Menyatai Japanese Noodles

Totally in synch with Yelpers that have dined here. Solid 4 stars, good food, no muss, fuss or pretense. Just a clean, well lit interior that's pleasant with good service.

We stuck with a pretty traditional lunch menu, recovering from the previous night of overdoing it with food and beverages. Oy. The miso soup is above average and you can actually taste the green onion, unlike so many. Seaweed and spinach salads were tasty and healing. Gyoza and tempura vegetables in dipping sauces came next and we washed it all down with hot teas. Nice.

Would love to return and try some of their Udon and Ramen dishes and probably will on a return visit. Like the fact they appear to be sticking with one game and not trying to do too much. This place appealed to us and hit our sweet spot, just happening to be very near to where we're staying. Recommended.

I really liked this place. Alittle small on the inside, but good food. I tried the gyoza, shrimp tempera and beef Teri don. I was impressed with it all! I will definitely be back to try the ramen. The people I was with had some and very much enjoyed it.

This place was decent. The food came out fast. Girls were friendly. Green tea was good. We were in and out in a normal amount of time which is always a plus.

Only 1 piece of pork though! WTF? Give out two pieces like everyone else. Also there is NO TOFU as an add on! So sad. Tofu is so yummy on ramen. I asked the girl if I could add some to my soup and she said no, so I was kind of bummed about that, but its not the end of the world.

Tried the spicy miso ramen and some gyoza. The gyoza was pretty standard and the soup was about the same. I would say it was pretty good although I have had better. I don't know what it is about spicy miso that makes it so delicious, but it just tastes so dang good. I could eat it everyday. The price of the ramen isn't too bad either. But like I said this is definitely NOT the best ramen I've ever had in my life. It was decent.

The presentation is absolutely phenomenal. I love the seaweed standing on top of the soup. I also loved the wooden spoon that you use to eat the broth. As well as this the location and ambience of the place is very trendy and cute. The decor was really awesome in my opinion.

Came with here on a cold wintry day for lunch. Been trying a new ramen place once a week. Location is right in Kensington with plenty of street parking. The interior is nice and bright. Not too busy at noon but started to get busy around 1230p, We were seated promptly.

Pretty good menu for ramen. Kids shared their usual Tonkotsu Ramen. I had Spicy Tonkotsu ramen. Ramen broth was flavourful but the noodles were not quite al dente - it was good but we've had better. Good portions and boiled egg was perfect. Had bean sprouts, wood ear, and corn. Very filling and I did not finish mine and had to pack home. Also tried the fried oysters - not bad.

Staff is very helpful and friendly. Food came out quite quickly which is great when you have young hungry kids.

Will probably come back but not after trying some other places. You can't give half stars but if you could I'd give it 3.5 (not quite 4 but not 3 either).

Nothing beats hot soup on a cold day. Came her for a late lunch and it was busy. The place is small and has a few tables not good for large groups. There's street parking only.

Our server was friendly and our food came out quick. I ordered the veggie miso ramen and my bf ordered the spicy miso ramen. The portion size was huge we both couldn't finish. The miso broth was rich and flavourful. The spicy ramen has a real good kick if you like spicy! Definitely will return to try there rice dishes next time.

I've been dreaming about a hot bowl of delicious ramen for soooooooo long. Seriously, why does Calgary have so many legit ramen places? I call bull. Oh well, just gives me more reason to visit/move here. I decided to try Menyatai Japanese Ramen for the first time and arrived on a late Friday afternoon. Holy crap, the place was packed and it was well past the lunch rush. Clearly, they know what they're doing. The interior is very Japanese - modern, bright white walls and oozes of friendliness. Even though it was packed, the mood was very serene and enjoyable.

- Seaweed salad ($4.50) -while I waited patiently for my ramen, I ordered a seaweed salad. It was light, crunchy and refreshing. A nice contrast to the ramen actually.
- Spicy tonkatsu ramen ($12.95) - a rich, flavourful pork broth that made you want to lick the bowl clean. I couldn't stop myself from devouring the whole thing. Ahhhhhh, ramen cravings satisfied.
This bowl consisted of bean sprouts, a soft boiled egg (done absolutely right, so soft and yolky), green onion, black mushroom, sliced pork, corn and dried seaweed. Let's talk about that sliced pork - holy crap, I wanted more. It was grilled/charred beforehand and wow, was it ever delicious. Melt in your mouth, just the right amount of fat to accompany it. Too bad it was only one slice...

