(for recent revisit comment please see http://eternity-ply.blogspot.com/2011/04/nomiya-restaurant-revisit.html)
Hi everyone. This will be my first official food review. This review will be about Nomiya Japanese Restaurant. Now I just want to mention that its because one of my friend on FB, M, who pretty much goes there everyday, and been bragging about it that stir my interest in this place. So thank you M (you know who you are).
Now just a brief background on Nomiya Japanese Restaurant. Nomiya was suppose to be one of Sanpachi Ramen chain (http://www.sanpachi.co.jp/menu.html) base from Hokkaido, which open it first chain in Canada in Vancouver last year. During its construction, it was clearly announce that the restaurant will be Sanpachi Ramen. Due to whatever reason, the restaurant was renamed to 'Nomiya', and is owned by a Chinese family. If i have to guess, I would guess that Sanpachi provided all the recipe for their ramen.
My first impression about Nomiya is very positive. The decor is very nice, new, and the color scheme is quite relaxing. The place is quite small (sit about 30 people or so). I got there are 7pm on Tuesday night and the place was still packed. Luckily my friends were there already, and I didn't have to wait to be seat. The music in this place is very subtle and is not overwhelm the conversation we had. The waitress was quite attentive and the service was good, except that our food didn't come at the same time, and certain item took really long (see below, Saru Soba). One of my friend came late, and the waitress didn't rush us at all, she was very friendly also. Their menu can be a little bit confusing. Food are categorized in type (appetizers, tapas, sushi, and rice), however, ramen menu was on a flimsy piece of paper. I wish that they could have done better than this. The price was not bad considering big bowl of noodle only cost 8-10 dollars, some might find that their sushi can be expensive compare to other place around town.
Menu
Here what I had:
Tantan-men
Spicy Miso ramen
Inferno ramen (friend's order)
Tsuke-men (again, mooched off friend's)
Saru Soba
TANTAN-MEN (first picture)
No, not dark skin man, or anything like that (sorry for my bad pun). This is pretty much japanese style of dan dan noodles (a type of chinese noodle). This ramen contains minced pork, in spicy chilli with sesame tonkotsu soup base (pork-bone). The soup was quite rich and very tasty. For people who never have tonkotsu soup base before might find the soup a bit too thick. Although it was suppose to be spicy I did not find this soup spicy what soever (mind you I am from Thailand and can handle very spicy food). The ramen were cooked very nice and near perfection (was a bit hard). The mice pork was very tasty too. Tantan-men is garnished with green onion, 2 piece of seaweeds and some other thing I don't remember ( I really need to bring a notepad next time). Overall it was a great dish as you can see in the picture below.
( つ￣∀￣)つ Empty Tantan-men bowl (8.5 / 10)
SPICY MISO RAMEN
I love miso base soup ramen. If done right, miso ramen can be one of the most flavorful ramen out there. However, Nomiya failed to capture my mouth with their spicy miso ramen. I have yet to try their normal miso ramen, which can be different. At first this ramen looks just like my tantan-men but don't let this fool you. Miso ramen are lighter than tantan-men, although not by much. The garnish is very similar to that of tantan-men. For some reason i feel like this soup lack the taste of miso. For those of you who doesn't like strong miso taste then this would be a great ramen to try, unlucky for me, I love strong miso taste ╮(ﾟ□ﾟ｡)╭ . On the other hand, this bowl of ramen scored a big brownie point from me for having shaved green onion (awesome) and big think chashu (pork) slice (awesomeeeer). Overall still very good ramen but I couldn't finish the bowl like what I did with tantan-men.
Spicy Miso Ramen (7 / 10)
Inferno Sushi
I only had one piece of this exciting dish. Its pretty much a Japanese mackerel sushi roll, with great twist. Like the name suggest, inferno, the roll were blasted with blow torch in front of you, on the table, inches away from your face. The mackerel is cooked (no not with blow torch |≧ლ≦｡|) For some people that never had mackerel on sushi before, it can be very fishy (again sorry for the pun), and the smell can be quite strong; I love it. The smoky smell created by blasting flame goes very well with the roll. ( 8 / 10) - picture can be seen on my photo album - link below
Tsuke-men
Not much to say about this because I only had one chopstick full of noodle and the soup. This is one of those ramen type that served dry, and can be hot or cold (it was warm at nomiya), with a separate bowl of soup. The soup were tonkotsu base, and somewhat like that of tantan-men. Ramen were served with side dish of kimchi, small slices of chashu, cucumber and boil egg. I will have to order and try more of this dish before making any rating. Guess I will have to try next time I go there. Picture can be view in my photo album.
Saru Soba (5 / 10)
Saru Soba (cold buckwheat noodle)
No there is no monkey in this dish (saru means monkey in japanese). This is the first saru soba dish i tried in Edmonton. I was reluctant to order this dish at first because I haven't find a good soba place in Canada. Now remember I already had Tantan-men and spicy miso ramen before I order this dish, and maybe I was getting full which one could argue to compromise my taste judgement. The waitress was also asking me if I will be able to finish. "yea no problem", was my answer. For those of you who know me, I eat about the same as generic family of four. Anyway, this dish took about 15 minutes before it arrived at the table. This suppose to be a super fast dish, all it need were boiled soba, tsuyu (sauce), wasabi, thinly slice green onion ( and raw quail egg which was not there ლ(＞ω＜ლ). The soba was actually cook quite nicely but there just too much water left over. I usualy preferred having it cool down by ice also. Since it have overload amount of water, the sauce that you dip your soba in will loose it strong flavour eventually. Also I found that the dilution of the sauce is too waterly. Overall not a very great dish, however, try it in the hot summer day and it will cool you right down. (ofcourse, I finished the dish)
Conclusion:
This place is great, no wonder M is there every lunch and dinner. I will have to try more appertizer, and tapas menu next time I am there. But don't get your hope up that I will write a review about their tapas menu, knowing myself, I will probably order more ramen and/or sushi, then get full before order any tapas. I am also wondering what happened between them and Sanpachi Ramen. If anyone know then please let us know :D.
Verdict: Nomiya Japanese Restaurtan 8 / 10
3803 Calgary Tr
Ste 646
Edmonton, AB T6J 2X8
(780) 462-1300 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (780) 462-1300 end_of_the_skype_highlightingFor more photo: http://fotologue.jp/ppasarj#/13614992/13614967Hope you enjoy my first review, and thank you for reading.
Eternity (aka ElephantPly)
Other Review
Visit my "Revisit" post @ http://eternity-ply.blogspot.com/2011/04/nomiya-restaurant-revisit.html
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