The ramen market in downtown is so intense that unless you’re one of the popular choices like Ramen Jinya, Ramen Koika or Santouka ramen, it’s pretty hard to survive. Ramen Taka-notsume is hidden on Bidewell Street along Robson. Ramen Taka-notsume has a variety of ramen options and even have happy hour!
Food menu
Now when we first came here a year ago, a major complaint of ours was that there was no fan system or air conditioning in the tiny restaurant. With so many pots going off at once in the kitchen and summer heat going on outside, we didn’t have the most pleasant stay. We hoped that it would be different this time since the owner changed but it was just as warm on the inside but at least they had a fan going. Lucky for us, the outdoor patio seating was available so we were more than happy to sit outside.
Mega Dragon ramen
Grayson and I never get an opportunity to get a huge bowl of ramen so we took full advantage of our chance this time and ordered the Mega Dragon ramen with shoyu broth. The bowl came with 2 servings of ramen noodles, an egg, 3 slices of chashu the size of my hand, 2 pieces of fried chicken, bamboo shoots, beansprouts and carrots.
This bowl of ramen was definitely intense. The ramen noodles weren’t too think and were on the firm side. Grayson said the pieces of fried chicken were really good and we both appreciated the amount of veggies in the bowl. The not so great was the pieces of chashu which were quite dry and even soaking them in the broth didn’t help. We both expected the egg to be soft centered but it was hard-boiled and not seasoned. The broth itself was clear and didn’t have much depth of flavor to it besides soy sauce so it was disappointing as well.
Don’t get me wrong, this bowl of ramen was definitely filling and fun to eat with all the goodies inside, but it lacked several key elements of good ramen.
Mini chashu don
We also got a mini chashu with horseradish bowl to share. The chashu was dry as with the slices in the udon and there wasn’t much sauce on it either. As a matter of fact, I actually forgot we ordered the one with horseradish in it until this moment because I couldn’t taste it in the bowl. So with this, it was clear to us that the chashu here did not come close to any of the ones found at other ramen joints.
Happy hour menu
So what are my overall thoughts? It was definitely a memorable bowl of ramen because of it’s size and if you are a fan of ramen challenges, you get it for free if you finish it under 30 mins. On the other hand, while the ramen noodles were great, the chashu and broth did not impress us. There are definitely better ramen restaurants in the area but you can’t go wrong with 20% off happy hour!
