Ramen Danbo in Kitsilano

Danbo is a Japanese franchise serving Fukuoka style tonkotsu ramen . The Kitsilano location is their first restaurant outside of Japan!  The shop is small 12-16 seater joint decorated with lots of wood. They make the broth fresh on-site at each of their shops! The soup broth has a thick and hearty pork flavour with creamy texture like melted butter.  This is a great way to warm up 

The nice thing is that customers have the ability to customize a bowl of ramen to fit their taste buds. Customers have control over the noodle thickness, noodle firmness, thickness of broth, amount of lard and amount of spicy sauce. For your first time, we'd recommend going with standard for everything and classic thin noodles before going crazy with the customizing it to be your bowl.

All the ramen is served with 2 slices of their braised pork belly. If you're a meat lover, upgrade your bowl to Chashu-men which will come with six pieces! If you enjoy spicy like us, try upping the spiciness with the Blazing Hot Rekka.

WHAT WE TRIED:

• Negi-goma Tonkotsu Ramen | $11.95
  Fresh scallions and toasted sesame
  

• Negi-goma Chashu-men | $14.95
  Same as above but with 6 pieces of chashu
  

• Classic Tonkotsu Ramen | $9.75
  Signature Tonkotsu Pork Broth
  

• Blazing Hot Rekka | $0
  Add Ichimi Togarashi Powder for a spicy taste. Spiciness: 5|10|15|20
  

• Soft-boiled Egg | $1.50

All bowls of ramen were solid.  The broth and noodles are excellent in flavour and texture. The ability to customize your ramen is perfect for us. A lot of ramen shops have a standard ramen for everyone or limited options for a custom bowl catered to your tastes.

Dan likes to eat thin noodles with light broth and regular spicy while Andrew likes to eat thick noodles with a strong broth and extra spicy! It is hard to find a ramen place that satisfies the both of us, which is why Danbo is our favourite pork broth ramen in Vancouver right now. 

Note: You can ask for the spicy sauce on the side if unsure about handling the heat.

Tips:

• Lunch Specials Mon-Fri (11 A.M.-5 P.M.)
       Set A: Gyoza (3 pieces) + one ramen topping + $3
       Set B: Gyoza (3 pieces) + White rice + $3.50
       Set C: Gyoza (3 pieces) + Soft drink or tea + $4
• Loyalty stamp card!
      5 stamps = Free Pan-fried Yaki Gyoza
      10 stamps = Free Classic Tonkotsu Ramen

The braised pork and soft-boiled egg is good. Sometimes it is perfect but most of the time it leaves room for improvement. The egg yolk is not consistent from bowl to bowl, and pork could be juicier! One thing that could really help is a precision temperature cooking. We know a rival ramen shop that uses sous vide and their chashu and soft boil eggs come out perfect every time. This is very nit picky but reproducing consistent results could up them to the next level!

OVERALL IMPRESSION OF DANBO:

This is our favourite pork ramen in Vancouver. There is tons of flavour in the broth and the ability to customize your bowl of noodles to be perfect for you is great. The service is fast but because of its popularity and small space the line ups can be long. The good news is that customer turnover is pretty fast. We come at 11-11:30 AM and get a table for 2 every time!

The Good:

• Tasty and customizable ramen!
• Fast

The Bad:

• Be prepared to wait in line!

Rating: 8.6/10

DETAILS:

ADDRESS: 1833 W 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC V6J 1M4
PHONE: (778) 379-8977
HOURS: Daily 11 a.m.-11 p.m.

Facebook: /RamenDanbo
Instagram: @ramendanbo_ca
Twitter: @ramendanbo
Website: RamenDanbo