Check out the review of Shibuyatei in the blog post below.
Small little dive like place in the industrial area of Richmond. The chef specializes in authentic home style Japanese cooking. His gyoza, ramen, and curry are excellent. Menu is small. I suggest sticking with the cooked food. He does not cater to typical American tastes. So expect simple light flavours of high quality ingredients.
Yum!. Not too much selection from the Ramen side, but their staple Ramen (#1 / #2) was very good. They do have a couple block heaters in the store, so it's a little chilly when people go in and out. But besides that, the owner and server were both very nice. I would come back a second time.
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Great little restaurant and food. Please don't listen to the rude chef review from the idiot below! Here's why, read below!. First of all please don't listen to that dummy that wrote the review. 1. It has nothing to do with the restaurant. I was there to see it all when this idiot parked their car in the driveway next to the row of parking next to the restaurant and car wash. The chef asked to move the car and they refused to do so. So this is when the comment about using the brain comes in. The chef just asked if they could move the parked the car blocking access for people to drive in and out to move to the spot by the car wash office. What idiot would park blocking driveways? Oh wait, we are in Richmond, so most people who don't use their brains think they are entitled to create parking spots wherever they please. (Please reference to Richmond Learns to Park on Facebook!) Just plain ignorant! The chef who has a stern Japanese accent as rude? I'm sorry but whenever I am there and I am there a lot, he is nothing but a gentle soul. He ALWAYS has a smile on his face, whether he is serving you, cooking or clearing dirty dishes. Who has a smile on their face when they clean dishes? The chef does.
About the food, I think it's amazing and I'm highly critical of food. I like to cook and make everything from scratch myself and this guy does it. Alone. He doesn't want to hire anyone else because he wants to keep the price low for you to enjoy his food. He takes a lot of pride in what he does and he ensures you are happy with his product. If he finds out you have been referred to eat at his place he makes an extra effort to ensure you're happy because his other regulars referred you. I love how everything there is no MSG and the soup isn't fatty. It's a nice change from going to a ramen house that just throws prefab junk into a pot and just chops the green onions for your soup.
Also if any of you have watched Jiro dreams of sushi, this guy has had major critics review his shop when he did have one in Tokyo. One top critic loved the food so much that he brought his family to eat there. He hasn't been reviewed under Michelin critics but he should be! The gyozas are also awesome. I thought Gyoza King downtown on Robson street was good but over the years the quality has gone down. It's just filled with salt and lard for taste. I love how the gyozas are here, nice and juicy and low in fat.
Please give this shop a try, it looks like a hole in the wall but it's the best gem in the city by far!
Delicious Food and friendly owner. Me and my friend went there for lunch today. We were the only customers, i guess it's because of Canada Day? We had some trouble finding the store even with GPS. The restaurant doesn't look Japanese. The owner was very friendly and we had some interesting conversations.
I had ordered a charsulamen (abt $13), and salmon maki. CharsuLamen with 3 pcs of charsu was kinda expensive compare to regular lamen, abt. $ 9 with one piece of Charsu. According to the owner, almost all of the food was msg- free, so it might be too little taste for those who are used to heavy taste food. Green tea ice cream was also delicious. It was handmade by the owner, so it wasn't as sweet as ice cream available at grocery stores. It was creamy, with the true green tea flavour. I will go there again even just for the ice cream.
The best ramen shop outside japan. I never thought this place would surpass the level of quality ramen we came to be accustomed to in vancouver: Jinya, Santoku, Motomachi-Shokudo or near by Nanchuu and among the others, all execute above and beyond quality of delicious ramen bowls. Shibuyatei does not look like a place you can expect to have a good anything: the place looks like a garage with menus posters all over the walls. And the owner is nice enough but does he ever love to talk! But his ramen (or he spells it "LAMEN") is incredible. My Tokyo native friend describes it as "the real tokyo ramen". It's insanely delicious. I cant eat ramen anywhere else now.
2 Thumbs Up!!!. My friend raves and rants about this place. So I went in tonight to eat for the first time.
I ate the larmen and gyoza (pork, prawn, and scallop). WOW!!! Authentic high-quality Shoyu Ramen and gyoza from a Japanese chef. And NO MSG!!! I have never had "scallop" gyoza before, so I didn't know what to expect, but it was just amazing how that melted in my mouth. You can literally taste the QUALITY!!!
The staff were very polite and very helpful in helping me decide what to eat for the first time.
I am looking forward to coming back to eat here very soon!
