Just came back from a late night dinner at Motomachi. The service was great, we had full glasses of water through the whole meal. I had the Spicy Miso Chicken, delicious with the snow peas and bamboo shoots and my husband had the Shoyu with pork and added the burnt onion oil to it. I will be having that next time, delicious delicate flavours, loved it.
I'm never able to finish the whole bowl so value is great.
I wish I'd been hungry enough to order their gyoza, its still my favourite in the city.
One of my top 5 cheap meals in Vancouver!

In short - this is Kintaro done right. Very close taste-wise, but not dingy, clean and you don't have to squeeze yourself into a men's bathroom. The design of the place is also very nice, the ambiance being made a bit quirky by a jazzy music playing in the background.

The place is very small and it has 3 tables for two, one table for four and a large shared table in the middle that sits about 10 people. Sharing a table with other people is not for everyone, but it also means that you will be sit faster if you are alone.

This place is a bit pricey though. Gyoza + noodles + green tea (from a tea bag) + tips = $18. That's for one. Noodles alone are around 8-9-10 dollars. I cannot honestly tell if it is organic or inorganic (hehe), but to me it is worth it anyways.

In any case, if you like Kintaro or the older version of Ezogiku, make sure to check this place out.

I went to this small Jap resto tonight at around 10:15pm and stayed until 11pm cuz my bf craved ramen for late night snack. So, I checked out the reviews for ramen around Vancouver and found out that this place is the best. So, we ordered the gyoza that we find to be pretty good. Very juicy and the taste wasn't too overpowering and the skin was pretty thin. We also ordered the charcoal ramen with pork and the spicy chicken miso ramen. The bamboo charcoal noodle was a little bland in taste but considering that it's an healthy food so I thought it was very good. The soup base wasn't oily at all and interesting enough, it was black. As for the spicy miso, the soupbase was not bad with lots of veggies and some chicken breast. What I like the best is the noodle, it was thin and chewy. I don't eat lots of ramen and I don't know how the standards of the other restaurants are so I think that this restaurant is pretty good so i would definitely come again. Though I might try other ramen places to find out which is the best.

We enjoyed our experience here. The ramen tasted quite authentic, the gyoza, although huge, was quite tasty, and the atmosphere was very Kyotoesque. I would definitely recommend this place. I have had good ramen around town and bad. This place serves it up simple, but good. I would appreciate it if they were open later, though. They serve only beer for alcohol, hot sake would be nice, too.

Saw the reviews here & went to try it today. Went around 7:45 pm on a Friday evening and there was a slight line up. Since most people realize that the place is very small, people eat & leave. I think there must have been about 20 seats in the restaurant in total and got to ours in about 5 to 10 minutes.

I had the charcoal ramen & I thought the first bite was ok... but as i kept eating it, I started to find the taste of the soup a bit strange & less and less flavour. After the last bite, I realized then that I really didn't like it anymore. Maybe it was because the taste was so peculiar.

Come to think of it, I've never had anything like it even in Japan and I'm Japanese. I've seen Japanese people put the charcoal in their rice cookers but in soup... Hmmm... not sure it's my favourite soup in ramen....

My partner had the spicy chicken ramen. I had a little taste of the soup and the soup base was more fishy on that one, but I felt that it tasted better than mine. My partner commented that the organic chicken on the ramen tasted like the free range ones we ate in Cuba. Very very good.

The spicy chicken ramen is definitely the way to go. For those who likes something alittle more interesting, something you've never tasted before, try the charcoal ramen.

Next time I go, I'd like to try just the regular miso or shoyu ramen..

Okay for those of you who say this place is bad value... this place uses ORGANIC INGREDIENCE, and unlike other places doesnt just fill their bowls with mainly broth and noodles. It has such a savoury pork im still tasting it while writing this. Im on a Ramen kick now and this is the best without a doubt. The ambience was so nice, a little plain with a bit of jazz music made this place have a casual, warm, inviting feel to it. Service was awesome! Our waiter was so friendly and didnt rush us to finish our meal even though there was a line up and refills of tea were prompt. I tried there gyozas.. .excellent! I had the house ramen and my guest had the spicy miso ramen. Both were excellent not too much broth and noodles and not to little but it came with an organic egg which was just perfect. Oozy and soft boiled to perfectly with kimchi, bean sprouts, green beans... i really want to go back and try the charcoal bamboo ramen which is suppost to be excellent for digestion. They have alot of choices on the menu which i must go back and try because there house ramen was just so excellent. THIS PLACE WAS WRITTEN UP IN THE VANCOUVER FOOD MAGAZINE UNDER 101 GREAT TASTE. The ramen is like nothing else ..so light and delicious once you get into the ramen the flavours really start to sink in with the bean sprouts and green onions and just wow... best ramen ever. I think before when i rated the other ramen places i was being too generous but this is just ramen at its finest with the finest, freshest ingredience. Kudos Motomachi.. you've got a new regular.

From all the good review on here, I was hoping it to be better. The food is not much better than Kintaro or Benkei but the price is more expensive. So not worth it. They also charge for the hot tea. Maybe they have free hot tea but didn't tell me. Credit card is not excepted. For the price they charge, I would expected them to except credit card.

Food was excellent. Creative options, colorful and careful presentation. Service was very good - there was only one attendent, which was suffice for a dining area the size of a storage room. Value was decent - slightly higher than your usual Japanese hole in the wall. But this is downtown, and business is harder for such small places. Understandable - and it made no real impact. Ambiance - Outstanding. Storage-sized room, open kitchen, seat fit into every possible space; one side was even a concrete wall that made it look liek we were in an alley -- unintentionally. Then why such a high rating for such crappy decor?

Simple. You feel the authenticity of a small Japanese place, making it's best effort to attract it's few customers. You can taste the care put into each item. The juxtaposition of a mess of a dining room and a beatuifully presented dish just makes it feel that much more precious and worthwhile.

Good shit.

Compared to other Japanese ramen restaurants, this place gives you a great selection and quality ingredients! I like the gyozas here, its a good bite size and a great appetizer to start off with. The soup base is very good, you don't taste grease at all unlike other ramen restaurants. The ramen noodles are cooked to perfection with sides on top. I would highly recommend Motomachi! Its a small place but great place to hang out!

Tried Motomachi Shokudo for the first time. A bit pricey but the gyozas and noodles were tasty. Gyozas were big and juicy and the noodles had a lot of substance to them. The soup broth was good and made with organic chicken stock. I think I prefer Kintaro though but I would go back again. Really small place but the waitresses were friendly and there were a lot of Japanese clients that ate there so that's always a good sign.