We ordered black tonkotsu and the classic tonkotsu. I usually order the classic tonkotsu in ramen places just to know if their basic is good enough (it will set the foundation for any add ons) The broth is too light for my taste. It doesn’t go deep imo. The chasu on the black one is awesome. I wouldn’t recommend trying the classic one.For reference, I love Ichiran and Ippudo.
We used to come here back in the day. Looks like they have changed locations. Nice open restaurant and can sit outside to enjoy the sun. The cold brewed green tea was nice and refreshing. Pretty standard green tea but having it chilled on a hot day was great. The ramen was delicious. The noodles had a nice bite and were well made. The broth had tons of flavour, a touch on the salty side but not overly. The pork was also well seasoned and had a nice flavour. The egg was perfectly cooked. I will say the portions are smaller than expected. I think next time I would order extra noodles or get a much bigger size. I tried all three ramen bowls and I enjoyed them all. I personally had the Chili gama ramen and I it was my favourite. I would have liked it to be a little more spicy for my liking. Overall a great place for ramen. Trendy place with the open concept, friendly service and music playing the whole time.
It has been many many years since I visited this ramen shop. The soup base was too thick for my taste many years ago, and I did not return. The new location was interesting so I tried it again.We ordered three different ramen bowls and we were surprised to see Shiki Menya used three different types of noodles. The firmness of the noodle was just right for us (on the firmer side). We also ordered the ice green tea and it was strong in tea taste, a right balance to the soup which was on the saltier side ( 2 out of 3 anyways).The price of the ramen was above the Calgary average. The charsiu was definitely among the top tier in Calgary, to my disappointment the egg was not seasoned with soy sauce. Despite the soup's strong taste, it did not make up for the non-seasoned egg.The music was not my taste and I would stop there as it was supposed to be the 'buzzy Japanese ramen' stop', some may go there for that reason. I will definitely return there one more time with all my family members.Line started to form around 15 minutes to noon, so it is definitely a popular place.
My husband and I wanted to try Shiki Menya after all the hype we had heard about it. We decided to go on a Saturday, around noon. It is incredibly busy in the Bridgeland area, so we had to do a few laps before finding a parking spot on a nearby block. When we arrived, there were two couples in front of us waiting for a table, but it was a relatively short wait - about 10 minutes.The restaurant is very clean and modern, with a large outdoor patio area. There is lots of table and bar seating options throughout - it was actually a lot more spacious than I was expecting.They were very busy inside, and it took quite awhile for a server to come to our table. We wanted to order tea, but they did not have any hot tea options - only cold - which I found very unusual for a ramen house.We started with the chili goma flavour fried chicken karaage. All I can say is WOW - it was absolutely outstanding! For $9, we received a generous portion of delectable fried chicken - very similar to boneless wings - in a delicious sweet and spicy sauce with an incredible, smooth, creamy dipping sauce on the side. The dish had a perfect degree of spiciness and was a great start to the meal. I would absolutely go back just for this dish.Now onto the ramen - I ordered the hazy chicken shoyu and my husband ordered the tonkotsu nu-classic. We were expecting a lot from this ramen based on what we'd heard, but unfortunately it really fell short. For the positives, both ramens had very good noodles, which seemed to be made with whole wheat flour and were definitely fresh and perfectly cooked. The broths were tasty, but not at all spicy, nor was there any sriracha available. I was disappointed in the chicken broth, as I found it lacked body.. it was a well developed flavour, but felt a bit thin and was not what I was expecting/craving from a ramen broth.Both ramens were very thin on toppings - each had only half a (very liquidy) egg; the chicken ramen had only one extremely thin slice of beef; and the tonkotsu had only two slices of pork.While the appetizer was outstanding, it missed the mark for the feature dish - ramen. While still decent, the ramen was way overpriced for what you get. Overall, it was way over hyped, and I would only return to have the chicken karaage.
