With a name like Yah Yah Ya Ramen and a sign that said “I heart Ramen” outside, I had  my doubts. However after walking over 7 miles and finishing a 90 minute KPop random play dance in Robson Square, my daughter just wanted the closest ramen we could find.  Yah Yah Ya was it.

The place was kind of quiet on a Saturday night, but it turned out that it was just before closing. We quickly ordered our noodles, whereupon I started worrying that the chefs would be pissed that we came in so late and that their anger would come across in the food.

Their menu has several different ramens, all customizable by noodle firmness, taste and oil. To make things easy, we all got normal, normal and less. Luckily, our bowls came out pretty fast (I’m sure the cooks were ready to go home).

My husband’s Veggie Ramen had a creamy looking broth, somehow magically coaxed out of mushrooms and konbu, topped with carrot, cabbage, spinach, shiitake and wood ear mushrooms and scallions. For a veggie ramen, the soup was pretty flavorful, which is pretty hard to achieve without meat.

My daughter’s shio came with two generous slices of chashu, seaweed, bean sprouts, scallions and egg. It was exactly what she needed after a long day of physical activity. The broth, a mixture of pork bones, chicken bones and vegetables, had been cooked for 12 hours, giving it a nice richness.

I stuck with the Shoyu, which also came with a couple of thick chashu slices, seaweed, spinach, scallions and egg. My favorite part of the bowl was the pork.  It was reminiscent of my mom’s – one bite transported me back to being a kid and eating the leftover pork with ramen. It was a bit of nostalgia I was not expecting from a place with such a silly name.

We finished our bowls in no time, and even though we were the last to arrive, we weren’t the last to leave (not that we felt pressure from the extremely patient staff).  With our bellies full, we managed to summon the last bit of energy needed to walk back to our hotel. Despite its ridiculous name, Yah Yah Ya Ramen made me at home, with my mom cooking my favorite pork dish in the kitchen.

Location – 570 Robson StreetVancouver, BC V6B 2B7Canada
Website – n/a
Kid-Friendly – Yes
Kid’s Menu – No
Vegetarian/Vegan Friendly – Yes
Gluten-Free Friendly – Yes, they have rice bowls.