Ramen Sanpachi - Vancouver, BC

Wandering around downtown at 7 pm and not willing to spend over $20 for a good meal (even though I was just ogling the wares at LV.  LOL), Mrs. Teddy suggests a ramen place she's passed by before.  We don't even know the name of the place, even when we walk in.  I had to walk outside and onto the street in order to look over the giant awning adorning this place.  Oh, it's called Sanpachi!  They have fake plastic food in the window outside.  I love fake plastic food.  They also serve butter and corn as toppings - very Hokkaido of them.  There's also a viewing area of the kitchen but it's not a very good view as 95% of the window is covered in grease.

After a 20 min wait, we're seated at one of the few four-top tables in the back area.  The booths are comfy, there's a tv to watch all of the hockey highlights (it doesn't really matter cuz the Canucks are out - and who's cheering for Nashville anyways???) and water is served immediately.  The menu is quite basic with several flavors of ramen available.  We choose our soup bases and it's now a waiting game...

Gyoza

Nicely pan fried, the wrapping is thin (which is nice because no one wants a mouthful of dough) and it comes out piping hot.  The only problem is that they taste just ok - nothing special.  Just pork and cabbage.

Miso Ramen with Gyoza - $12.20

A miso flavor ramen.  This is our signature ramen.

They call it their house special and it was the tastiest of the bunch.  It's got a richer broth flavor that matches the ramen really well.  The ramen itself if cooked well, al dente as we all like it.  The pork however is not nearly tender enough, even chewy in some parts, and there's only 3 slices in a bowl??  I know we're in a recession but come on...  There's also A LOT of onions and bean sprouts - maybe they're trying to make up for the lack of pork?  There's also bamboo shoots mixed in the bunch but it's all drowned out by the onions and sprouts.

Sai Sai - $9.95

Sanpachi special veggie ramen.  An extra healthy bite.  Its use vegetable soup stock instead of pork broth.

Heh, the descriptions are kinda funny.  The vegetarian option of the bunch, this comes out looking wonderfully colorful with the addition of many many vegetables.  The ramen texture is great and the veggies are cooked well but the soup base is bland - it's like the majority of the taste came from boiling the veggies.  I know it's supposed to be a vegetable stock but come on - where's the spices, where's the flavor?  Does vegetable broth mean no salt?  I thought it would be bland when it arrived at the table since the broth was completely clear.  Mrs. Teddy said she would never order this dish again as the other ramens tasted much better.

Spicy Miso Ramen with Gyoza - $12.20

Miso and spicy base ramen

See above "Miso Ramen" comments.  It's exactly the same except that the broth is spicy, drowning out any taste of miso or pork.  I wouldn't order this again either as I thought the miso ramen had better depth of flavor. 

Overall, nothing here tasted bad (bland but not bad) but nothing was exciting either, not enough to draw any of us back, especially when there's several other ramen places within walking distance that have better noodles and soup bases.  Au revoir Sanpachi!

Pros:

• Moderate prices
• Friendly service
• Wait times are minimal to none

Cons:

• Food is just ok - not as good in comparison to nearby ramen places
• Lots of filler in the meat ramen and not enough meat!
• Service is spotty - forgotten food item, same dishes arriving at different times, etc.