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My friend Sean from Sean’s Adventures in Flavor Town is a fan of this new noodle bar. You can read his post about Jinya here.

Ramen Jinja is a chain of restaurants from California, and it only just opened its doors on Robson St. this past August, to big expectations.

I was pretty warm when we got to the restaurant, so the very first thing I ordered was a drink. I had their sweetened green tea to start. It was only 2 bucks AND free refills! Awesome! The tea was sweetened just enough and it was a bit thicker than regular iced tea, but it was delicious and refreshing.

Sean and I decided to start with an appy. We ordered the pork Gyoza ($3.75). It was delicious. The Gyoza was pipping hot and juicy and the sauce was tangy and perfect for dipping. Couldn’t ask for anything more.

The service was attentive. Our server continued to refill my drink and our water through out our meal. She was very good.

For my meal, I ordered the Yokohama Ramen – It is a pork broth with fried onions, bamboo, green onion, spinach and pork chashu.

The broth was much ticker than I’m used to. I usually order miso ramen and this was my first time ever trying pork. It was very flavorful as well. The pork was thick and fatty, the noodles cooked to perfection. Overall, a very rich ramen. Would I try it again? probably not, but not because it wasn’t very good. I just like my miso, and if you’re like me, probably you won’t be sold on the pork ramen either.

Sean ordered the chicken ramen. We had a bit of a laugh with this dish, because when it came out, it looked like a salad soup. Sure enough, there were enough greens on top of this ramen to make a nice side salad.

I think Jinya is worth a try. I loved the prices, very reasonable, as most soups are around the $9 mark. They don’t have a local website for their Vancouver restaurant, but I did find their California site. It was disappointing to see that a lot of their American dishes are still not part of their Vancouver menu. The website had a spicy tuna bowl salad that I definitely wouldn’t mind trying sometime!