Tonkotsu Ramen $9 3/5
Noodles - harder than average ramen. I like hard nodes and didn't find them overly hard. However, my friend said it was too hard for him.
Meat - 2 thick pieces of sliced pork. Too bad they were pan-fried and overcooked. At first, I thought the Tonkotsu Ramen might not come with meat because the Chashu Ramen says (+2 slices of pork).
Soup - Less than 1/2 filled. Not sure if it was their style or they were just mean. The menu says half size ramen soup for $2. The soup was bland which made me try the 3 sauces on the side (spicy sauce, ramen sauce, and chill oil)
Ramen Sauce - more like a garlic sauce
Chili Oil - spicy oil but not much flavour
At the end, I decided to go back to the spicy sauce.
Bomb (combo +$1.5) 4.5/5 - 2 rice balls instead of 1. Loaded with lots of seaweed. You will like this if you like seaweed. The rice was too moist. I would give this a 5 if they were roasted.
Buta Don (combo +$4.5) 4.5/5 - above my expectation! Pork belly comes with the unagi sauce. There were quite a bit of sauce and I wish there were more rice. This made it saltier than how I wanted (but still good).
Service 2.5/5 - They said they only had hot tea and cold water. Hot water was not an option. One of us already had lunch so we ordered 2 noodles +sides to share. Our server did not seem to be very happy with that. He came back a few times with a menu and asked if we want to order anything else. We would if there were some other appetizers or sushi but there were nothing to choose from.
I used to come to this area a lot and it changed quite a bit. A lot of their customers came alone for a Saturday lunch. The seats were very uncomfortable. A cushion or a futon would help a lot! I understand this is suppose to be fast food. I thought this place was famous for ramen but the rice dishes were way better. I would not mind going back from them! Maybe I would try miso ramen next time. I don't think their tonkotsu ramen is anything close to those on Robson yet.
