Always craving ramen. Two of my friends had lunch with me at Tokyo Joe’s Ramen Okawari. I think I’ve been on a ramen craze lately, and this place is fairly convenient to go to, if you’re not driving- because they share the parking lot with Price Smart and it is crazy trying to find a spot!

I went there once earlier this year, and coming here again months later, I noticed a change in their menus. They have 5 choices of ramen- which you can see from the menu here. My friends and I each ordered a different bowl of ramen.

I ordered the Black Ramen ($9.50) which had Japanese “Ma-Yu” Ramen, Shoyu (Soy Sauce) Bean  Paste, Sake Teriyaki cooked Pork Belly, soft yolk egg, sliced onion, and bean sprout.

For the price, the portion seems smaller, but it was enough for me to finish. The soup had so much flavour, albeit on the salty side, but I could not stop drinking it! The belly was cooked perfectly- it was easy to chew and the sauce was great, although I couldn’t taste the “sake” part of it.

Apart from a delicious bowl of steaming hot ramen, we also shared two special sushi rolls.

The first one is the Black Forest Mountain Sushi ($9.95) – “The Sushi Cake Style, Yam Tempura inside, Avocado and Inari on top with Black Sesame sauce.”

I never had a sushi in a cake style, who would’ve expected it to look like this?

I was a huge fan of this sushi. It was original and fun to eat. I like anything with black sesame, and the sauce with spinach tasted great with the rice. There was a lot of rice though, would’ve been nice to see more yam stuffed inside.

The next roll we ordered was the Stamina Roll ($13.95)- “Crab meat, smoked salmon, unagi and avocado on top.”

It looked like a giant caterpillar when it came, a colourful, edible one of course. I really enjoyed the unagi on top. The sushi was a bit big so it took me two bites to eat it. I’m a huge sucker for smoked salmon and it tasted fresh inside the sushi.

Aesthetics of sushi rolls are always appealing, and I give 10/10 for the presentation alone!

Because we went on a Saturday afternoon, parking was miserable. People were shopping at Price Smart so it was hard to find a spot- I suggest be willing to walk a bit farther to find a car spot.

Between a bowl of ramen and sharing two rolls of sushi, I was left full and satisfied after the meal. The servers were very kind in greeting us and taking our orders and the food arrived a reasonable speed.The atmosphere is very casual and relaxing; also spacious and clean.  With the decent quality of food, I do plan to return to this place again!