Ramen and I: a love story. I swear, I was meant to be born in Japan. I just LOVE ramen. I might even be IN love with it. OK, calm down. But seriously. My token Asian friend (everyone needs one of those fo realz) has made it his mission, nay, his life goal (ya, it goes far) to make me try every ramen in Montreal.
We've done Kinton (just no!), Misoya (aight) and Yokato Yokabai which is pretty much the epitome of ramen. If I could eat Yokato's ramen every day, I would. It was now Ramen Ya's turn. Jer told me on our way there (sheesh!) that it wasn't the greatest ramen. He told me I needed to try more ramen so this is why he was bringing me there. It felt kind of like I was training to be a ninja or somethin'. OR somethin'.
Ramen Ya has two rooms, lanterns everywhere, small wooden tables, and looks like I've just entered Japan. YES the whole country. We get seated right away in the ramen side of the resto (the other is the isakaya). And then we wait aaaaand we wait some more. We finally order (yes!) and then well, it's more waiting. Didn't they get the memo about QUICK Asian restaurant service? I guess not.
Beef with enoki and chives in teriyaki sauce. The sauce was f*cking amazing. Effin awesome. Seriously great. Point is, when all was eaten, Jer and I looked at one another, and by staring each other in the eyes, you could see that we were both thinking about licking that plate. The meat was very flavourful but a bit on the dry side (daaaaamn you to hell, dry meat!). The enoki were, like the meat, full of that yummy goodness, but like shitake, enoki have to be cooked just the right amount of time or else its near inedible. Near. Of course we ate it. Of course. The sesame and the chives added some texture and some tang to the dish. I just really wanted to lick that plate. Next time, I'm lickin' the plate.
Ramen: spicy beef! Jer had told me time and time again that this was part of me testing all the ramen in MTL for my blog and that I had to, in my quest of finding the perfect ramen, eat some bad ramen too. Sheesh dude. I guess he wanted me to hate it before I freaking LOVED it! The ONLY thing I didn't like in there were the obviously-store-bought noodles. Basically, they called my restaurant (where we make AWESOME sushi and not-so-awesome ramen) and asked us where we bought our noodles. Ugh. No. The broth was thick and very pork-y and reminded me of the Montreal king of ramen's broth, Yokato Yokabai. Let's face it, every ramen must be compared to the one I ate at Yokato. The beef was perfect. PER-FECT! It was spicy, it was tasty, and most importantly, it wasn't dry! It's actually quite the rare occurrence to have beef ramen: 82 % (just an estimate :) ) of the time it is pork. And then add another 14% for chicken. The rest is beef. Maybe. The egg was perfect. It was all very harmonious in my mouth and my taste buds were very satisfied.
Service was on the slow side unfortunately. Damn it, I just hate slow service. Especially when you think it'll be quick! Damn you slow Asian service! Said no one ever. But it does apply in this case. Took a while to get food and I was pretty much falling asleep. Water was not refilled when, well, we totes needed it with all the spices and what have yous.
And now, the scores!
Service: 6
Food: 8
Service was on the slow side unfortunately. Damn it, I just hate slow service. Especially when you think it'll be quick! Damn you slow Asian service! Said no one ever. But it does apply in this case. Took a while to get food and I was pretty much falling asleep. Water was not refilled when, well, we totes needed it with all the spices and what have yous.
And now, the scores!
Service: 6
Food: 8
Let's just say if Yokato Yokabai is closed or full that day, imma gonna hit up Ramen Ya!
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