Miki Japanese Ramen

So last week, I was lucky enough to get a spot at a tasting event at Miki Japanese Ramen held by my friends over at Chow Times. Apparently there was quite a demand for the 34 available seats to taste some of the new menu. I mean, that’s to be expected considering dinner was on for a special price of $5 with the added bonus of meeting some fellow Vancouver foodies in our natural environment.

Miki Japanese Ramen is a small restaurant located at 5212 Kingsway. I probably isn’t as difficult to find as one might expect but beware, Google Maps will send you several blocks in the wrong direction…something I found out the hard way. The inside is bright and clean. It doesn’t quite look the part yet in my opinion but the decor says home-made and family-operated.

The menu was selected for us, featuring an assortment of items that were largely the same for everyone apart from what soup we wanted. But then again, they could’ve served us anything and we would’ve probably still had a good time. Our table (the middle one) was probably the rowdiest as I questioned the table as to whether or not they would eat a penguin if they were told penguins were delicious as well as other animals one might find at a zoo rather than on your dinner plate. While one of my table mates was particularly put off by the thought of eating one of the stars of Happy Feet, the rest of us said “Hells yeah, I’d eat the heck out of a penguin…” Several of us even discussed the possibility of meeting up again when such a delicacy could be procured.

Anyways, back to the food we actually ate…

We started with a salad of edamame and seaweed, dressed with what I think is a bit of peanut oil and soy. The seaweed is well marinated and delicious, despite sticking to your teeth a little bit and there’s no bad way to serve edamame. It’s one of those perfect foods that taste great and is great for you. The dish was tasty but I hope you get a little more when ordering on a regular day. The serving was tiny and it looks like it’s usually $3.95.

Next came a plate of various toppings you might get with your ramen. From the left to right is bonito flakes, lightly grilled tofu, green beans, beef tongue, a grilled ground pork skewer and a chicken skewer.

The chicken was rather pedestrian…nothing special there. The pork patty was good but lacked that extra flavor. When I had something similar at Torigen in Tokyo, this particular skewer was topped with a sauce each time whether it’s made from fish roe or a wasabi mayo. A sharp wasabi mayo would’ve made the difference there.

The beef tongue was disappointing. Given the choice between a great sirloin cut or a top quality beef tongue, I’d go with the tongue each time. I know it grosses some people out but the tongue is just about the most tender and delicious part of the cow when cooked right. Unfortunately, the tongue was sliced far too thin so it was on the dry side and lacked serious flavor.

This is my miso ramen. I seemed to be the only person ordering the miso broth while everyone else seemed to opt for the shio or shoyu. The bowl seemed to be missing a lot of the elements I usually expect in a bowl of ramen including the hard boiled egg with the creamy yolk, the bits of corn as well as…well, where’s the meat? I don’t know about you but when I judge a bowl of ramen, it’s the sum of the parts…and a lot of those parts seemed to be missing. They certainly gave us a lot of the bamboo shoots, though, which I like.

If they just wanted to showcase the noodles, they were cooked well with a nice bit of chew to them. The broth was tasty but I didn’t feel the need to finish it all like I do at some places. It’s not that it wasn’t good but when I down all the broth, it’s usually because there’s also bits of…stuff…still left in it.

Here are the shio and shoyu broths as well. Yes, it is very difficult to tell the difference.

After our meal, we got a mini dessert as well: some vanilla ice cream with a strawberry coulis. I didn’t get any details on the coulis so I just assume it’s something they made in a blender. Good but hard to mess up ice cream.

Overall, some of the food needed some tweaking to be especially good. There were good elements here and there but nothing particularly memorable and I wasn’t blown away by anything. However, I’m willing to give them another shot since serving 34 people all at the same time with such a small staff (I think there were 3 people working the entire time) means there has to be some hiccups here and there. Our tofu was cold and the meat wasn’t at a particularly good temperature either.

If it wasn’t so far away from Richmond, I might head back. I still might if I’m in the area since I like supporting small local restaurants but with giants like Kintaro, Benkei, etc dominating the field, Miki has some work to do before they’re able to make their mark on the ramen landscape here in Vancouver.

in Food and Fine Dining