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GYUDONYA!

First came the sushi place...then the izakayas...now it's ramen. Vancouver loves it's Japanese food.

First came the sushi place...then the izakayas...now it's ramen.  Vancouver loves it's Japanese food.  A recent example of this is the 500 block of Robson which used to house Cafe S'il Vous Plait, now has a Beard Papas, Kushi Box, the yet to open Japadog flagship restaurant, and the recently opened Gyudonya.  They just took over.....

At first I thought Gyudonya was a new ramen place which shows you how well I understand Japanese.  When I found out it was actually a 'beef bowl' place I was disappointed.  Beef bowl?  Like Teriyaki bowl?  I had bad memories of that time I made the mistake of ordering one from Jack 'n the Box.  It was just wrong.

The construction seemed to take forever though and longer it took, the more open I became to trying it.  Finally last week I had a chance to get down there at lunch.

Now I love food fair fare as much as the next dude, but my initial comparisons to a teriyaki bowl, like something you'd get from Edo were way off.  It's alot more like sukiyaki, the sauce is much more light.  I know in the pictures it looks quite heavy, but the meal really isn't, the beef is cut very thin and the rice is so FLUFFY!  It's like remember that time when you first went to your favourite sushi place and realized that all rice wasn't created equal, this was another one of those moments.

They keep a real simple menu which ensures the food comes to you relatively quickly considering how packed it was.  Chicken, beef, and curry, with the beef bowl starting at about $5 for the basic bowl.   The pickles and soup are another couple bucks but round out the flavour nicely and make your lunch that much more special.

They seem to do as much of a take out business as they do eat in, so don't let the huge line at the front scare you off.  I'm not sure the rice bowl craze will surpass Vancouver's noodle craze but I know I'll be hitting this place up regularly.