A need for a speedy lunch led us to eat at Japanese Express in Pacific Mall. This is not so much a real restaurant as just one of the many food shops open in the food court area on the second floor of the famed Asian super mall.
This review will be short since it was more of a purchase and sit down to eat kind of place instead of an actual restaurant. I would not recommend ordering the ramen noodles at all from this place. After ordering it from the girl at the cashier, I waited for up to 10 minutes to get my order which felt like a ridiculously long time for take-out food. The worst part was that I witnessed that the chefs in the open kitchen simply open packets of Shin Ramyun and cooking the noodles. Um, if I eat out, I really do not expect to be eating packets of instant ramen that I can buy in the supermarket. I felt really ripped off since a packet of Shin ramen is sold for about a dollar. I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything more from a take-out eatery, but the fact that I saw the “chefs” open a packet of instant noodles in front of my face made me feel that I could have just rushed home instead to make it myself. The other sucky part was that it didn’t even taste good. Even though it was advertised as chicken ramen, the number of chicken pieces in the actual bowel was laughable. The “kalbi beef” ramen wasn’t any better either; the beef pieces were extremely rough and tough to chew through. The meager pieces vegetables floating in the soup didn’t taste fresh and the egg was overcooked.
Chicken Ramyum $5.31
Kalbi Ramyum $7.08
$1.99 for a California roll when ordering noodle soup
The only good part was the California roll which came at an extra $2 if you ordered a bowl of ramen. The roll actually tasted good!
So, if you are stuck at Pacific Mall and need a quick fix of food, I wouldn’t recommend this eatery unless you are ordering their sushi rolls.
stenoodie 
I never really trusted food court style fare places to be genuine to be honest, The fact that he opened a packet is certainly discouraging :-\
Agree. I shouldn’t have expected anything more than food court food, but just seeing him open the packet right then and there was very unappetizing. =\
Probably got his packet from costco! but, I suppose now you got a recipe you can try with your own ramen packets huh! 🙂
Hahaha, that’s terrible…
but yes, I know I can make a meaner bowl of ramen with all the fixings better than what I had here for sure!
I’ll order one bowl of Karen’s special ramen ahead of time 😉
Haha, what if I throw in things that are not usually in ramen bowls? :O
Then I’d like it even more! I like that kind of creativity in dishes. What would you add? 🙂
Hahaha, what if I added creativity in the form of protein i.e. scorpions and worms? ^_^
Hey why not! Yolo and all that lol
Haha, wow! You are very adventurous! I thought for sure you would have shrunk away in horror lol… not that I would really serve anyone scorpions or worms anyway haha
Damn, here I was ready to check it off on my bucket list 😛 but hey you know what? there ARE two restaurants here that serve the more.. shall we say unusual? foods. Something you expect out of Indiana Jones :O lol
Haha. Actually, we have at least one restaurant here in Toronto that serves crickets or something! I haven’t tried it before though. I’ll need an adventurous eater like you to come with me! Haha 😀
Oh I intend on trying it with you! let’s see which one of us try first lol! I’m curious about trying the tequila with a worm inside lollipop 🙂
Haha, what? There’s a tequila with a worm inside a lollipop drink? That’s kind of crazy… lol
ya! its a tequila lollipop, like caramelized with the actual worm in the center, someone once told me some people add it to their drink for flavor but I never tried. Think I’ll wait till I see you lol 🙂