Hubby picked this for his birthday lunch, he being a soup lover. We shared chili goma ramen. The flavours outstanding, with subtle taste of peanut every few bites. We didn’t find it too spicy, the blend of flavours were wonderful. We also shared gyoza and the kimchi char siu tacos. Our waiter was wonderful, pleasant, attentive and helpful. Very glad we got there early to secure the last table. Line up started right away, approximate wait was 30 minutes. Definitely a place to go for ramen.
I feel that this restaurant is overhyped. I had several friends that recommended it and because I heard that they only sold a limited quantity a day, I was excited to finally try this place.Turns out, the ramen was pretty average. The noodles were cooked properly and decent, but the char sui was over cooked and not the right texture. The soup was flavourful, so the food was not bad overall, but I don’t think it’s worth the price or that it was especially better than some other ramen places in Calgary.My overall experience here wasn’t great either because they were blasting rap music the whole time and I don’t know if that’s the norm or I just went in on a day where that was the case, but I could barely hear my friend from across the table unless we raised our voices. And keep in mind that this was at 11am in the morning, who wants to listen to that kind of music while we’re trying to talk to someone as we wait 45mins for our food to get cooked? It felt like I was in a club ready to get drunk and dance… I asked them nicely to turn down the volume a little, not even to change the music, but that request was denied. As well as my request to substitute the char sui in my dish for a thin piece of pork. I did not make a fuss about anything, but I wouldn’t visit here again. The music was honestly too off putting for my experience to be enjoyable, considering the fact that I had to sit there for almost an hour waiting for the food.
I was excited to try this ramen place. So I visited and I got very disappointed by the quality of the food. We had three of their dishes, one being very expensive bowl of ramen ($25). Broth was salty and that was it. No balance of different flavours what so ever. Egg was still cold inside and not well seasoned nor well cooked. The Wagyu had the well known fatty flavour which I liked but the thinnest two pieces of it was not enough to provide memorable taste. Noodle was okay. The musbee($8) was also very bad quality for its price. Plain rice, not enough sauce, meat was dry and lacking flavour. Fair price for it imo is $4. Food was edible but I wouldn't go back.
Shiki menya is pretty good. I’ve tried every single bowl and some are better than others. Owners have done a good job with marketing, as people are willing to stand in line for an hour to get in. Atmosphere is decent. Music can be a bit loud at times but it’s usually good hip hop. In all honesty if you haven’t tried it I recommend you come in during the week around 11:30 or 2 PM. It’s not really worth the 1hr line up during the rush.
2021-12-23This ramen shop is unusually good at what they do.Before getting in, one has to to line up, get Covid passport and photo ID checked, as per the current rules. This may sound obvious but many restaurants still don't do that full verification.I ordered Gyosa and an order of "Chili Goma" ramen soup, which also happened to be our server's favorite dish.The store-made gyosa were spectacular. They had a fresh, thin, fried but tender skin, filled with perfectly spiced mix of pork meat and vegetable filling. A perfect appetizer. The sauce that came with it was also very good, even if I could not name the components within.The ramen soup lived up to the time we spent in the lineup on a cold, snowy day:The chili oil and roasted sesame seeds provided some depth, spicy notes and complexity to a rich and creamy broth.The noodles were firm and had just the right amount of bounce and firmness.The fried pork bits within remained crunchy until the end despite being immersed in the soup.This dish is a comfortable, above average helping. Good value. I ate every drop of the soup and towards the end, the ingredients that had sunk to the bottom of the bowl added extra taste to every spoonful.The lineup outside to get in remained just as long from the time we got in to the time we left. About 40 minutes.In my opinion, at time of writing, this is the best ramen & Gyosa combo in Calgary.Well done!
Very delicious ramen, generous portions, decent prices. I loved my takoyaki!It's quite a challenge to wait outside on a cold winter day, but as people say it is indeed worth doing it once in a while.There are many parking spots in the area that give you a 2h free of charge ticket, just don't forget to get it in the closest Parking meter.Bon appetit!