The perfect drinking temperature to clear the thirst or to keep you warm from the cold weather.

The washroom was pretty clean. No complaints

Extra points : I liked and appreciated the small gestures that our server did. For example, facing the bowl of ramen toward myself before I started eating. Walking over to my friend and handed them the food instead of handing them the food from across the table. I know it's just the extra couple of walking steps but it made the whole dining experience that more pleasant. The two hands handing me back the receipt. Just the small details that probably nobody else will pay attention to, but really made this place stands out from the other restaurants in general. (I rarely see this kind of attention to details on many local ramen, or other cuisine restaurants) ⭐

In summary, even though there were lots more tasty ramen shops opened in Vancouver. But Marutama, now it's Maruachi will still be one more of my favourite restaurants because I valued attention to the their services, the atmosphere and the foods.

It's NOT worth the wait for 30+ minutes for a bowl of ramen. (Came at 7:15 PM, October 3rd, 2019. Few weeks after opening)

It's the same good old comfy from the Marutama Central Library location

I order tamago ramen. Soup is thick, creamy, flavourful, chicken flavour / Ramen is cooked perfectly for my tatse. Also offer a large portion compare to other ramen shop. / Egg, i love them. Perfectly seasoned. Cooked perfectly - soft yoke inside. / Meat, i didn't pay particularly attention to it because the soup and noodle are too tasty to pay attention to other things in the bowl. / Price : it's a steal! Other ramen places are way more expensive and offer less noodle. / Environment : very comfortable. There are two kind of tables. Individual kind and large table that share with other people. / Service : they are very friendly, professional, and welcoming.

Marutama will always be my favourite and probably be my number 1 ramen shop in Vancouver. But I don't think it's worth to wait in line for ramen. Especially ramen is consider to be fast pace food.

Definitely worth a try, but definitely not worth the wait.

ILoveit...