I found myself in Burnaby for work and constantly craving for soup or stew thanks to the winter weather. It’s been a while since I’ve gone to Metrotown area and boy has it changed! Apart from the many high rises sprouting around the Skytrain station, there’s a strip on Silver Drive with trendy chain restaurants where you’ll find Earl’s, Cactus Club and Kokoro Tokyo Mazesoba.

My second time to visit a Kokoro Tokyo Mazesoba franchise (my first visit was at their Brentwood branch), I really do like the overall feel of the place. Kokoro Tokyo Mazesoba’s restaurant has invested a lot in their ambiance with a trendy and modern interior but still adding a Japanese flair. It has “millennial” trends all over with some pink, wood detail and lots of plants everywhere.

Beyond the pleasing aesthetic, the food was nice and customer service was good. I personally like ramen more than mazesoba. I find the latter a bit too salty for my taste or maybe that was just my experience in their Brentwood branch. Mazesoba is ramen without the broth and you eat it with egg, rice, and some vinegar. This chain offers both mazesoba and ramen as well.

Here’s what we ordered.

My husband and I decided to go for ramen this time and we each ordered a different kind. For tapas we got the gyoza, then tonkotsu ramen for myself with clear broth and spicy kokoro ramen with creamy broth for the hubs. Tonkotsu is pork broth and it comes with chasu which are thin pork slices. Vegan ramen is also available if pork is not your thing.

Per hubby his spicy tonkotsu was really spicy but not overpowering that burns your tongue. I’m a clear both kind of person so I really enjoyed mine. It was both flavorful and filling with noodles that were chewy. Ramen eggs came with our orders which is a good deal as in some ramen places you would need to order that as an extra.

Overall, it’s great place to have a first date, catch up with a friend, or do Happy Hour as they serve Japanese beers, sake and Japanese fruit wine. I believe an order of ramen was between $14 to $17, which is a little bit on the higher side for ramen but in today’s economy, it seems like everyone has just raised their prices and this price point has become reasonable.

I would definitely go back and try their other ramen offerings or their mazesoba again. After all, that is what they specialize in.

The branch I visited is located at 6049 Silver Drive, Burnaby, BC, V5H 4L6.