BEEST: Roast beef ramen in downtown Vancouver
BEEST is a newish addition to the Vancouver ramen scene and we came by for a visit back in December. They are located in downtown Vancouver on Bute Street boast a very meaty menu featuring roast beef in almost every dish!
BEEST Roast beef marinated ramen – Vancouver
770 Bute St, Vancouver, BC V6E 1C2
The vibe
The interior of BEEST has a cozy and dark feel to it. For a small space, they fit quite a number of tables in there comfortably, and I noticed many tables were in and out quickly.
We were seated as a table of 4 near the back where there was a wall of booth seating – comfy!
Food and drinks review
Here are some of the things our table ordered. Prices are in CAD and rounded to the nearest dollar for simplicity.
Shoyu ramen ($20)
What was puzzling to me was that we came here looking for ramen (and the Google name says ramen), but on the menu they actually only have 2 ramens – 1 shoyu ramen and 1 spicy ramen. This was kind of misleading.
My mom ordered the Shoyu ramen because she can’t handle spice well, and it comes with 150g of noodle and 2oz of roast beef as a default. If you want more noodles or more meat, you can add on for extra $.
Shio mazemen ($18)
What is more popular (and they have more menu options) is their mazemen. Think of this like a dry ramen without the soup.
I ordered the shio BEEST flavour, which is mostly garlic and spring onions and also had their standard 3oz roast beef.
I actually quite liked my mazemen – it kind of reminded me of the Indonesian instant noodles migorin. It had a nice thick garlicky sauce and the green onions balanced that out a little bit. 3oz of meat was a perfect portion for me, but I do have to say I don’t regularly love roast beef in general.
Smokey mazemen ($18+8)
My partner ordered the smokey mazemen, which comes with a different base. The smokey one uses spiced miso and chili so it is a lot spicier than my base. He also upgraded his meat to 6oz for an additional +$8.
With the 6oz meat, they twirl it into a meat rose, which I thought was pretty neat!
Out of the 2 mazemens we ordered, I like mine more (the shio one) because I found the smokey one to be too salty (and a tad too spicy for me).
Chive mochi ($5)
For an appetizer, we also shared the chive mochi. It comes in 8 large pieces for $5.
I thought this was an interesting little appetizer and my first bite was quite good. The mochi inside is chewy and the outside is deep fried. I can’t really taste that much chive flavour but I could see it was in there.
My last bites of this appetizer got a bit too greasy for me.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
We had a decent dinner at BEEST and I find the prices to be reasonable. They were encouraging us to purchase a membership where you can save money and get free upgrades like more noodles and more meat. They also gave out free ice cream cones to those who signed up for membership.
Out of their menu, I would say the mazemen taste better and it seems like this restaurant is actually more a dry ramen spot than a soup ramen spot. So if you are looking for a soup ramen place, I wouldn’t recommend this spot as they only have 2 options.
I would recommend BEEST if you are really into beef as that is the only protein they have (no chicken or pork chasu). The roast beef itself is not bad and is cut thinly. The flavouring is also good (says Kelvin), but I think it just missed the mark for me because I literally don’t like roast beef that much. I did like the the yuzu and ginger highballs they had on the menu – very refreshing.
Sincerely, Loewe