Yah Yah Ya Ramen

Hey Everyone,

Recently checked out Yah Yah Ya Ramen, a new ramen place in Richmond (finally)! Usually I’d only go to GMen for ramen if I’m in Richmond, as the other restaurants aren’t very good in Richmond. I believe this place only opened up in the last few months, so there haven’t been too many posts on this yet. It is located to the right of Richmond Sushi in Union Square.

Their interior is nicely decorated.

They have a self sign in sheet for the waiting list!

They even have an umbrella bag stand! This should be at every restaurant!

There is a business card stand in the waiting area at the front. It seems this might be a Japanese thing, as I have seen a similar thing at the Sensha-Ya Hand Car Wash, whereas they have two bulletin boards that you can pin up your business card.

I heard that this drawing of ramen on the wall was done by one of their waitresses!

Cool chopstick pattern!

We had a side table for some reason beside our bench seat. It probably acts as a storage compartment for them, but it was pretty cool to have as I didn’t see it next to any other table!

My friend told me that this place was known for their Shoyu ramen, which I never order, but for the sake of this blog, I thought I might as well give it a try since it’s what they’re known for. I didn’t add any extra toppings so I could see how it goes with just the standard order.

Shoyu Ramen

Miso Ramen

I thought that since their shoyu was what they were known for, then it would change my mind on shoyu, but this decision turned out bad as I am still not a fan of shoyu ramen. When our orders arrived, my two friends ordered the miso soup, so we each tried each other’s soup first. One had a normal richness for soup, and the other had a stronger richness for soup. The stronger one was definitely too salty, while the normal one was just right. My soup was not bad upon first taste. As I got into the ramen itself, the noodles were quite bland and the soup’s flavour did not transfer into the noodles, and the overall flavour of soup and noodles was just not that great.

The soft-boiled egg was AMAZING in this ramen! This was the best part of the ramen, as the other components were mediocre to me. The chashu was not bad, but not amazing. There were no bean sprouts in my ramen, as you have to add that separately. It did however, come with spinach! Now me being Chinese, I don’t mind eating spinach every now and then in dishes, but in my opinion, it does NOT work in ramen! Maybe this is a common topping to put in shoyu ramen, but it does not help the overall flavour of this ramen. I would have rather replaced that with bamboo shoots or bean sprouts, but they don’t let you replace toppings without charging extra, as my friend tried replacing bean sprouts with something else. Also note that they do not provide the condiments on the side as GMen does, which I believe could have made this taste a lot better!

I think I would have enjoyed the miso ramen a lot more than this, which is what I’ll be ordering the next time I come here. Yes I would actually return because I want to try their miso ramen, but if that turns out to be a bust, then it’s back to GMen Ramen for me!

The service was good, except for the fact that they won’t let you exchange toppings due to an allergy to a particular ingredient. They will exclude that ingredient from the order, but they won’t let you replace it with something else unless you pay for it.

Food:

3/5

Service:

4/5

Price:
$

Overall:

3.5/5

If you’re a shoyu ramen fan, perhaps you’ll enjoy it a lot more than I did. Let me know what you think of it in the comments below!

Thanks for reading! Happy Eating!

- Phil