It has been a long time since I’ve been to a ramen place! After coming back from Vegas, the fiance was craving some ramen. We haven’t been to Jinya Ramen yet so he suggested we try it out!

As expected with most ramen places, there was a wait. After putting down our phone number, we were told that it would be about a 30 to 40 minute wait so we went across the street to Wal-Mart to kill time. I received a text about 30 minutes later saying that our spot was ready.

Jinya tonkotsu black ramen: The fiance went with his go-to broth, tonkotsu. This particular bowl came with thin noodles, but in retrospect, he would have preferred the thick noodles instead.

The broth was rich, fatty, and flavourful aka everything you’d expect in ramen. We found it to be over priced though, at $17 at the time of writing. For comparison at Ramen Gaoh, a bowl goes for $12.

So although it was delicious, we felt that it wasn’t really worth the price, and some other Yelp reviewers have said that too.

Jinya bun: They were advertising the Jinya bun, so why not give it a try? I enjoyed it more than my entree. The steamed bun was very soft. The chashu was very tender and melted in my mouth.

In addition, the cucumber gave the bun a nice, refreshing crunch. The Japanese mayo was the cherry on top – I love Japanese mayo!

Tokyo curry rice: I was craving some Japanese curry, so I decided to get the Tokyo curry rice. It was delicious, but tasted like something I could easily cook at home for a much cheaper price. They probably just use the Japanese curry packets.

There also wasn’t much ground chicken, which was disappointing. I liked that it was comforting and warm for that rainy evening, but again, it didn’t feel worth it for someone who makes Japanese curry at home often.

We left satisfied as the food was tasty, but both felt that it was overpriced for what it was. There are plenty of other ramen places in town which are just as delicious, but cheaper.

It was one of those nights where the fiance and I wanted to go out for dinner, but had no idea where. After an indecisive hour of debating and browsing, we stumbled across Nabebugyo.

Both of us were in the mood for hot pot so we decided to check this place out!

Nabebugyo is located on Cambie and 16th. I’ve driven past this restaurant many times throughout the years and have always wondered if it was good or not.

Nabebugyo specializes in individualized Japanese hot pot, otherwise known as shabu shabu. They only serve hot pot here – no sushi, sashimi, etc.

Shabu shabu: I decided to go with the traditional broth. My hot pot came with beef, mushrooms, cabbage, tofu, udon, and rice. I was told by the waitress that the broth would be plain, and asked if it was okay. I said yes but didn’t realize exactly -how- plain it would be.

The ‘broth’ was just boiled water with a piece of kelp inside. On the menu, it said the kelp was supposed to give the water a slight umami flavour. This was not the case though… It just tasted like boiled water.

To give it more flavour, I tried to cook all the rare beef first. That didn’t really help. The fiance ended up giving me some of his broth which was a lot better. It also came with ponzu and sesame sauce which gave it more flavour.

Sukiyaki hot pot: The fiance made a better choice than I did with the sukiyaki hot pot. His broth actually had flavour and wasn’t just water. It was a sweetened soy sauce broth which was yummy.

His ingredients were the same as mine, but he opted for pork slices instead of beef. He had no complaints about his hot pot.

Ice cream: At dinner time, they offer free ice cream. It was your standard ice cream, nothing special but nice to enjoy. Since I currently can’t have dairy, the fiance happily enjoyed both.

Overall, Nabebugyo was alright. Nothing extremely delicious, but not bad either. The portion was good, but I definitely ordered the wrong broth. It was way too clear for my liking.

But Japanese food is quite clear and healthy, and the waitress did ask if it was okay, so I have no one to blame but myself. I wouldn’t mind coming back, except I would order a different broth next time.

Yay!

I came to Sushiville with Cocoa a bit over two years ago and wrote a review on it here. We were looking for a place to have lunch so I suggested coming back here since it’s been awhile. 

Something odd about Sushiville is that they have a very big sign on the wall warning customers of the wait. They say that they do not “prepare in advance like other sushi places do”, which doesn’t make sense to me because why wouldn’t you want your ingredients chopped up beforehand? But since we already knew about the long waits here, we were prepared. 

Tuna and salmon combo bento box: Cocoa’s bento box was a really good deal for the price. She comes here more often and said they used to have gyozas instead of edamame beans.

Anyways, the bento box came with 4 pieces sashimi, 3 nigiri pieces, edamame, tempura, beef teriyaki with veggies (no rice), and salad. The beef teriyaki reminded us more of a Korean style, with sweet galbi sauce instead of teriyaki. 

Cocoa enjoyed the bento box with no complaints. It was too much for one meal so she ended up packing some back. But a very good deal for the price, I wish I ordered this too! 

Scallop oshi: This isn’t something I would normally order, but Cocoa wanted it so we shared. It was quite pricey at $16 for the roll, hence why we split it! 

Although pricey, it was delicious. The scallop was fresh and tasted delicious when seared. The tobiko was crunchy and added a nice snap to it. The dry ice is a fun touch in the beginning and lasts about 7 minutes before it goes out!

House roll: I was disappointed with my house roll because it was pretty tiny. Usually, house rolls are larger than a normal roll. 

In addition, the tamago was the worst tamago I’ve had. It was a pale yellow/almost clear white colour, and very flavourless. The texture was also very rubbery. Gross. 

I also ordered a salmon and avocado roll, which they forgot about. Since they had that giant poster warning about slow prep time, I thought they were making it still but nope. I ended up just cancelling it cause I didn’t want to wait and because Elephant Garden is just next door, hehe. 

I have mixed thoughts about Sushiville, because some things were hit or miss. Cocoa comes here more often and noted the prices increased as well. 

But, they do have some positives. The dry ice displays they have are pretty cool and fun to boomerang for Instagram. I would say come here for the big bento boxes or special rolls for the dry ice only.

Yay…ish? Not bad enough to be a meh though.