Benkei on Thurlow

During the last few weeks of February, Vancouver has been hitting sub-zero temperatures paired with the kind of weather that makes you just want to stay at home and sleep from morning to night. And as much as I would have loved to be permanently glued to my bed all day, I had to drag myself out for a date with my Economics textbook. How fun. After 3 grueling hours at the Central library, B and I made the desicion to brave the cold and walk down to Robson for a nice, hot, steamy bowl of Ramen. Nothings better than hot soup and noodles to warm you up from the inside out!

As much as I really wanted to try the new Ramen place in downtown, it was a bit too far, especially since we couldn't feel our noses five minutes into walking - so we settled for the Benkei on Thurlow. I have been to the Benkei on Robson, but never the Thurlow location and in a way, I guess it still counts as trying some place new! It was nice and warm when we walked in and was immediately greeted by the servers shouting something in Japanese - probably "Welcome", or something of that sorts. What I really liked about the Thurlow location was that the larger space allowed them to have a sort of ramen "bar": a long bar that winds in almost a U-shape - which was where we were seated. Since the last time I have been to Benkei, they seemed to have added a few new items to their menu such as a curry ramen and curry rice. I stuck with my usual Shio Ramen with an egg, but B was feeling a bit more adventurous and since he was a fan of curry, he opted for the Curry Ramen and also added an egg.

For some strange reason, B's food always seems to taste better than mine and this time was no different because after trying B's noodles, I wish I got the Curry Ramen! The curry "soup" was really more like a watered down curry, but it was still full of flavor and delicious. Japanese curry is different from Indian or Thai curries in the sense that it is a bit on the sweeter side. This curry had a hint of sweetness that doesn't distract the palette from all the other flavors and had a really, really, mild-barely-even-noticeable kick of spice. The only bad thing about the Curry Ramen was that the chicken it came with was a bit dry, but you can substitute it with chasu. With so much flavor going on in B's noodles, mine tasted a little bland after - which is unusual since I usually love Shio Ramen.

With our belly's full, the cold didn't seem so cold anymore - but next time, for sure, I will be ordering a curry item on their menu!