The ramen was amazing. Soup was nice and clear that didn't leave an overpowering flavor. The noodle was soft yet tender. I also had the ebi-katsu which was completely different from the shrimp tempura that I'm used to. The curry udon was also really good. Can't wait to go back.
Pleasantly surprised. We decided to place an order for pickup after looking at the reviews on Urbanspoon, and we will be back. Great prices and friendly service. Presentation couldn't have been any better. The wasabi and ginger sat on a plastic leaf so they weren't touching the rolls! The tuna and salmon maki were my favorite.
Straight from Tokyo to the back streets of Richmond!!. Great food - authentic house made everything!! Lovely one man show in an out of the way location. Don't be put off by the shop front - this gem is well worth a visit and is easy on the wallet.
What wonderful little hidden gem. The owner is a very Japanese straight-up-no-nonsense brash old man and I can’t say for the others who had a bad experience with customer service here but I personally had a very pleasant conversation with him. The food was delightful and very homely. Be nice to him, and he reciprocates. 10/10 would recommend eating here.
Why did I find out about this place just now?! Definitely worth trying—and worth coming back for! The food is so refreshing, not a lot of seasoning (msg) but tastes so good! It even made me teary probably cause I felt the chef/owner’s passion on the food he prepared. He will prepare your orders one by one. If there were already people who placed their orders before you, then you might have to wait for a bit—again, definitely worth waiting for! I was so full cause I ordered a lot but not like other restaurants, I didn’t feel dizzy after eating. It’s a perfect place to go for dinner after a long day at work, it’s like I went home to my grandpa’s homecooked meal 🥰 My new favorite in Richmond. Will come back again!
This one man (76 years young) operation may be a bit slow for many people in this day and age but the dining experience is worth it. The shop owner who owned and operated a sophisticated ramen shop in Tokyo, Shibuya area in the 70s-80s has old Japanese food shows running on the tv. Most of these episodes feature him and his ramen bowls. The contrast of the young face on the tv and the man standing in front of you is almost symbolic of all that experience you are about to taste in your bowl. This humble old man tells us that his ramen is for the common folks and not the gourmets of the likes of Anthony Bourdain. Oh is he wrong, because the amount of pride and love that goes into his food is obvious from your first bite. When visiting, please have patience and it will be rewarded.
It’s like going back to your grandpa’s place for a bowl of heart ramen and curry. It’s an one-man show so if you are looking for something fast, heavy, lots of powdery taste (msg) in your food, don’t come here.
We have now tried all three types of larmen (don’t ask why it’s not called ramen) - miso, shoyu, and shio. Shio is hands down my fav. The soup base is so clean but flavorful. Miso also blew my mind - it’s NOT salty nor heavy. It had so much more flavor in addition to the miso.
We have also tried three different types of Gyoza, my fav is the cheese with chicken. It’s so different from other gyoza I’ve had.
Go support him!!!! He’s a lovely and endearing grandpa, who is super proud of his food!!
The owner, cook, and sole waiter of the place is admittedly quite blunt. He has his ways of doing things and won't hesitate to turn you away if you do not follow his rules in the restaurant.
That being said, I can respect someone who has that much conviction over their way of handling a restaurant, and it isn't out of place compared to the mannerisms that I've seen in Japan.
My dinner, the beef curry, was great. I would recommend checking in to the place early in the case that it fills up (it's a small establishment and he will not serve you if he is already busy).
Informational Note: The restaurant accepts credit card. My VISA worked, not sure about Mastercard. Definitely not amex.
I work part-time right close by this place so I gave them a visit. Turns out it's a one-man show at this place. I ordered the 'larmen' and I got to say it's pretty good. Very light and fresh. Taste very home-made.
A one man show kinda place… when the restaurant has more than 2 tables of customers expect slower service as he needs to cook and there’s no one taking orders. Katsudon tasted home cooked, with a special sauce as mentioned on menu. Generous portion of rice.
Only 20 portions of ramen noodles served for lunch and dinner so hope you get lucky with that!
The best surprise was the gyoza. We tried the 3kinds plate that came with 3 different flavors: pork, shrimp and scallop. Scallop was pleasantly surprising and we didn’t expect it to go well as a gyoza filling!
Overall, if you’re not super famished, not rushed for time, wanna support a hardworking solo chef, and just be transported to a small Japanese village, this is the place for you.
My boyfriend and I were the only ones in the shop and we had a lovely conversation with the owner/chef and his experience in Tokyo and his passion for using high quality ingredients instead of relying on MSG - the food was authentic and tasted yummy. We ordered the Special Set (Larmen + pork gyoza) and the chichen-don (teriyaki chicken with rice) and came to a total of $26.50 (without tips).
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