Ryu Katsu + Ramen bar — Restaurant in Vancouver

Average hakata-style ramen, and average tonkatsu. The main saving grace is the price is better/similarly priced than other restaurants (e.g., Saku, or the old Gyo-para). However, the quality of the product was mediocre. I think I'd rather eat at the other restaurants, and spend a bit more.

Ramen broth is pork-based, but lacked a lot of flavor you'd expect with a tonkatsu broth (it kind of tasted of chicken, and bonito). Ramen noodles were fine. Issues I'd had was the ability to customize the noodles doneness, add extra minced garlic, and lack of any lard. The egg however was very good.

Tonkatsu was average. Both the tonkatsu sauce and seseme salad sauce tasted exactly like the ones in the bottle (which is fine). But the salad was overly bitter (from the lack of extra washing to remove bitterness), and clunky.

The ice cream (choices of black seseme, matcha, yuzu, and lychee) at the end they give for free was meh.

Service was friendly and helpful enough.

Overall, ok, but not somewhere I'd go out my...

Came on a weekend afternoon and a few tables were filled, not super busy. Ordered the shio ramen and assorted katsu set.

Shio Ramen: personally not a fan of shio styles myself but I think it was still decent for the price. Prefer the heavier tastes of tonkotsu or miso. Egg could be marinated more. Chashu had a good char to it.

Katsu: Batter was light and crispy. Maybe also a bit lighter in flavour from the meat or the batter but they give you plenty of dips and salt. Comes with the typical refillable cabbage salad, miso soup and rice. I think all in all, the frying process was better than Saku (sometimes I find it warm and not crispy anymore by the time I get it) but the flavour could be turned up a bit.

Free ice cream after!

A small note about the service was when the waiter asked if I wanted more salad, they brought out a Tupper ware of it and used chopsticks to just lift some onto my current plate. Maybe a bit unprofessional seeming but personally I...

This was a really solid place for ramen and katsu. If you’re into either of those two, I would highly recommend coming here.

We ordered the spicy (kara) tonkotsu ramen and katsu curry. Both were incredibly flavourful and balanced. The katsu was juicy, tender, and crispy and paired nicely with the curry and rice. the ramen had a really nice kick to it and an amazing broth. We also ordered a side of truffle fries which were great as well - crispy, with a nice truffle flavour. Absolutely no complaints when it comes to the food.

The atmosphere was really nice too, a small and cozy place that was not too busy at all.

No complaints with the service as well - there was only one server when we visited though so just be patient if you go on a busy day. We also got icecream on the house! You can choose black sesame, matcha, or yuzu - super tasty!

Overall, would definitely come back again if I’m...