Tokyo Noodle Shop — Restaurant in Greater Strathcona

TL:DR - This place is pretty good but it varies from day to day! Not as consistent as I would expect a restaurant to be.

Just to preface this all, I've gone there 3 times in the past week or two so I feel my review covers various aspects of this restaurant from food, to service, along with overall atmosphere and feel. The first time I went I had a bowl of tonkotsu ramen, and that was probably the best bowl of ramen I've had in a long time. I also ordered a regular dynamite roll on the side. The broth wasn't too salty and it was flavourful without being over powering, a sign of a good ramen broth (in my opinion of course). There were a lot of add-ons that you could have with your ramen but I chose to just keep it simple. The dynamite roll is a roll that you can't really go wrong with, it has a piece of shrimp tempura, avocado, cucumber, mayo and tobiko (fish eggs). All in all my first trip here left me with a good experience.

I decided to go back this time with my wife after my first experience as we had been craving sushi. The place wasn't too busy, but it wasn't empty, probably about 5 tables of people scattered throughout the restaurant, with one group being a group of 8 or so. After looking over the menu we decided on the maki platter, rainbow rolls, the special king salmon pressed sushi and fried spring rolls as an appetizer. The service this second time was good, we didn't have to wait very long and they often checked back to make sure everything was okay with our meal. The food came quickly and it was everything we would expect. The spring rolls were hot... like really hot and they didn't taste too oily, which is always a plus. The rice from our rainbow roll and maki rolls were still a bit warm but not hot, the rainbow roll was well made, tightly wrapped, with fresh tasting toppings. The king salmon special pressed sushi wasn't bad because the fish tasted great, but it was exactly that just pressed into a square with no extra flair, just a pressed block of rice (sorta plain but the fish was the star I guess). My only complaint on that night was that the maki rolls were sorta sloppy, the cuts weren't clean and some rice spilled out of the sides but they were still tight and this is sorta nit picky. Everything tasted fine, and really that's all I personally care about.

Last week, we were craving sushi again, so we walked on over to our new favourite Japanese restaurant, as we expected much of the same of what we had experienced before. We were seated fairly quickly however, this trip we were very disappointed with a lot of things. The service was slow despite us being the only ones in the restaurant, I will note that they did have a few take out delivery orders they were preparing, and I did take that in to consideration. We ordered, the spring rolls, vegetable tempura and prawn tempura (both half orders), a red dragon roll, a rainbow roll and pressed blue fin tuna. The tempura was about as perfect of a tempura as I could have expected. This time the rolls were again made very quickly, but I noticed that all the slices of fish were really thin, almost too thin for my liking, as if they were being cheap about the fish. The rainbow roll was okay, but again the thin fish on top sorta made it seem less than appealing. There was a lot of rice and it was sloppily rolled together. The pressed blue fin tuna were small pieces of tuna pressed on top of larger blocks of rice, and some of them had two pieces of fish, as if they made mistakes cutting and they just sorta threw them on top without any thought. After we finished, we sat for about 10-15 minutes without anyone bothering to ask if we wanted anything else or even the bill. After about 10 minutes I tried to wave someone down but no one seemed to notice us. Let me remark that the restaurant was fairly empty, just us and another table at this point, so yes it was busier but it was sorta ridiculous. I did notice that one of the girls serving was new so I don't blame her, but there were more experienced servers who I have seen before who I do blame. All...

First off most important fact to get it out of the way, this is NOT AUTHENTIC JAPANESE SHOP, THIS IS A CHINESE IMITATION SHOP. THEY USE ODD RAMEN RECIPES. Original Review: They start ignoring your allergy request after awhile, had to throw my order straight from my door to the garbage bin. I've been eating here for couple years now. their ramen tastes great, when they don't stuff em with odd toppings I'm allergic to. Instead of corn and buk choy and menma being the standard, they make you pay for those toppings and substituting 3 toppings is really expensive lol almost 30 bucks to have the correct recipe, anyway, instead of the correct toppings they opt for celery carrots and bean sprouts?? 🤢 which may be fine to others but as an east asian that is also a authentic Japanese ramen enthusiast, this whole shop is just odd and weird to me and I happen to be allergic to their ramen, so to me it's disgusting and a bit hazardous. it's literally a Chinese copy of Japanese ramen. There is nothing Tokyo about this except for the shop interior atmosphere, and tempura.

which is why I no longer order from here, I pick up my daily fix of ramen from Hanako Sushi now. first of all Hanako is authentic Japanese shop, they top your ramen with standard topping of corn, menma, buk choy, green onions, and couple more which is vastly superior to ramen in this shop and the toppings are free and included of course, as all standard ramen should. all them toppings and you pay less than 20 bucks for. nice. Anyone reading looking for good ramen, I recommend trying Hanako's trio of Miso, Tonkotsu, Shoyu Ramen they are superb AND REAL RAMEN.

if you cannot tell apart between Korean Japanese Chinese, and you really don't care of authenticity, as long as it LOOKS and FEELS asian, this...

My husband and I stopped in for a casual lunch while in Edmonton, and we're so glad we did! We eat a lot of ramen in Calgary, and weren't sure what to expect from Edmonton ramen shops. This was a great place to start.

Tokyo Noodle Shop is a cozy and chill restaurant with very friendly staff and lots of comfortable seating options. The location on Whyte Ave is fantastic and easily accessible, with lots of street parking.

For our meal, we opted for sushi as an appetizer and each had ramen - Tokyo tonkotsu and veggie tan tan. We were really impressed with their extensive menu of sushi, ramen (including multiple types of chicken and veggie ramens) and bento boxes/combos.

The sushi was incredibly fresh and flavourful, with a generous portion of ginger and wasabi. They had lots of combo plates to choose from, and were willing to make substitutions for a shrimp allergy. The sushi also came with a bowl of miso soup, which was piping hot and flavourful.

Our ramen came soon after, and we were impressed with the generous portion size and variety of fresh ingredients. The noodles were absolutely delicious - fresh, al dente and with a different taste from any others we've tried.

It can be hard to find veggie or vegan ramen that is unique and has a broth that is actually rich and flavourful. The veggie tan tan hit both of these and more. It was loaded with tofu and veggies, and i loved every bite. It all came together perfectly for a perfect bowl.

My husband loved the tonkotsu as well - it was also loaded with pork, noodles and a very flavourful broth.

We would absolutely visit again to try more of their menu items. Highly recommend for a casual lunch or dinner with your partner,...