Kokoro Tokyo Mazesoba

I hadn't tried mazesoba before and we stumbled across this place. It was SO delicious - incredibly flavorful with a great chewiness to the noodles. I had the vegan but tried my partner's mazesoba with minced meat and both had such great flavor. We were so impressed! A bonus that they also have Hokkaido Creme soft serve! Definitely worth a stop and reasonable prices for soba, ramen. We'll be back!

Food is great and refreshing.
Place is super clean.
and service is fast. One of the best restaurants I've ever been to

Visited this little place on a Monday afternoon. The place was full. Service was prompt and friendly. I was unfamiliar with the Japanese style noodles and ended up ordering the spicy mazesoba. Unfortunately the flavors didn't work for my "Western" palate- I found the fish flakes and the beef clashed- but obviously that's on me. It was also very spicy. I didn't care for it and in retrospect should have ordered something a little more familiar. The restaurant was clean and street parking (pay) was available. I probably would not eat here again, but again that's my problem not the restaurant's.

Last spring, we dropped by this place for a quick dinner. This was a popular Japanese chain that I wanted to try. The shop was empty so I was skeptical if it was good or not.

I got the zenbu mazesoba combo with takoyaki.

There were 5 pieces of takoyaki with seaweed and bonito flakes. Good stuff!

The mazesoba came with thick multigrain noodles with spicy minced pork, braised chashu, seaweed, bamboo shoots, green onions, half soft boiled egg, runny egg, chives, and minced garlic. It was pretty good but not the best mazesoba I've had. I wish the pork was more flavorful.

I have never been a fan of mazesoba, preferring my ramen in a hearty soup.

A few friends told me they enjoyed it at Kokoro and I thought I'd give them a try.

I had the Zenbu soba and it was average to me. The grilled cha siu bits were nice but not a lot of taste. The egg was probably medium size. Menma was just right in texture but didn't offer much taste.

We ddi also order the cha siu ramen in soup and that was much better.

I think for the price, it didn't quite create value for me.

This restaurant popped up as a suggested spot on yelp during my recent trip to Vancouver. I decided to give it a shot and I'm glad I did! I came here alone on a Monday evening and the ambiance was calm and cozy; only a few tables were occupied. Basically everything on the menu seemed really appetizing, but I settled on some sort of rice bowl with fried chicken. It was flavorful and the seaweed was nice and thick; I used some of it to eat my leftover rice with. The desserts looked amazing as well, but I was too full to even try. Overall, it was a pleasant experience and I'd love to come here again next time I find myself in Vancouver!

Service was very good! We loved our waitress and thought she was kind, diligent, and very accommodating to our needs and requests. I really appreciated her!

The shop was cute, but the bathroom was a little dirty and there were cob webs with a spider in one of the corners.

The best thing we had here was their fried tofu side dish. Wowza, that was so good! Probably the most flavorful thing we tried.

As far as the food, it was overall just OK. I got the dry ramen... I can't remember what it's called but it was like ramen without the soup. It was just ok and not great. The meat was seasoned decently but I was just expecting something different perhaps. As far as the Ramen, the two I tried had very one dimensional flavors. All I could pick up on was salt and pork, and it was a pretty thin soup making it seem watery. I guess I thought there would be some more complex flavors in there like other ramen shops and a bit more dense broth.


I would not return here due to these reasons.

My friend and I like meeting for lunch - preferably sushi. And we like trying new places, too. We agreed to meet up here today, as we had an appointment nearby in Kerrisdale.

The restaurant interior is small but super nice, with a monochromatic white pallet, and contemporary, mainstreamed aesthetic. And the servers were super nice, too.

That said, this is not a sushi place. In fact, there's no sushi at all on the menu. It primarily serves mazesoba bowls. Neither my friend nor I were/are familiar with these dishes. Like, at all. They're somewhat akin to poké bowls, but with more of an Asian bent, with specialized Japanese noodles and other Japanese ingredients.

Seeing as how I cannot tolerate spicy foods, and since we were unsure of many of the ingredients in these bowls (which all, granted, looked delicious), we opted instead for avocado and salmon salads, and we shared a fried cubed tofu "tapas" smaller dish. The salad was good but I found they were too heavy-handed with the dressing (I should have ordered the dressing on the side), but the tofu was delicious.

One thing of note: they have three desserts here and they all look amazing. One couple seated near us had a cone fulled with a special soft serve ice cream, and it looked fantastic.

A different take on Japanese noodles - without soup. It's a dry noodle dish that comes with a sauce made from soy sauce and pork lard. It comes with different toppings - bamboo shoots, seaweed, raw egg, minced meat or chashu and many more. Love it! Great umami deliciousness YUMMY.

Ordered the Chicken Karaage and it's a must - crunchy crisp skin, juicy, marinated so well, sumptuous to the last both

Great service, clean, not loud ambiance. Food is great! Depending on what you order, if you have sauce left, you can ask for a free spoon of rice to finish the sauce.

I have tried Kokoro Tokyo Mazesoba a couple times at their UBC location. This was my first time at their Kerrisdale spot. As usual, they did not disappoint.
The minute I got out of my car, my nose led me to their sandwich sign outside their door. It didn't take me long to select the daily special with salmon.
As I waited, I finally had the chance to read about them on the menu. On the previous visits with my daughter, we dug into our bowls so quickly I never had a chance to read their story.
Even though the overall cost is a little pricier, compared to everything these days everything is more expensive. So I can't say that the value isn't there. It depends what you're comparing to.
The brothless-ramen is prepared quickly with fresh ingredients, and I the amount is fulfilling.
If you're a heartier eater, there's lots of tasty sides & appies to explore. On this visit I needed to satisfy a growling tummy after a long day of errands, and I felt like Kokoro did just that.
If you're looking for something a little different in the world of Ramen definitely try out Kokoro Tokyo Mazesoba.