After my hour long midterm on a Friday night (why would you do this to us, UBC?) I met up with friends in Richmond for ramen. We had tried to come a few weeks ago but they’re closed on Wednesdays. G-men is part of the GyozaKing group which is made up of several restaurants including Gyo-O which I went to last month.
We were seated immediately when we arrived but I noticed there aren’t a ton of seats. By the time we left, there was quite a crowd at the door. There are a lot of cute decorations around the restaurants and plenty pictures of their food on the menu and the walls. There were instructions on how to eat your ramen on the wall. GyozaKing seems to design their restaurants to be very visually appealing
What we ate (and drank)
Grape Calpico (non-alcoholic), Little Mermaid, and Le Grand Bleu
- Grape Calpico was exactly what its titled. Grape juice and calpico (if you don’t know what calpico is, imagine Sprite + milk). It was sweet and carbonated but there wasn’t much to it.
- Little Mermaid was peach liqueur, lychee liqueur, alize bleu, and pineapple juice. The pineapple juice made the drink quite sour and it the alcoholic flavour was quite strong
- Le Grand Bleu was alize bleu, calpico, and soda. Alize bleu is quite tropical tasting and it mixed well with the sweet creaminess of the calpico.
- Non-alcoholic cocktails were quite expensive ($4.75) compared to the alcoholic cocktails ($5.50). I probably wouldn’t order a non-alcoholic one again.
Tonkotsu Shoyu Ramen
- Rich pork soup seasoned with soy sauce. Noodles, wood ear mushroom, and slices of pork.
- Noodles in both dishes were perfectly cooked
- My friends both ordered this. The loved the noodles and broth (and seaweed that came as a garnish) but found the pork a bit fatty
Tonkotsu Miso Ramen w/ Butter corn
- Rich pork soup seasoned with miso paste. Noodles, bean sprouts, slices of pork
- I added butter corn for $1.50 at the recommendation of one of my friends. Turns out its literally butter and corn!
- Loved the addition of the corn to the soup (they even provide a special slotted spoon to fish it out) but found the broth too rich with that slab of butter (but might have been the miso too)
- I preferred the flavour of the shoyu broth
Final Thoughts
Pros:
- Well done ramen with super rich pork broth
- Menu is colourful, easy to navigate, and theres all kinds of cute decorations (including “How to Enjoy Ramen” at every table)
Cons:
- Parking on Alexandra road in Richmond is horrendous
- I realized I’m not even super big on ramen. I’d prefer a bowl of pho or noodles from Deer Garden (but this isn’t a fault of the restaurant)
We have to try Santouka before you decide you don’t like ramen! I personally prefer shio!