ONIGIRI YA at Maruhachi GAIDEN — Restaurant in Vancouver

Visited: Nov.12/17 during a soft-opening, no cash accepted during this time, only debit/credit.

My family are big fans of the first Marutama in downtown, so we decided to try the Gaiden one as well. Went with family, so ordered 1 of each ramen: Shoyu, miso and veggie base soup.

Big, night and day difference between the ramen served in downtown compared to the Gaiden location.

First, the noodles are different here. Thicker, comparable to Santouka, Benkei and Kintaro. My family prefers the thinner, fresher and in-house made noodles of the first Marutama. This thicker noodle was chewy and more on the Al dente style, but the texture did not seem rubbery like Santouka. I'm not sure if the noodles in Gaiden are locally made or shipped in (from California like Santouka's).

Second, soup base: reminds me a lot of kotteri style creamier, oilier, more densely flavored than the lighter chicken soup base of the first Marutama. The shoyu soup base was creamier than shoyu types found around Vancouver ramen joints, and moreover, it seemed to lean more on a shio base that reminds me of Santouka shio ramen. The miso soup base was creamier, and reminded me more of a light mushroom flavor than soy miso. The veggie soup base, is not really creamy as suggested in the menu description, but more thin watery. It had a roasted shallot garlicky feel to it. Nonetheless, all the soup base tasted good. The rest of the toppings, the egg, and slices of pork were tender and flavorful.

We also tried their mega chicken karaage. Now if you're expecting karaage served like how other Japanese restaurants around town serve karaage, you'll feel surprised. Its a huge portion of chicken (drumstick and thigh), cooked well so that the meat isn't raw or red towards the bone. It's pretty much a boneless affair except for the drumstick. Also, the chicken reminded me more of a cooking style in between grilled and fried. Not only grilled but not just fried. It was tasty, but didn't come with the usual mayo dip that comes with karaage in other restaurants.

All in all, it's okay. Its a soft-opening so I expect it to get better towards the grand opening.

Also I didn't get a chance to let the staff know but for the veggie ramen, I discovered that walnuts make up part of the garnish. If you have a tree nut or peanut allergy, you'd better let them know because it's not written...

I came here a few years ago when it first opened up; was a big fan of Marutama back then with their unique and very umami chicken broth ramen.

I came here because it offered a different menu which was quite unique and was closer to where I lived. Tried their mushroom veggie ramen (I'm not a vegetarian) and it was good for a vegetarian ramen rather than good full stop. Wasn't particularly impressed.

I came back here today with my 9 month old daughter. The staff were extremely helpful and kid friendly: they put us in a roomy spot away from the door, helped us with a high chair, and gave us a cup of water for our daughter, utensils, and a special kiddie bowl.

But aside from the service, I wanted to come here today because I am getting increasingly leery of overhyped and social media driven good places on Main St (ahem Street Food down the street), and thought we'd give this a try (again).

The curries looked enticing in the photos, but we came here for ramen so ordered the special miso ramen. Honestly, this was the best ramen I've had in a long time.

The parmesan/chilli oil is an incredibly unique and creative pairing with the miso flavour of the soup, was absolutely loaded with beautiful umami flavour without being too fatty or salty, and had that special flavour that I never grew tired of and kept wanting more of (so much that I drank all the soup and my wife's too). While I am not a huge fan of thin noodles, I thought they were a perfect vehicle for this broth, allowing more surface area to drag more or that delicious broth into your mouth without them needing to over salt the broth to get you that flavour. The toppings are somewhat standard, but I didn't care. The marinaded tamago is one of the best of the ramen restaurants I have been to; delicately flavoured while having a lovely golden/orange yolk which is the perfect combination of jammy and runny.

Yes, the other ramen offerings are still good, but honestly I was quite blown away by this miso ramen and I hope they keep it as a mainstay; it really is that good.

Can't wait...

We were craving for ramen and we were in this neighbourhood, so we gave this ramen place a try as we had Marutama on Bidwell Street in downtown.

When we stepped into the restaurant, a server told us that they only accepted credit card but no cash. I said no problem. It was kind of weird....

We looked at the menu on the table. The menu did not have many options. They had regular miso and shoyu ramen, the mega size of the miso and shoyu ramen plus a couple of other options. They also had a mega Karaage chicken. Please note mega Karaage chicken is not chicken Karaage.

We ordered two bowls of miso ramen and the mega Karaage chicken. The food came out quickly and the presentation looked great. However, the veggies on top of the ramen was way too much. The portion of veggies made the bowl look so big but indeed the ramen was not a lot hidden at the bottom of the bowl. The mega Karaage chicken was actually a deep fried drumstick with bones that was flatten. The texture of the chicken (meat) was so soft that it was not a free range chicken for sure. Although the drumstick was deep fried and came with the sauce, we didn’t find it tasted great. Other Japanese restaurants sell better chicken Karaage than this one. We just found that the mega Karaage chicken was not too special here.

Overall, the pricing was okay or reasonable. The customer service was good but the ramen or food tasted only okay. Ramen restaurants in downtown are better than this one. I would recommend eating ramen at Marutama on Bidwell Street or Robson Street if you want ramen with...