Priscilla Liang

Life can be very simple. Laugh more. Be happy. Eat good food!
  • rss
  • Home
  • About
  • Archives
  • Sitemap

Motomachi Shokudo 元町食堂 ~ Ramen.Vancouver

priss | August 5, 2010

There are also a ton of reviews out there on Motomachi Shokudo 元町食堂, but I honestly haven’t heard of them before!  It turned out that it’s owned by the same guys @ Kintaro 金太郎, and it’s only a few stores down from Kintaro towards West Georgia.  So my theory of it not being that well-known is because: based on where it’s located, most people are “blocked” by Kintaro 金太郎, Benkei 弁慶, and Santouka 山頭火 .  =p

Before diving into Motomachi Shokudo, let me tell ya how I think of the other 3 ramen places first.

Kintaro 金太郎: ♥
I used to love their ramen.  Certainly lots of good memories there with beau.  But as the other new ones kept popping up with nicer ambiance, I’ve switched.  =p

Benkei 弁慶: ♥
I still remember how I raved about this one to fellow foodies, and how I saved a copy of their recipe of the yummy soup base from The Province.  But as soon as they’ve opened up the other 3 locations in Vancouver, their quality went the opposite way.  The chashu (fatty cuts of pork that are braised over low heat for a very long time) was less, noodle was less… totally not the right way to run a business.  Too bad.

Santouka 山頭火: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Beau and I both love Santouka!  Every time I went I forgot ma Lumix GF1.  So no pictures of their carefully prepared ramen or the glass they put between the kitchen and the seating area to give a cooler, more comfortable experience for us fellow ramen fanatics.   But do imagine chewy noodles, good quality chashu, and delicious soup base.  Their ramen is the closest to the ones I had in Tokyo.  They did close for a good number of weeks shortly after they opened, due to mechanical issues they said.

So here we go. Motomachi Shokudo 元町食堂!

One note to make is that their soup is made with organic chicken and fresh organic vegetables.  They say their “BBQ pork is barley-fed” and the ramen is served with well-balanced flavours of the earth, ocean, and culture.  No Chemical Seasonings they say!

I like that.  It’s their niche in a city saturated with ramen shops!

What beats having a hot bowl of ramen with cold beer eh????

A very cute little place.  I like it.

Look at what I had!
Bamboo-charcoal dark miso ramen ~ $9.75
angel-haired Japanese leek, menma (bamboo shoots), soft-boiled local organic egg, green onion, BBQ pork, thinly sliced chili pepper, white pepper, seasonal green vegetable, chili pepper power.
The verdict?  WOW!   ♥ x 721!  Nice presentation.  The only thing is it’s a bit on the oily side.

So what’s bamboo charcoal?  They say it’s a well-known digestive supplement in Chinese medicine (apparently!).  I have no idea that it’s edible.  -_-”  Is it really?  “It has also been a traditional remedy in many regions of Japan.  The numerous pores in bamboo charcoal absorb toxins from the body when it goes through the digestive functions and relieving skin problems, and it’s excellent for dieting and anti-aging.”   HmmmMmmm, whatever, it surely was tasty!!

Beau’s: Shio Ramen ~ $8.95
Soup uses natural salt imported from either the Himalayas or Mongolia.
Beau likes it a lot.  =)

What do I think?
美味しい!  We really enjoyed it, even thought it was like 30 degrees outside.  =p   I especially like their healthy concept with organic ingredients as I personally use a lot, i.e. from bo ba’s gigantic garden!  Soup is very tasty, and if a ramen place can’t even do their noodles right, they shouldn’t call them ramen. Motomachi Shokudo definitely has make the mark on yummy ramen.
We’ll be back!
740 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC V6G2L5

Motomachi Shokudo on Urbanspoon

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Categories
FUUD!, Happiness, Restaurant Reviews
Comments rss
Comments rss
Trackback
Trackback

« Baru Latino Restaurante ~ Columbian.Peruvian.Ecuadorian House Party Recipes »

6 Responses to “Motomachi Shokudo 元町食堂 ~ Ramen.Vancouver”

  1. KK says:
    August 7, 2010 at 11:44 am

    looks yummy!~ let’s go there someday 😀

  2. priss says:
    August 8, 2010 at 12:38 am

    Yessss let’s do it!!!!

  3. Yuki says:
    November 4, 2010 at 9:32 am

    Aaah, so you’ve worked in Japan too! Hence the JP text 😀

    Ramen shops are everywhere these days but so far I like Motomachi best — I guess you must have had good experiences at Santouka, because although the service was top-notch (Motomachi’s girls were a little lethargic), the noodles were so dry that I lost my will to eat after the first mouthful.
    What intrigues me though is the culture around ramen — ramen magazines, ramen movies (Ramen Girl with the late Britney Murphy rocks). It plays a huge part in 南極料理人 (amazing movie), where a top researcher goes crazy due to ramen shortage, and claims his body is made up of 50% ramen.

    Nice blog!

  4. priss says:
    November 5, 2010 at 12:29 am

    Hello Yuki!

    Thanks for visiting my blog! No I’ve never worked in Japan, but I’ve taken private lessons from my Sensei. Just too bad now that I don’t have time to continue… I love learning new languages! =D Yea I really enjoyed Motomachi and I haven’t been back to Santouka since they re-opened after they mysteriously closed for a while. Too bad that the noodles are dry now. =( It always makes me sad when yummy restaurants fail to keep up their quality.

    P.S. Nice blog too! You can draw gal!

  5. brad says:
    August 26, 2011 at 4:33 pm

    Hi do you have a copy of the soup recipe from the province? I’d like to have a recipe for a good pork based ramen soup.
    And it takes people to keep on top of eating establishments to see that they maintain good food practices.

  6. priss says:
    September 24, 2011 at 11:50 am

    Hi Brad! So sorry for da late reply but I don’t have the recipe no more. And I tried googling for it and searching The Province’s website to look for the article… No luck! Should have typed it up in here! Argh!

Leave a Reply

Click here to cancel reply.

Search ma blog

Recent Posts

  • Easy Hong-Kong Style BBQ Pork 超簡易自家制港式叉燒
  • Simple Whole Roasted Chicken with Dijon-Roasted Purple Cabbage
  • Asparagus Quiche with a Spaghetti Squash Crust
  • Pizzadillas
  • Fastest Way to Cook Congee 極速煮粥法
  • Japanese cheesecake
  • Braised sweet soy chicken wings, sauteed kale with garlic, sauteed zucchini and summer squash
  • Kale, anchovies, tomato, garlic spaghettini
  • “Claypot” Chicken and Shiitake Mushrooms with Rice – 北菇滑雞煲仔飯
  • Braised Beef Noodle Soup & Saison Dupont

Categories

  • Europe
  • FUUD!
  • Haiti
  • Happiness
  • random
  • Recipes
  • Restaurant Reviews
  • What's for Dinner?

Ma Cloud~

anniversary appies baby food beef birthday braised beef noodle breakfast Canvas Vancouver cheesecake chicken chocolate dessert dinner donate easy bread easy breakfast flash mob vancouver French Gift Ideas Haiti Happiness high tea vancouver Indian food Issey Miyake Japanese main course Malaysian miso motto muffins Naan noodle party recipes pasta Pixocasso potatoes quiche rice Shahi Paneer soup spelt flour squid Thai wedding world cup 2010
Copyright © Priscilla Liang 2019