It was such a gorgeous day today in Vancouver (pissing rain...) that I decided to get out and go to a ramen shop that I heard about a week ago from an acquaintance. The place is called Jinya (270 Robson street... a bit south from the Vancouver Public Library).
I visited the website which is not that useful (click here for the webpage). On the main page, it’s got a Youtube clip of people at the Los Angeles Jinya saying how great the food is. One woman on this Youtube clip claims to go there almost everyday... lady, if you were telling the truth you’d be about 30 pounds fatter. There’s lots of slow-motion of people eating and working in this video… very “dramatic” stuff.
The rest of the website is about franchising... for $350,000 I can own a Jinya ramen shop! What a deal...
Well, after a long drive in the rain (there was some event going on which caused traffic to be extra congested) I finally reached the place. It’s located at the beginning of Robson Street (depending on your point of view) near BC Place Stadium and it’s in a fairly new building.
There’s a large “ramen bar” in the centre of the restaurant and seats surround this bar all around (probably enough seating for twenty five to thirty people). The tables and chairs have a slight IKEA feel to it. The wall with the name of the restaurant is quite modern looking. A projector was showing a soccer game on the wall... since we have sports bars in Vancouver, why not have a sports ramen bar...
I checked the menu out and it’s all fairly straight forward. I ordered the Jinya Tonkotsu Black. I figured I may as well order what this place is famous for (a pork broth soup). The taste is fairly heavy. The noodles are thin. There’s a big honkin’ piece of nori (seaweed) sticking up... I guess this is supposed to make things look fancy. There are also garlic chips and a big fat hard boiled egg along with the usual other stuff (bamboo shoots, green onions and seaweed).
The taste isn’t too bad as I didn’t find it too “porky”. The taste is considerably better than one ramen shop that I went to on Cambie (there are a few so I’ll keep you guessing). I’m kind of convinced that one of the most important aspects of the ramen experience is the polite burp after leaving the restaurant... the burp I got from Jinya was acceptable.
I did like the bowls and the oversized spoons...
The food arrived very promptly... to be honest, it came a little faster than expected. Maybe I’m being too suspicious and I guess the noodles are fairly thin so they don’t have to boil them that long.
The service was friendly as my waitress had a natural smile.
The total cost of everything was around $13.50 with tip and tax.
Well, I’ve gone to another one of Vancouver’s ubiquitous ramen restaurants. The more the better I guess.
