Hakata Ramen

Friends said there was a cute ramen place in Richmond, so I might as well drop by here since they said it was a good place for a bowl of Japanese Ramen :3
I love how small it is, it gets busy during lunch hours, but it was a good place to eat and talk though. Loved how their little TV in the middle of the restaurant plays all the old and new J-​pop songs. Couple songs popped up from the early 90s aka KinKi Kids, oldie Nakashima, and Chemistry too.
The décor was a bit half par, but w/​e you come here for the ramen anyways, who cares about anything else really: P
The ramen came quick. I ordered the Shoyu Ramen, the typical ramen I usually get when I go to a restaurant. A nice light usual type of broth, and chicken based. Loved it a lot. It had the perfect taste of ramen I always expected. The bowl wasn’t extremely big, but it was enough to just dive your face into it, and have a great time. LOL
Will come back again for another bowl of Ramen and listen to nostalgic J-​Pop.

Ramen in Richmond? I’m used to eating my ramen in downtown. I gave Hakata a try and am glad I did because they have a good soup. This place is not authentic, the noodles are not fresh but the condiments make up for it. Service is also rather slow because there was only one waitress who doubled as the cashier. However, its not a bad place overall.
I ordered the Tomato Ramen which came with a normal soup base with tomato flavouring (like those tomato sauce in chinese dishes). It came with half an egg, half a seaweed and corn. Soup tasted weird at first because it tastes like baked chinese pork chop rice but the taste became pretty amazing after I put fresh chopped garlic in and spicy flakes. I couldn’t stop eating eating it. The noodles were a bit hard and tasted like they were frozen beforehand, but it wasn’t bad enough to warrant a complain.
The chasu slices were very very tender and very fatty. I felt guilty eating the two slices, but seeing that the soup wasn’t oily, I felt less guilty. Ample corn and great boiled egg (half). The egg was soft inside and perfectly cooked. For less than $ 10, it was a great little bowl of ramen.
Their tonkasu ramen looked great too, and I’m sure to return to try that next time.
~Rated out of 10~
Ramen Texture: 5 (not fresh)
Soup Flavour: 6/​8(after adding fresh garlic and spicy flake)
Chasu/​Meat Taste: 9 (tender, fatty, generous portion)
Condiments: 10 (fresh chopped garlic/​spicy flakes)
Egg Quality: 9 (perfectly cooked — soft and semi cooked on the inside and perfectly cooked on the outside)
Portion Size: 8 (filled me up)
Price: 10 ($ 9.98 for a great bowl with half an egg? yes please!)
Parking: 8 (Has designated lot, but very busy)
Will I return? Yes!

I have tried coming here a few times since my first visit. Let’s just say I haven’t stepped foot In the place to comment on the food. Parking is a MAJOR issue since the lot is tiny and there are no street parking. Beware on lunch hour or weekends

As my friend was in for ramen, I had to find a joint that wasn’t insanely far from my office, but at the same time… something new that we have not tried… this was going to be tough as I had no idea where to go. Searching ramen… and in Richmond, this one came up, one review, a good experience and off we rolled to this destination. We missed the parking lot as we went to the bigger plaza next door, and eventually saw the sign for this place. We found parking in front of the restaurant, and it was pretty full, not packed… but looked good enough to walk in.
It is your standard looking no frills ramen joint when you step in. Some attached benching seating along the sides of the restaurant, dark wooden Japanese looking tables and chairs (like something you would see in a cheap Sushi joint), a tv in the back playing soundtracks of animé series (I saw Slam Dunk, Gundam… and Naruto while I was there) which I found weird. probably to make it more Japanese in nature. as this clearly seemed like a Chinese place more than anything. We were quickly seated and decided to order a bowl of ramen each… I went with the miso but really wasn’t wanting anything heavy… at the same time this is ramen, this is going to be filling. We also added a side order of gyoza to pick at.
The food didn’t take too long to arrive from our table… and looking at the bowl, it was topped off with bean spouts, some long fine cut green onions, a good flat piece of chasiu, a big square piece of seaweed half submerged in the bowl. half sticking out like a sail of a boat, and a random piece of fish cake floating to the side. The broth, while examining this closely… had nice fatty bubbles floating at the top, let’s see if this thing was going to weigh me down? Surprisingly enough, the broth was light in taste, not the heavy one’s people are used to in many tonkatsu style ramen joints (which is almost like everyone in the Lower Mainland) but it wasn’t bad. very clean in taste. The ramen had a slight chew. I wouldn’t call it al dente, but it was close to that. Everything melded quite well in this bowl where I even drank some of the soup, the chasui wasn’t overly fat. probably more lean, but not tough or overcooked to the point of tough.
Not too long after eating around ¹⁄₃ of the bowl our gyoza came, dainty little things, nice thin wrapping pan fried to the point of a small caramalized build-​up on the flat side, that was shown face up for presentation, the meat inside was still moist, and for under $ 4 for 5 of them… it’s a good side filler.
As for the place itself, it is very basic, the service was pretty good, and the food didn’t leave me in a dying coma state going back to work. Add another ramen joint to Richmond, an alternative, and located in a place where you can actually find parking, if you can get by the weird animé videos playing on the tv screen, and not being truly Japanese. from my feel of this place and the workers, you should be good. Not too expensive at all… the most expensive bowl of ramen was $ 11… and they do have bento boxes… a quick solution to food without lining up at a foodcourt, we will see how this one holds up over time.

It was a quiet night and I have a feeling that it could be better if not for that parking lot. The surprise of the meal was the gyoza, which I would give it a 4 stars. It was pretty good. All three of us liked it.
Overall the soup base was a nice contrast to other ramen shops that make those heavy base fatty soups. Hakata’s was thick and wasn’t fatty. I can attest that even the Tan Tan ramen was lighter in fattiness and flavour than the G-​mens. I liked it. I’d give it a notch up over the G’s for that. Mainly because, I don’t want to eat so much fat and salt and I’m liking foods that have less bang of flavour if I’m going to have to eat a whole bowl of it.
The noodles were chewy, the toppings average and that’s ok.
Again, the best thing was the gyoza and that was a very very nice surprise.
I hope to have the same when I come back again.