Sunday, January 9, 2011

Sanpachi

I've been hearing and reading a lot of things about the new ramen restaurant that opened near Robson on Bute and was curious to try it to see how it compares to all other ramen places in Vancouver. There are so many in Vancouver!

When we got to the restaurant, it wasn't busy and we were seated right away. They have the standard 3 broths that is offered at all ramen places: Miso, Shio, and Shoyu and they have 2 other varieties: Yatai and Tonkotsu. There are also combos for the ramen where you can get a side of gyoza, cha-shu rice bowl or nori-mayo (rice with mayo wrapped in seaweed) added to the ramen. Extra toppings include ajinegi (From the look of the photo, I think those are leeks or onions. I'm not quite sure...), butter, extra cha shu, corn, an egg (or what they called a "Tasty Egg"), bamboo shoots and seaweed. The extra toppings are about $1 - $2 extra.

I ordered the Negi Ramen with Miso Broth (leeks & onions) and a side of corn and an egg. My boyfriend ordered the Tonkotsu (pork bones) with the Mini-cha shu Rice Bowl combo and added an egg. Originally, he wanted the gyoza combo but couldn't get it because they were out of gyoza!



Negi Ramen (Leeks & Ramen), Miso Broth

The ramen had leeks and onions in it and it was good with the noodles. The noodles at Sanpachi are the thicker kind and are thicker than Kintaro and Santouka. The noodles reminded me of the noodles at Ezogiku.

The soup broth I didn't really like. It was a bit salty and I didn't really taste the miso flavour of the soup. The cha-shu was average. I like the cha-shu better at Benkei. Overall, this ramen was just okay.



Tonkotsu Ramen

The soup broth for this ramen is a lighter broth. I tried a bit of this broth and prefer this one over the miso one. This one had a bit more flavour.

My boyfriend thought that the ramen was just okay. He thinks that the ramen at Benkei is better than here.








Side of Corn and Egg

I wanted some corn and an egg to go with my ramen. The corn and egg was an extra $1 each. The egg was slightly over cooked... =(










Mini Cha-Shu Rice Bowl

This rice bowl had pieces of cha-shu on top of rice with mayo on top. All I could taste in this rice bowl was the mayo. There was so much mayo! I didn't really like this rice bowl.

















Overall Impressions: My boyfriend and I didn't really like the ramen at Sanpachi all too much. He still prefers Santouka's ramen and I still prefer Kintaro's ramen. The broth at Sanpachi was a bit salty and didn't have much taste to it and the noodles were pretty average. I was a bit sad that they ran out of gyoza that night =(

Sanpachi
770 Bute Street
Vancouver, BC
604.609.9938
Sanpachi on Urbanspoon

2 comments:

  1. Hi,

    I had the same problem with the gyoza - they ran out.

    You found the broth salty? Hmmmm....mine was sort of bland actually....inconsistency issues perhaps? Anyway, don't think I'll ever go back.

    Peter

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  2. Hi Peter! I found the miso broth to be salty... The tonkotsu one wasn't as salty but it was still a bit salty for my liking. I'll probably won't be going back unless all other ramen places in Vancouver are closed :)

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