G-men Ramen Shop

G-MEN Ramen Shop



Tonkotsu Miso Ramen


Restaurant: G-MEN Ramen Shop

Cuisine: Japanese/Ramen
Date dined: July 20, 09

Area: Richmond
#1101-3778 Sexsmith Road
Price Range: $10-20

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5
Service: 3
Ambiance: 3
Overall: 5
Additional comments:
Specializes in big bowls of authentic Japanese ramen noodles
Serves mini donburis and gyozas as appetizers
Can't select richness of brother/fattiness of BBQ pork
Small/limited menu
Not homemade noodles

Started by owners of Gyoza King Chicco Cafe & Naan Chu,
Japanese servers, Japanese chefs, popular to Japanese diners
Closed on Tuesday and Wednesday
Line-ups, whole party must be in attendance in order to be seated
Busy/crowded all the time
Extra charge for green tea
Free parking
**Recommendation: Tonkotsu Miso Ramen, Wasabi Nori Ontama Mini Don, half cooked free-range egg (Ajitama)

It took a long time to try this restaurant because it's closed on Tuesday and Wednesday and there's usually a line-up. They make the broth on those days and they make enough to last the week because it's a very time consuming process to cook such a rich and flavourful broth. The broth is definitely not from a can, box, or powder.

Unlike the ever so popular Kintaro in Vancouver - you can't choose light, medium or rich stock, or fatty or lean pork - each ramen bowl kind of comes with its own standard broth. The Japanese "char siu" or bbq pork they serve is the standard fatty pork. G-MEN's standard broth is comparable to Kintaro's "Rich" broth. If you want something lighter go for the "Special ToriGara Shio Ramen" which is a light chicken based stock or try their summer special "Summer Hiyashi Ramen" - a cold noodle dish with all the fixings and a light shoyu aka "sweet soy sauce" based vinaigrette or dressing.

To see my G-Men Ramen Shop - Review #2 follow the link: http://tinyurl.com/yzorv87

On the table:
**Wasabi Nori Ontama Mini Don 6/6

You must try this! It's mini, but still filling as an appetizer. I'd order it anyways because it's so good. The free range egg is AMAZING and completes this dish! It's half cooked and it takes a true chef to make it this perfectly.


To eat: Mix everything together...break the egg and mix until everything is thoroughly combined. I like mine when the egg is in smaller pieces, but not bitty either. The rice becomes creamy with the help of the egg yolk and seaweed sauce - it's almost like a Japanese style Risotto. I love the hint of wasabi you get too. Salty with the wasabi kick!
Note: For the photo, I accidentally started mixing it before I took the picture - so the presentation is not representable of what was originally served. My bad!...I was too excited to eat it! After you try it, you won't blame me.
Gyoza 2/6
Ok these are their "Famous Gyozas" - but to be honest I don't really know why. I thought they were quite standard. I was really excited to try them because they're
"famous" and its on all the menus at each of their restaurants...so I was a bit disappointed.
**Tonkotsu Miso Ramen 5/6
The soup base is really good. It's comparable to the rich stock at Kintaro - the bowls are just as big. The toppings include bbq pork (fatty), seaweed, black wood ear mushroom (a crunchy mushroom that comes in thin black strips), and green onion. It is a hearty bowl of ramen - I do like it with an egg (Ajitama) and bamboo shoots, but the bamboo shoots isn't an option there. You need to pay extra if you want the egg too. The focus of this is definitely the pork broth.
Summer Hiyashi Ramen 5/6
This is great on a hot day and only available during the summer - so don't miss it, because its still worth a try. It's a cold ramen dish marinated in a sweet soy sauce known as "Shoyu" with all the fixings: julienne ham, half the soft boiled egg (ajitama), fried onions, seaweed, black wood ear mushrooms, cucumbers, and green onion.





I love the texture of this dish. Nice and crunchy, almost like a salad, but you still get full because of the noodles and the egg! The cucumber and dressing make it refreshing. Noet: it's only half an egg though, so savour it! Mix everything together and make sure you have a bit of everything with every bite. They cut everything into the same size, which is how it should be done for a dish like this. It makes its easy to enjoy all the textures and the flavours match really well.


Note: Before mixing this dish you may want to keep the fried onions separate or they get soggy quickly.