Motomachi Shokudo

Found and decided to give this place a try because of the long wait with Kintaro (a block away). From the outside, the place looked very cute with the Japanese wood theme. They have a menu located outside for reference, which is useful when you are waiting in line. Because the restaurant was rather small, only 1 – 2 parties waiting could wait inside the restaurant.
Service/​Ambience: ⁴⁄₅
I went with a group of 4 and they have one main table with a few smaller tables of 2s and one table for 4 or 5 on the sides. They were very accommodating with our request to sit together instead of sitting separately. Orders were taken down and came rather promptly.
Food: ²⁄₅
We ordered the Extra BBQ Pork Shio/​Shoyu Ramens. The noodles were average, but the broth (both shio and shoyu) and the pork were extremely oily/​salty and extremely fatty (pretty much had to dilute it with water).
Tip:
They normally serve ice/​hot water, but tea is also free of charge.

Some of the best ramen in town. Its more traditional here so keep that in mind. They have a shoyu broth that has been sitting for a week to intensify the flavor and damn if it ain’t delicious.
I had the bamboo charcoal dark miso ramen. It was a concerto of delicious flavours and was a solid amount. But now I just want more and more.
I have to go back and if you haven’t been you need to go! But make sure you get their hours right. I’ve tried going a few times midday only to find them closed.
Also its pretty much a hole in the wall, so keep your eyes peeled otherwise you’ll go right past it.

I’m very disappointed with my visit to Motamachi, cannot even believe that this place has an average rating of 4 at Unilocal.Oh well, I suppose it’s a lesson learned.
First of all, the service was terrible. We came, sat down and no offer of water came. I had to wave around for the waitress for her to notice and take our order. When our order came, they don’t give us any chopsticks and when I went to the back to ask for one, no one was there???
I would not care about all of these if the food was actually decent or at least cheap but I think they were one of the worst ramen I ate. We ordered the Spicy Miso Chicken and the Bamboo Charcoal Ramen. I should have heeded the warning sign when the description for the charcoal ramen included the word ‘healthy’ in it. And man, this case strengthens my belief that for most food, healthy = boring.
While the noodles for both ramen were actually decent, the broth tasted lacklustre. The spicy miso chicken only came with a few bits of chicken while the charcoal ramen only has one slice of char siu and half piece of soft-​boiled egg! For $ 11.75 and that taste, I considered this a rip-​off, not to mention that when the final bill came, there was this 10% other tax?

I went to this place with my girlfriend because I was craving ramen. My girlfriend wasn’t hungry so I ordered one ramen and a few extra toppings. The waitress told me my girlfriend had to order as well or we would have to leave. I asked why and she told me it was because they were busy. There were four empty seats. We left and won’t be coming back.

Hands down the best ramen I’ve had in the NW. I ordered the gyoza and spicy chicken miso. The broth was amazing, so delicate and not overwhelming, but still spicy. It would be so dangerous if I lived in Vancouver.

The lackluster broth was the biggest disappointment for me. Oh why oh why can’t I find the perfect ramen in Vancouver that meets all my requirements?! (#firstworldprobs)
Noodles — ³⁄₅
Generous portion, cooked al-​dente but missing that «bounce».
Broth — ¹⁄₅
I tried both the Shio and the Shoyu broths. The Shio broth tasted like salty water and the Shoyu broth just tasted like soya sauce water. Both didn’t have the depth I was looking for.
Pork Belly — ³⁄₅
Average thickness, good cut of meat, nice and fatty.
Pork Shoulder — ²⁄₅
Too dry for my liking, almost the same texture as over-​done turkey.
Extras — ⁵⁄₅
I’m a firm believer that all the extras (egg, bamboo, seaweed) should be complimentary at a ramen place and this place just does that! Bonus points for including Japanese leek for free as well.
Gyozas — ²⁄₅
I like my gyozas juicy and fully of soup (I guess that’s why I’m a big fan of xiao long baos). These gyozas were just kinda meh.
TL;DR I didn’t like the broth.

