Ninja Club - Good Ramen (Edmonton 30 in 30)

I often find new restaurant recommendations from Urbanspoon and Ninja Club had been at the top of the charts for the entire time I have been back in Edmonton. Then I had numerous friends and family rave about the authentic ramen shop on Whyte Avenue and it sealed the deal. After a relatively long day in clinic I made the short trek over to Ninja Club.

The restaurant is easy to find on a nice and busy stretch of Whyte Avenue. Its obvious that the restaurant retrofitted the original (?home) to fit the needs of the eatery which has resulted in relatively drab interiors, minimalistic decor and a shared bathroom with the neighboring businesses. Nevertheless the functional eatery is punctuated by the enthusiasm and energy emanating from the husband and wife owners. I am told they hailed are recent immigrants from Japan and took up shop in Edmonton hoping to live the Canadian dream. With a story like that it does seem difficult to do nothing but root for them ...

The menu is small and functional. I often attest that the best, especially mom and pop-esque, restaurants limit their menu to the few items they have perfected and become known and popular for those dishes. Ninja club has crafted their brand through the ramen, and so their noodle soups are rightfully front and center on the first page of their menu. In additional to their ramen they have a bevy of sushi rolls and sashimi.

One of the hallmarks of any great Japanese restaurant is their fish and so I ordered Salmon Sashimi to start. The generous portions of salmon certainly looked gorgeous with a gentle orangy hue, but were unfortunately a tad mushy and lacked the texture you would expect from fresh salmon.

Thankfully their namesake dish was much better, Kimuchi Ramen takes their base miso broth and adds in a kick of spicy kimchi. The key ingredient, the miso broth, was excellently rich, milky and deep; an excellent contrast to the spicy and sharp flavour from the kimchi. The noodles were nicely tender and able to soak in the flavours from the soup without becoming mushy. The toppings, which included bean sprouts, sliced pork, seaweed and spinach were nice accompaniments to the dish and added freshness (from the vegetables) and fattyness (from the pork).

Ninja Club delivered its advertising promises of authentic Japanese ramen with its dense flavours and excellent soup base. And while the sashimi could have been improved, Ninja Club still created solid food that should warrant a visit from anyone in the area for ramen.