Hiroshi Japanese Ramen - Richmond — Restaurant in Richmond

My first impression was not good. I understand that lunch hour is a busy time, but in most Japanese run restaurants, even the busiest, the staff will generally attempt to put on a smile and be friendly, even when delivering bad news like long wait times and slow service.

The hostess on this date (Friday, 2Mar18, 12:45) was not very friendly to say the least. She told every customer who came in it would be at least 20 min wait before they got any food. This was fine, but it was the attitude that came with like, like it was "mendokusai" to serve people. There were empty tables, and empty seats, but she wasn't seating anybody and simply told them they would have to wait 20 min for food anyway.

Even when Sanpoutei or G-Men are packed, they never warn us it will be a long wait for food because the food is at our table in a fairly short time.

She asked me if I had a reservation, I said "no" in Japanese......she clearly did not understand. She told us the same thing as she was telling everyone else, with the same disdained look on her face.

Is this place child friendly? Well the wife and I had our 3 yr old son with us and though there were highchairs, the hostess appeared to not particularly like children. Again the look of this is "mendokusai" appeared on her face whem we asked for a highchair.

A Japanese restaraunt does not have to be Japanese owned or even Japanese staffed to be a good restaurant. Sampoutei is an excellent example, which franchise in Richmond is Chinese owned, with the host and hostess both Chinese, though they do have some Japanese on staff. You'll even here the staff at least attempt an "Irashaimase!", but not here. I doubt any of the staff speak the same language as there was very little banter between the staff as you would expect of a typical Japanese restaurant.

When it slowed down a bit, the hostess was playing on her cell phone in plain view of all the customers...lol, I'd never seen that at Sanpoutei or G-Men.

Anyway, enough grumbling about the bad first impression. The food is actually decent. The tonkotsu miso ramen wasn't very heavy compared to what I prefer so health nuts might like this place over my favourites. Noodles were cooked right, the soup had good flavour and temperature was just right. I liked that shitake was added. The soft tamago had a hint of sweetness to it that I'd never experienced.

The karage was a bit bland, and I''m not sure what mayo was used, but it was not Kewpie. Gyoza was also not bad, but didn't have alot of garlic or chives, which can be pretty signature for the Japanese take on potstickers/gyoza.

My wife ordered natto gohan for the kid but it was seemingly forgotten. When asked, the hostess/server appeared not to remember and someone from the back came and we heard them speaking in Korean. He spoke to my wife and he apologized with a polite bow, which is a lot more than I can say for the hostess/server.

My kid scarfed down the natto gohan, so I guess it must have been good. Personally, I hate natto, despite attempting to eat it at least a dozen times.

Anyway, not a total train wreck, but I would place Sanpoutei and G-Men ahead of Ichigo in terms of ranking of ramen shops in Richmond.

Maybe I will try the place again during a non-peak period in the day so I can give it another chance without the bad taste I got from...

Place is kinda hide away from all stores. It was tucked away behind Sherwin Williams paint shop. They don't have very visible signage so I was having a hard time finding it with Google maps. Even it says I have arrived but I still couldn't figure out where exactly.

They have quiet different varieties of choices. More so than others I find.

Store was clean and modern so I guess it is not opened for long.

Ordered one pork based sioyu soup and one chicken based sioyu soup. Ordered small chasiu rice bowl for the little one as well.

When the food came server did not specified which is which. It was our first time so we had to flag down the server and varified.

Their chicken chasiu was different from other. It was kinda of reassembled with corn starch to make it look like pork chasiu meat. They broke down into pieces easily. It was different but not a big fan of it. Soup wise they tasted the same. I couldn't tell apart which is which. That means soup based was mainly flavored by soy sauce. Unfortunately we got an end piece of pork chasiu. It was tough and dried. Also salty. Reminds me of pork floas.

Originally we were ordered rice for little one. But after our first tried it was way too salty. Let alone the bottom of rice soaked with very salty sauce.

Kinda disappointed with high reviews it received from Google but maybe it was a draw of luck at time of visit. And unfortunately it wasn't a good one.

Staff are friendly and credit card friendly. Lots of parking as well. But unfortunately the food we received that night kinda left a bad impression for us. Price was reasonible but it's not to standard. As ramen is pretty competitive within Richmond. And there are three other noodle soup...

Updated 2022.04.21: New owners and the restaurant has undergone a name change. Still serves primarily ramen. We found the new owners have a slighly smaller menu but have added a small offering of sashimi and sushi to it. The sashimi and sushi was not available last night when we tried the rebranded restaurant. We found the ramen to be better than the previous restaurant. The soup base is definitely more flavourful and robust. The chashu was tastier too. It's definitely a good option for ramen in the Ironwood district. Give them a shot if you're nearby and have a hankering for ramen.

It's a smaller place, tucked away in the southeast corner of the "ironwood area". It's newer, only open about 5 months now. The restaurant is clean and subtly minimalist in decorations. The service was good and prompt. For the important part, the food, we all had different ramen bowls. We also tried a few sides to get a good spectrum of their offerings. Every dish was quite good. I am quite pleased to find a good ramen place locally to take my family to. To explain only 4 stars... the ramen broth was not hot enough; it arrived somewhere between warm and hot. My other comment is the additions you order with your ramen were a bit short; a little more would have been reasonable. Finally, I was surprised to find bamboo was not one of the additions. This is the first ramen restaurant I've visited where bamboo was not available. All in all, quite good and I...