Kintaro Ramen
Kintaro used to be my ramen nazi friend’s ultimate favorite place for ramen.. back in 2003. I haven’t been back to Kintaro for years, not since Benkei and Santouka opened.
This place was not as great as I remembered. First, we waited for about 10 minutes for a table, which was expected, but we also waited another 30 minutes for our noodles to come, way too slow for a small restaurant.
The Shio Ramen came with medium fat broth, and lean pork ( I almost forgot you get to choose the fattiness of the broth and meat). It was topped with bean sprouts, egg, bamboo shoots, and lots of green onions. First thing I tried was the broth, and I was greatly disappointed. It really just tasted like salt and water; there was no flavour, no depth. The pork was really dry. The only good thing about this ramen was noodles, they were cooked well, however it wasn’t good enough for me to eat more than half of it.
The Shoyu Ramen came with seed weed, bean sprouts, pork, bamboo shoots, and green onion. The first thing I tasted was also the broth, and it was again, disappointing! It tasted like soy sauce and water. I can’t imagine finishing a bowl of this because that’s a lot of sodium in that bowl.
I’m really not quite sure if this place just got worse or I remembered it to be better than it really was. The broth really needed to be better, it’s missing richness and flavour. It’s not worth lining up for this when Ramen Santouka is just a couple blocks away.
Kintaro
788 Denman St
Vancouver, BC V6G
(604) 682-7568
Who is this ramen nazi friend of yours? I can’t believe I used to like this place. I really hope that it was better back in the day and the quality just took a nosedive because I would be really disappointed in my taste buds otherwise. Santouka is the only ramen place in Vancouver worth going to!