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| - It has been a while since I met up with Gerard and it just so happens that he wanted to get together for dinner and I was finally available. "What are you feelin'? Where do you wanna go?" we both ask each other and of course we both respond with an "I'm up for anything". The struggle is real, I personally am pretty indecisive when it comes to places to dine at unless I know I'm dead set on a cuisine. Ger recently moved in around the Kensington area and said something about hand made ramen - I haven't tried ramen since I moved to Calgary so we headed to Menyatai.
Menyatai is pretty easy to find, located on 12th street NW, it a turn before hitting the core Kensington. There is a lot of street parking around. When we entered, I noticed it was quite a small place, the place was full so we wrote our name down and waited a few minutes before we got seated. Like mentioned above, I never had ramen in Calgary so this was new to me. They've got other dishes besides ramen like udon, appetizers and mains but apparently known for ramen.
As per always, I go onto Yelp! to view photos and quickly read some reviews to help ease with my decision making process. I read a lot of "Get the extra BBQ pork" so I went with the Curry Ramen with extra BBQ pork. Ger went with the Spicy Tonkotsu Ramen with extra BBQ pork as well. There were mixed reviews about the curry but I enjoyed it. I really liked the Japanese curry flavored broth, it was really flavorful. It came with bean sprouts, a soft boiled egg, some bamboo shoots, corn, dried seaweed, of course sliced pork and a heaping of green onions on top, I mixed everything together and had a taste of the alleged handmade noodles and they were delicious, perfectly al dente. The pork slices were nice and tender to bite. Ger really enjoyed his spicy tonkotsu ramen, which is pork bone broth. He has a taste of mine and said he liked his better, I enjoyed his too and will probably order tonkotsu on my next visit. The one issue I had was with the big wooden spoon, I felt it was awkward to drink soup with it but otherwise I really enjoyed my first ramen experience. I would recommend trying Menyatai even though Ger said there's another ramen place nearby that is slightly better but was closed when we tried to get in. Yum yum ramen!
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