Short of it: I’d come back
Long of it: came on a Tuesday night with a friend and ordered the spicy chicken miso ramen. Broth was pork based but not as «porky» as ramen butcher (which is still good). The noodles were on point. Perfect thickness. I know other places allow you to choose, but the default here was bang on. Not enough chicken in the soup but they mention its «organic» so that sh*t’s way more expensive – understood. Gyoza was just fine, but not the best. No beer on tap but they have the little Japanese beer glasses (however) we had to ask for it. Menu layout was a nice surprise with two pages dedicated to featuring each of their ramens. Found a hair in it at the end but I was so satisfied I couldn’t give a crap.
FYI they had the «super spicy» ramen on special which comes in 3 levels of spicyness. We asked the waitress if she’d recommend it and she just said don’t bother. The least spicy level is just way to spicy apparently.

Ramen has become my latest craving. Something about the flavourful simmered pork broth makes me feel nourished on a autumn day in Vancouver…
This place did not disappoint either. I had the miso ramen, was on par with some of the other quality ramen spots in this hood. We went at 12 sharp and didn’t have to wait, but 15 minutes later the place was full.
I will definitely come back, if I don’t end up going to Santouka instead.

We were actually trying to get to Kintaro but it was closed due to Thanksgiving so this came a close second based on reviews.
Ordered the name shoyu and the shio ramen bowls plus gyoza as one never passes up on gyoza when dining Japanese or Korean.
Ramen broth was delicious and tasted clean and flavourful. The ramen noodles were perfectly al dente. The toppings were a bit sparse (tiny pinch of bean sprouts, an egg that was not as runny or as warm as it could be, and a slice of pork that was not as tender as I’ve had elsewhere with just barely a hint of green onion or leek to be found.
Service was fine and prompt. If I could give this place 3.5 I would but I couldn’t give it a 4 based on my experience…

It’s decent compared to all the other ramen options near. The service was nice and friendly, unfortunately, the food took forever to come out. And it wasn’t a full floor either. The miso BBQ ramen was salty with not too much flavour, so was the shoyu. Maybe you’re better getting the spicy ramen, as that looked really popular.
Oh and BTW, make sure you check your bill before paying. They have a tax called «other tax» and when asked what that was, they didn’t have any idea at all (I suspect it’s an automatic tip, because it was exactly 10%, even though it was a party of 2.) So watch out!

Absolutely tasty!!!
In San Diego we had a go to Ramen spot (The Under Belly) and since moving to Vancouver I’ve been in search of a «good» one and I’ve FOUND it!!!
I was introduced to this small little spot thanks to a friend. Be prepared to wait, there isn’t much seating in this place. Thankfully, service is quick so people are constantly coming and going.
We started with an order of gyoza and it was delicious! Not overly greasy and they were perfectly cooked. For my main dish I got the «Extra Pork Ramen» and my friend got the «Spicy Chicken Ramen», both were sooooo good!
Service is quick but the ladies aren’t very attentive. You’re constantly waiting for one of the ladies to look over and see your awkward «I need something» face. LOL.
I will definitely be back

The 10.55 minimum per order rule is very stupid. I came there with the other two friends. I was totally disappointed and will let my friends know this.
And i did NOT like the way that staff came out with the calculator on hands to count how much we have to eat.
You guys should NOT come if plan to.
FYI

A small ramen shop with attention to details.
A place like this is reason why Unilocal needs half star options. I think my experience here wasn’t as good as I wanted to, but my opinion and rating is due to what I had and had nothing to do with quality.
The pork chasu with chili dish was great. The pork was tender, savory and delicious. The chili sauce was balanced and flavourful. I was pretty excited for the mound of meat on the plate. Visually you think wow, $ 6 gets you a mound of meat. But its actually sprouts underneath. Visually deceptive but Great dish overall with a lot of meat.
The charcoal ramen. It’s unique and I’ve never seen it before so I had to try it. The flower on the side and how the ramen was topped was a beautiful touch — its simply visually appealing.
The broth is what I’d consider love/​hate. The flavours grow on you but I just don’t think I’ll order it a second time. The ramen was firm and chewy. I thought perfect, really. What threw me off however was that my noodles seemed shorter or cut in segments. My friends ramen had long noodles, but mine was what appeared to be, cut in several segments making the slurping not as satisfying. Chasu and egg were good. The broth and the noodle just didn’t work for me.
I want to give this place more stars, but right now i can’t do that. I liked everything about the place and the attention to details. My issues with the key ingredients affected my overall opinion.
Despite that, I recommend this place and I’d come back regardless.

