I work pretty close to this restaurant and I eat there a lot. It has two sides to it, the noodle house side and the Japanese restaurant side. Located inside of Metropolis at Metrotown, Kawawa is one of only maybe four sit-down restaurants in the mall.

I’ll be the first one to admit that Kawawa’s menu is not original. It’s your regular, run-of-the-mill, average, Japanese ramen. If you’re expecting life-changing food here, well…

I’ve had the miso ramen there a handful of times, and it’s good. The broth is tasty enough and the pork is nice and fatty. Lots of toppings. But today, I had a mission: the restaurant has been advertising a new addition to their menu: their new tomato ramen. As a matter of fact, their entire menu has been redone.

Before I started my meal I ordered some gyoza. It came after my ramen, so I was a little dissapointed, as I was hoping to have it as an appetizer.

The gyoza they serve here its tasty enough. It’s a little doughy for my taste, but it’s not the best nor the worse I ever tasted.  It will do in a pinch. They’re nice and big dumplings, so one order is big enough to share.

Now to the tomato ramen: I know it’s not traditional, but I know what I like, and it was tasty.

The tomato broth was very tangy, and the pork gave it a bit of a bacon taste to it. Granted the broth was a little watery, but you add a bit of the chilly powder to it and it’s good to go!

The pork was nice and fatty, and the noodles were cooked well. I found that my ramen had plenty of toppings and I was fully satisfied with the price and the quantity. The service is friendly enough, again, not stellar, but not the worse I’ve ever experienced.

I think the location for this restaurant is pretty good; like I said before, Metropolis doesn’t have a lot of sit down restaurants, and this one is open late and it’s right below the movie theater.