Menyatai is legit. Japanese speaking staff that are super friendly and provide great service. Water was constantly filled. Take a seat at the ramen bar and take it all in. Can't wait for my next visit!

We went to Menyatai to try their ramen and we were a bit disappointed. Mainly because the broth for all 3 of our ramen lack depth and flavour. The toppings were a bit on the minimal side, especially the meat. The serving portions are pretty generous which might be a positive or a negative depending if you enjoyed your ramen. As for us, it was not too bad, just mediocre.

It's a different story for their appetizers though. We ordered takoyaki, shrimp and pork dumplings(siomai) and tempura and they were all delish! Should have just ordered a double helping of those. But we were there for the ramen.

The service was superb, I would give them 5 stars if the ramen wasn't so lacking. Their servers are very friendly and the food came out quickly and consistently. You have to understand that Menyatai is super busy everytime(you can see the line up outside on weekends). So it's amazing that our drinks were all filled and our needs met through out the whole time. Also, the restaurant is clean and super cute! The ambiance is perfect for friends, family, and lunch dates.

Overall, I would recommend Menyatai for a good lunch date, quick bite, lunch break, and family lunch/brunch. And definitely recommend the appetizers more than the ramen.

Massively massively superior noodles.

One of the best bowls of udon I have ever had.

(or rather my wife has ever had .... I just got to sample part of hers.)

She did a veggie udon with a miso sauce with a massively excellent broth

(Blows away any hippie restaurant miso sauce you have ever had)

superlatively individually flavored veggies, and great noodles.

*

Silly me, i had the tempura yams and the octopus balls.

These were quite fine, but not legendary like the udon.

*

The tempura yam slices were about the size of surfboards.

One serving of yam slices is more than enough for lunch ...

for a whole catholic high school, including the teachers.

For those of us used to chintzy servings of tempura - surfboard sized tempura is a clear step in the right direction.

And the execution was just fine.

*
The octopus balls were fascinating morsels.

(They were not that kind of octopus ball.

No octopus lost his virility in the making of this dish.)

These were chunks of octopus meat dipped in rice flour batter, deep fried and drowned in high quality very large bonito flakes and drizzled in two sauces.

An appetizer i would be happy to have again.

*

But nothing could compare to the quality of the noodles.

Menyatai is a fine establishment.

Went for some ramen with girlfriends last night as it was cold - like we needed an excuse :)

For a group of 3 or more, your whole party needs to be there before you are seated. Not a problem with me as the tables seemed to turn over pretty quickly and the servers were on the ball clearing tables so that the next group could be seated.

Order of Shrimp Sui Mai in sauce to share as it came with 6 pieces. Nice and tasty and good little snack before diving into a bowl of ramen.

Both my friends had the Spicy Tonkotsu Ramen, which they quite enjoyed. Both of them said the first sip of broth was really spicy but then it mellowed out a bit. Seemed to enjoy every mouthful.

I had the Tonkotsu Shoyu Ramen which had a good flavoured broth. Know that it should have been saltier than the regular Tonkotsu Ramen but didn't find it salty at all. Think the regular Tonkotsu Ramen may be a little bland, but this broth was very tasty.

All of the bowls came with mountains of ramen. There were noodles all the way to the top of the broth, and even though I managed to eat every mouthful I am really glad there wasn't any more in that bowl as I would have been to full to eat it.

Very prompt service, ramen came hot and steaming, lovely little restaurant. If it is busy in there could see that there might be a bit of a wait, but saying that everyone seemed to eat and go.

Will definitely come back if craving another bowl of deliciousness.

--- Food ---
First time trying the ramen here with my partner after reading good reviews.
I ordered the Tonkotsu ramen while he ordered the Miso ramen.
The soup base was tasty, ramen noodle texture was a little hard, the chashu pork belly was pretty good as well. The portion size is big - big bowl with tons of noodle.

My partner and I preferred the ramen at Goro & Gun better. For their ramen noodle softer chewier texture and bigger tastier slice of chashu pork belly. We found the soup a bit bland and needed to sprinkle some shichimi (chilli pepper).

--- Atmosphere ---
The interior design looks really nice! Very modern with Japanese flair.
The service is average, at times they seemed a little disorganized with the multiple tables they had to service. We were left without a menu for the first 5 minutes until I mentioned it to the waitress. They were friendly though.

--- Summary ---
I would likely try other ramen shops before coming back to this one again.
It was a pleasant experience overall and I would try their other ramen choices.