I absolutely can’t get enough of their shio ramen. Its hearty and salty but the spring onion on top perfectly compliments and cuts through that. The broth sticks nicely to the noodles. My boyfriend has had the charcoal, spicy miso and the shoyu and if i wasnt craving their shio every time i would have tried them all by now. Their gyoza are fine, but they stick together in a way that makes them hard to eat. This bowl of ramen is a little on the pricier side and smaller, but it’s a great experience and each bowl has so much character. I love coming here and will keep frequenting this awesome ramen shop as often as possible!

I came here around 3pm weekday and there was no wait. I ordered the popular charcoal bamboo ramen and wasn’t impress. I’m sure the concept was for a healthier and less oily bowl of ramen, but I didn’t enjoy the flavor which i thought was bland. The ramen was okay. This would not be my type of ramen for I highly prefer a deeper depth in flavor.

Small little ramen place. Purpose of coming here was really to check out the charcoal ramen and see what the hype is about.
The Bambo Charcoal dark miso ramen is most definitely something worth trying so you know how it taste. It’s not a must have but worth giving it a chance. It tasted different from any other ramen, a strong charcoal taste, but it’s not bad. I had half a bowl since I shared with my bf so i’m not sure if I can finish one whole one myself. Their ramen tasted fresh made and chewy. Very little ingredients so that was a bit of a disappointment.
The other ramen I tried was the Nama Shoyu ramen. This ramen I can totally finish all by myself. Meats were not dried and yummy. The broth was a tad salty so I had to dilute it with water, other than that it was great.
Love how the menus were like a story book. There were additional description of certain ramen and larger pictures of how it would look like. I would come back to try other ramen but probably will not get the charcoal one again.

My 2^nd time in Vancouver we were wandering along looking for a particular ramen spot that we weren’t familiar with. We just happened to run into a random woman who recognized us from the day before. She assured us that the place we had heard of was good, but the place she was headed was better! So we gladly followed her to this wonderful little ramen shop. I developed my ramen Jonez in Tokyo and had the pleasure of consuming ramen throughout the country. I enjoyed all the different styles from the various regions. I have had some pretty good ramen in LA. Decent ramen in Seattle. Good ramen at Tiger Den in Houston. But my favorite ramen outside of Tokyo is right here in Vancouver. This is the place. I won’t bother to go into descriptive paragraphs about the succulent pork and flavorful broth. I’ll just encourage you to try anything on the menu. Itadakimasu!

The roommate and I were actually trying to go to Kintaro. Since the wait was so long, we decided to go to Motomachi Shokudo. It was late afternoon, so we didn’t have to wait at all.
February 2012
*Gyoza
*Spicy ramen
*Shio ramen
I got the spicy ramen. It had a good amount of toppings and the broth had flavor, but I wanted more spice. It barely had a kick to it. The gyoza was pretty average. I love pot stickers so these fulfilled the craving.
The space is tiny, so you’ll probably be sitting at a communal table. I didn’t mind as I’m used to this at ramen joints. But those that like privacy may not like this.
Decent place to get ramen when you don’t want to wait in line.

The charcoal ramen was indeed pretty good, but everything else was sort of meh!
Kimchi was too sour (and it would have been nice if they gave us the more leafy bits instead of the crunchy bit). The gyoza was poorly done… It wasn’t crisp enough and I felt like a bit of the dough still felt a bit doughy near the sealed edges. My friend’s shio ramen was meh!
Service was pretty good.
However, it was indeed… a really tiny place and they didn’t have enough hooks along the wall to hang our stuff.

Thick pork, flavorful soup, and delicious noodles. Small but cozy sitting areas… The ramen I ordered was very yummy with decent amount of soup; however I realize the ramens of people sitting around me don’t have enough soup… A guy had to ask to get more soup because his noodle was like dry noodle with minimal soup… So I guess it really depends on which one you order.
Overall it’s really good
I think they had a seasonal ramen called Sakuramen before, I hope it comes back again