My love for Japanese noodles, whether it be ramen or udon has been well documented. So Kokoro Mazesoba grabbed my attention with their soupless noodles. Soupless noodles? I can’t slurp down our noodles with hearty broth? Will it be even good? However, it felt like everyone and their mom had been to Kokoro Mazesoba and taken a picture of the very Instagram friendly Hokkaido ice cream. I ditched Howie for the day and went on a girls lunch with another fellow Vancouver foodie, @Pinnysaurus.
We decided to meet up at 1:30pm on a Sunday. Since heard the lines were very long and wanted to avoid that. So when we got there and there was still a wait, we were shocked! There’s a huge waiting area to accommodate waiting patrons.
THE MAIN COURSES
As a vegetarian, Pinny was happy to see a vegan option available. She added the egg topping to her noodle. Her noodles seemed a lot thicker than mine. The egg went very well with the rest of the ingredients and the flavor was very rich.
About halfway through the meal, a server came by and asked if we would like a free bowl of rice. We were getting full and wanted to save room for dessert so we passed. This was a rookie mistake because her bowl of noodles was very creamy and mixing the rice in would have made it less so. Pinny felt it was good for a vegan option but it was too salty and heavy by the end.
I FREAKING LOVE MENTAIKO PASTA!!! Sorry for shouting, I wanted you to understand how much I love the combination of mentaiko and carbs. I was very excited to see this on the menu. I get an egg yolk, mentaiko, pork and noodles? Sign me up! Like Pinny, I really enjoyed the first half of the bowl. The egg yolk mixed with the mentaiko and the cream sauce in the pasta was so delicious. But by the end, I was struggling to finish it because all I could taste was heavy cream and salt. All the nuances in the flavor were gone by then. Definitely accept the bowl of rice when it’s offered to you!
the dessert
We were both desperate to get rid of that heaviness in our mouths from our creamy noodles. The dessert came and we barely had time to appreciate the cute shovel spoons they gave us before we dug in. Unfortunately, this Hokkaido ice cream had no taste except a creamy milk texture. I wish I would stop typing the word “cream” in this post but I can’t.
We kept eating the ice cream hoping to hit that pocket of sweetness but this was like chewing milk. Maybe if we hadn’t had such a heavy lunch then we would have liked this ice cream more. This was a disappointment because I’ve had Hokkaido ice cream in Japan and it didn’t taste like this.
Overall, I’m not sure if I’ll come back to Kokoro Mazesoba. They were more expensive than your standard ramen joint and I didn’t love everything. Maybe I’ll give it another chance during happy hour when prices are slightly cheaper but this place didn’t blow me away.
