Tasting Journey #2 - Ramen Sanpachi

It's 7pm after work, and it's freezing cold outside. I have a craving for something warm and soupy.  Last night, I had attempted to make my all-time-favourite congee, and thought that this could be the perfect dinner.  Called my mom on the way home to ask her to heat it up so that it'd be ready and waiting for me as soon as I got home.  My mom's exact words, "it REALLY doesn't look that great..." Trusting my mom's response since she's not a picky eater, I told her I'll just have it for lunch tomorrow, and convinced her that we should just dine out.  Didn't take much convincing though (I guess she really didn't want to have any of my failed congee either).

 So we thought we'd try a new place somewhere on Broadway.  I remember walking on Broadway one fine summer day (seems ages ago!) and noticing all the new restaurants that have opened up.  My mom & I had agreed that we would one day try all of them.  This is our chance. 

Ramen Sanpachi - 3132 West Broadway

http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/14/1573443/restaurant/Kitsilano/Ramen-Sanpachi-Broadway-Vancouver#all_reviews

Ramen Sanpachi a chain store from Sapporo, Japan. 
With over 90 stores in the world (70 of them in Japan), they opened in Vancouver beginning of this year.  They are famous for their miso ramen (since they're from Hokkaido of course!).

 
As soon as you walk in the restaurant, there is a sense of cozyness and warmth in the air.   The atmosphere is great, and the vibe was just right.  This would be the perfect place for family dining.

The restaurant is probably 70% full.  This is actually quite good, considering that today is only Wednesday.  My mom and I ordered a few items to share, and while we waited for the food to arrive, the waitress greeted us politely. Great service.

Looking at the menu, I am inclined to think that this is the Japanese version of western "comfort food".  Unlike most other ramen places, this place serves ramen as its entree, yet also offers a few other dishes such as curry rice, and a few basic sushi rolls (ex. dynamite, spicy tuna, avocado roll..etc).  I thought this is quite a smart strategy since when you dine in a group, not everyone has the same craving for ramen.  So this offers a bit more options and are more inclined to attract customers.

First dish that arrived was the tonkotsu ramen.  I was just too hungry so I completely forgot about logging my food...
When "evaluating" the quality of ramen places, I always order tonkotsu.  Why? Just because it's my favourite type of ramen.  No particular reason, haha... Its broth is quite thick & creamy.  A bit too rich to my liking.  The portion was just right, but it lacks in topping.  Unlike the photo in the menu, it only had 3 scarce pieces of thinly sliced chashu, and 2 pieces of bamboo shoots.  Comparing this place to Santouka Ramen, also a chain store from Hokkaido, I would definitely vote for Santouka (if you dont' mind the long line-ups & the difficult parking situation in downtown).

With that said came our second dish - ika karaage (fried calamari).
It wasn't crispy, but it was decent.  I also liked how it came with the mayo dipping sauce instead of the tartar sauce that we typically get with fish 'n chips.  Nothing too mind-blowing in this dish, so there's nothing worth writing about.
Next came the dynamite rolls.  It definitely was no typical dynamite roll, sadly. The roll (diameter) was small - like the size of what we see in a california roll.  The nori is also wrapped on the outside instead of the rice.  Both the taste and texture of the roll was blend.  If I had not seen the deep-fried shrimp tail, I would not have known that the shrimp was tempura'd. Again, a slight disappointment here...

Next - This is what they called Mayo Rice.  It is minced chashu mixed with mayo, served on top of rice rolled up in nori.

I'm not a big fan of eating mayo in large dose (feels like spooning salad oil into my mouth, but that's another story). 

Quite an easy dish to make, but my mom thought that this was better than both of the previous 2 dishes. Not sure if I'd totally agree, but one thing for sure was that it wasn't blend tasting (the flavour of the mayo was strong)...

Last dish that arrived was the grilled pork ribs. The sauce was spicy and thick.  It's pretty tastey, but not something I would expect to have in a Japanese restaurant. The meat was tender and juicy and I was happily enjoying it until I started noticing that the meat might not be fully cooked (and maybe that's why it's still so tender & juicy?).  I showed it to the waitress who then showed it to the chief.  She came back saying that it is indeed fully cooked (despite i was having trouble separating the meat from the bone), but wanted to know if I would prefer to eat something else instead.  I said it was fine.  I was too full to order anything else anyways.

All-in-all, I wasn't blown away by the quality nor the taste of the food.  The service was great, and the people were friendly.  Although the portions are quite small, the food is not considered pricy (This dinner was $30). I would say, GO - for the atmosphere; GO - if you're looking for a nice cozy place to chill out at; GO - if you don't have crazy for sushi...; maybe just go for a drink? ;)

Tasting Journey #1 - Campagnolo

October 13, 2011 - 18:00

http://www.campagnolorestaurant.ca/

I've been looking forward to this day ever since I wrote this down as one of my 1-year personal goal.
To help achieve this goal, Zofia and I decided to start a restaurant club at work where we would meet every 3 weeks or so and try out new restaurants located in Vancouver.

Campagnolo is located near the train station (Main/Terminal) near a bunch of areas that are currently under construction. I've driven past that area a million times, but I don't think you would notice the restaurant unless you were on foot.
As soon as I walked in, I was surprised by how spacious the restaurant is.  The layout of the restaurant is quite interesting; The kitchen is located right in the centre of the restaurant, with big open spaces for tables on either ends of the restaurant.

For appetizers, we ordered Crispy Ceci (left) & Crostini (right). Crispy Ceci is by far, the best dish for the entire night. It is made of fried chick peas tossed with spinach, chili and some type of citrus sauce.  The chick peas were crispy and was really really good!  Crostini is chicken liver pate. Look at the size of the pate jar! We had to apply a very generous amount of chicken liver per bread, to even use up half of what's provided...and that threw the balance of the cripy bread-pate ratio off....

Rigatoni is what I had tonight.  This is a dish made of braised rabbit ragu mixed with pork, corn, and pasta, all topped off with a creamy sauce.
This is my first time trying rabbit meat. I was a bit hesitant at first, as rabbits are just too cute to be considered a food. Then I thought to myself, have I lost my adventurous spirit? Int he past, I did not think twice to try raw horse, whale or even bat! why am I now hesitant to try rabbit? It is a delicacy afterall isn't it? Anyways, so I tried it. Had I not known that it was rabbit, I would've guessed that the meat is a piece of very well salted pork! Though tastey, I'm still not a big fan of eating cuddly, furry friends, so you probably wouldn't see me splurge over rabbit meat anytime soon...

Lasagna was what Zofia had ordered tonight. It was rich in flavour, extremely tasty, but a bit too salty to my liking. At the end of the meal, Zofia provided the feedback to the waitress (not as a complaint, but as a feedback with good intention since we both felt it was too salty). The chief actually gave her a 40% discount on the dish! Pretty good service, I'd say!

Romano Pizza. I didn't try it, but it looked delicious. Minimal cheese as topping, the pizza had bright red tomato sauce, and lots of juicy looking olives. Portions are huge as well. It's interesting that they cut the pizza in 4's, and not in 8's. It was funny watching Michelle stuff such a huge slice in her mouth.
As we stood up to leave, I did notice that many of the other guests all ordered pizza. Definitely something I'd like to try next time if I do go back.

All in all, I really enjoyed dinner tonight. I liked how we got the chance to enjoy food and the opportunity to just converse casually. It's nice not to have to talk about work 24/7. I'm really looking forward to our next tastey journey!