Yah Yah Yah Ramen is a ramen joint I’ve heard good things about, but haven’t tried because fatty ramen broth wreaks havoc on my chronic digestive problems. The fiance and I used to love going for ramen, so I’ve been trying to find places that I am able to enjoy that offer a vegan based broth too!

I didn’t know that Yah Yah Yah Ramen was an authentic Japanese chain, with a few locations in Japan. We came for an early dinner on a weekend because I knew this place was popular, and we didn’t want to wait.

Pandemic wise, it felt clean here with half their tables closed. We noticed a clipboard for contact tracing but they weren’t actually using it…

They also do not use any MSG in their broth, and list out the exact measurements of the ingredients here.

Shio ramen: The fiance decided on a shio ramen, which is always the best choice in my opinion. The shio is the most simple so you can really determine if the broth is good or not.

The fiance absolutely loved his shio ramen and wouldn’t stop raving about it for the next few days. I think we’ve found our new to go ramen place! The ramen was delicious – rich, creamy, and very flavourful. It was the perfect bowl of comforting ramen that nurtured your soul.

Vegan ramen: (Sept 2021: See update to vegan ramen below) My vegan ramen was not bad as well! It came with corn, edamame beans, tofu, and wood ear mushrooms. Compared to other vegan ramen I have had, the toppings here were the most generous. I also added a ramen egg which was delicious and had a slightly gooey yolk.

The vegan ramen had a good richness to it and was flavourful. Spinach noodles are the normal accompaniment but I asked for the regular ramen noodles with a firm thickness. The noodles were cooked well and firm.

Chicken karage: We also got a small side order of the chicken karage. This was delicious! The chicken karage was served piping hot and very crunchy.

Our first visit to Yah Yah Yah Ramen was wonderful and I have no doubt we will be back when we are in Richmond. The food and service was great, I can see why it is so popular here.

Update (June 2021): Unfortunately, they changed the vegan ramen bowl! I was really disappointed because the new vegan bowl looks quite sad and measly. I wish they kept the tofu, corn, and edamame because they are filling. The broth and noodles are the same.

With that said, I’ll continue to come here because it’s the husband’s favourite spot, but lower my expectations for the vegan noodles.

Update (Sept 2021): Due to the disappointing vegan ramen, I thought it’d be a good time to try the salmon don. This is the combo add on, which is smaller than the usual size. The usual size comes with two pieces of salmon. The salmon don was simple, but not bad. The salmon was pan fried and had a slight crisp to it.

After discovering Ramen Danbo‘s delicious vegan ramen (their regular ramen was great too!), I went on a vegan ramen hunt. For those uninterested in vegan reviews, keep reading because we also had a regular meat dish too.

I was really happy to see that Kokoro Tokyo Mazesoba had added some vegan additions to their menu! I knew the fiance would love this sort of noodle, and now there was finally something on the menu that I could eat as well that wouldn’t upset my stomach.

I remember when Kokoro Tokyo Mazesoba first opened in 2018, Vancouver went absolutely nuts for it!

I wanted to try as well but due to the rich and fatty nature of the noodle sauce, I knew my chronic stomach problems wouldn’t be able to handle it. Also, no I am not vegan. My stomach can’t handle rich, animal fat based ramen broths so I can only have vegan broths which are better for my stomach.

We weren’t sure how busy the restaurant would be these days, but we went early around 5pm just incase. Fortunately, it wasn’t busy at all and we were seated right away.

Kokoro was one of the few restaurants I’ve been to that have asked for contact tracing so I was impressed with that.

Niku mazesoba: The fiance went with the pork belly mazesoba. He found it delicious – very rich, creamy, and fatty. I had the smallest nibble (quite sad, really) and I found that small bite to be really good.

The noodles were wrapped with the seaweed and green onion once mixed, which elevated the rich and fatty flavour of the pork belly even more. The pork belly was also very flavourful and tender. The fiance’s only complaint would be that this was pretty salty, which I also did see mentioned on other reviews.

I read other reviews and their menu advertised that you could get some rice after to soak up the sauce, once you’re done with the noodles. However, there was no sauce left once the fiance finished his noodles so it made us wonder if they gave us less sauce this time?

Vegan ramen: The vegan ramen was made with some kind of creamy soybean broth. Overall, I found it alright. There was a nice creaminess to it with a slight richness. It looks like it would be spicy, but it actually wasn’t.

The redness came from what I am guessing is tomato, since the broth was pretty tomato-ey.

In addition, the vegan ramen came with two pieces of firm, sliced, tofu which was slightly grilled. There was a generous amount of onions, corn, and wood ear mushroom. It was not bad for a vegan dish but I prefer Ramen Danbo‘s more. However, I wouldn’t mind having it again if someone suggested coming here.

Overall, our visit to Kokoro Tokyo Mazesoba was pleasant. The mazesoba was delicious and the vegan option was alright too. We wouldn’t mind coming back again for it. They also opened a new location by Lougheed Mall earlier this year.

Ramen Danbo has been on my list for awhile now, because they offer both regular ramen and vegan ramen! I loooove ramen but unfortunately, had to stop eating it due to my chronic stomach problems. However, I wanted to see if vegan ramen would be any good, and I’ve heard really great things about Ramen Danbo.

The last time I had ramen was 2 years ago at Marutama, how delicious that was before my stomach problems went even more downhill (I did go to a couple of places like Jinya and Ramen Gaoh but didn’t order a ramen dish)!

Ramen Danbo is an authentic ramen shop with locations in both Kitsilano and downtown. The Kitsilano location was their first location outside of Japan!

One of the worst things about having ramen is the line up. Most authentic ramen joints are always lined up! Because we hate waiting in line, we went to the Kitsilano location about 10 minutes before they opened and were seated immediately.

The restaurant was pretty small as most ramen places are, and they removed half of their tables due to COVID. As with most restaurants, they have a QR code that you scan to see the menu.

Ramen Danbo has a lot of customization options: noodle thickness, noodle firmness, thickness of broth, amount of lard (if non-vegan), and amount of karadare (spicy sauce).

Vegan shio ramen: I chose thin noodle, firm, standard thickness, and a little bit of karadare.

I’m pretty sure I confused the poor waiter by asking for a slice of pork and egg with my vegan soup. Oops! Anyways, I found the vegan ramen to be absolutely delicious. The broth was very flavourful and creamy, with so much umami flavour.

I couldn’t get enough of it. It wasn’t as fatty as the fiance’s regular ramen, but it still satisfied my ramen craving and I’d come back. In addition, the pork slice was tender and soaked up the broth well. The soft boiled egg was a nice touch too, ramen eggs are delicious.

Personally, I prefer my ramen broth as simple as possible to enjoy the full umami flavour of the soup which is why I usually get the shio ramen. Because of that, I wouldn’t order the karadare again because the spiciness distracted the broth.

Don’t get me wrong, I love spice and hot sauce but I prefer my ramen simple.

Classic chashu men: The fiance went with the thin noodle, firm, strong thickness, rich lard, and no karadare. The broth was very flavourful and rich.

It was the perfect bowl of comforting noodles to warm your soul. However, he loves his ramen as rich and fat as possible (to the point where you’re drinking straight up lard LOL), so he would go up a level to the maximum amount of richness, aka the extra rich level.

The chashu ramen came with a whooping 6 pieces of pork as well.

We enjoyed our visit so much that we decided to try delivery. However, the delivery experience wasn’t as good.

The portion was smaller and although they only had firm noodles as an option, the noodles were pretty soft. I wouldn’t get delivery again and would recommend going to the restaurant.

We will definitely be back!