Kokoro Tokyo Mazesoba

551 Seymour Street
Vancouver, BC

Off from work and not wanting to cook, W and I took a brisk walk to Kokoro Tokyo Mazesoba to try this "new" take on noodles.

The restaurant describes mazesoba as something that's not quite ramen and not quite udon. Using thicker house-made wheat noodles, it is served with lots of different toppings and mixed together with their own special sauce.

 Niku Mazesoba ($15.49) - Slow-braised pork chashu, spicy minced pork, raw egg yolk, minced garlic, green onion, seaweed flakes, ground saba fish powder, chives, multi-grain noodles made in-house

Their selling-point is the raw egg yolk that is mixed in with the noodles and sauce before eating. W tried the Niku Mazesoba that has both minced pork and pork belly with the other toppings. The sauce for this one was stronger and a bit spicy which matched well with the thick noodles.

 Shio Mazesoba (13.99) - Slow-braised pork chashu, bamboo shoots, green onion, spinach, seaweed flakes, minced garlic, ground saba fish powder, multi-grain noodles made in-house

I didn't want any spiciness so I opted for the Shio (salt) Mazesoba. Comparatively, the sauce in my bowl did not have as much impact on my tastebuds as W's noodles so it seemed kind of weak. I had to put a few drops of vinegar with my noodles to liven up the flavours.

There was a sign on our table that taught you how to eat their mazesoba. You first break the egg yolk (if you have one) and mix with the noodles, eat the noodles with the original sauce, then add in a bit of kombu-infused vinegar (available table-side) to brighten up the palate.

Hokkaido Crème Cup ($4.49) - Organic milk soft serve ice cream made by their Japanese Nissei machine

I'm not gonna lie... The main reason that I wanted to go to Kokoro Tokyo Mazesoba was to have their ice cream! I saw that they sold creamy soft serve ice cream in a chat-de-langue cookie cone, very similar to the one I had in Japan!!! Too bad all their cones were sold out that day. I chose to have the ice cream in a cup instead. I still wanted to compare and see if their soft serve ice cream was yummy or not.

Welp, sad to say I was disappointed with their ice cream :(  Even though the presentation was simple and cute (the swirl reminded me of Dairy Queen's ice cream and the shovel spoon was super fun to eat from!) the texture of the ice cream was off. I think they used milk powder to make their base but the powder hadn't dissolved properly yet. When they made the ice cream, the powder granules were still apparent and didn't make a smooth and creamy finish. The flavour was not bad though. It had a distinct milky/dairy taste and it wasn't very sweet. Just too bad the mouth-feel was not up to par...

Hopefully this was just a one-off thing! I would want to go back and see if their ice cream improves next time and try their cone too!

As it's located right next to the BCIT downtown campus, expect line-ups during rush hour!