Harvest Community Foods

A small store with a small selection of café/​restaurant food, we had the delicious veg ramen, while listening to their cool soundtrack.

Vancouver Ramen challenge 7 — Harvest community foods
This place has all the potential for amazing ramen on the opposite side of denman area, located in heart of Chinatown.
The noodles perfect and chewy
The pork oh so melt in mouth good
Candied bacon is always a plus
The egg done correctly except wish it wasn’t served cold
The veggie broth amazing but the pork ramen broth is blend.
All the basics to a great ramen is here, surprisingly not run by Japanese.
The bad news is that it has so much potential but they are stingy on toppings and $ 1 for egg but you don’t even get a full one… It could be so much better and could be the best place in town if it adds toppings quoit charging extra for everything
Value ³⁄₅
Atmosphere ²⁄₅ weird people are grocery shopping while you are eating
Service ³⁄₅
Quality ⁵⁄₅
¹³⁄₂₀

Omg, what happened? I haven’t eaten here for a month and the noodles are now $ 2 more @ $ 11.95. Ahhhh you’re killing my wallet. Not worth it unless it gives me special powers but apparently it didn’t!
Sorry but there are so many other places to eat now around Chinatown so I dunno how long this business will last. =*(Plus the service sucks no matter how many times I’ve been here.
I’m sad.

From Ernest ice cream to the most beautiful, locally harvested produce from Solefoods, Harvest Community Market offers products from some of the best local makers. I just completely geeked out at the sight of some items on the shelf.
Their noodle dishes are very solid. Although I do agree that the portion size is smaller than other conventional Japanese ramen vendors, but this ramen, is very far from conventional. Think of their ramen and udon offerings as a healthier and much cleaner tasting version of their counterparts, where the freshness and quality of the individual ingredients are felt effortlessly on your palate. The broth is a class of its own, providing fresh and minimal take on the classic.
I especially love the sake kasu chicken udon. The chicken reminds me very much of the ones I marinade at home using sake kasu from Artisan Sakemaker of Granville Island. I will not be surprised Harvest Union uses the very same to marinade their own.
If you like local, artisan products, drop in and experience for yourself. Oh, and do grab a jar of salted caramel Ernest ice cream before you head home.
A note about the service: Young girl with a tatoo and dark hair behind the counter provides the most inattentive service known to mankind. I kid you not, from the moment you place an order to her serving the noodle to your table, she has not spoken A SINGLE WORD nor made an eye contact. Yes, that includes the whole process of me paying and her receiving money then her giving me incorrect change so me politely commenting on her mistake which led to her dropping down some extra coins on the counter, WHILE I had my hand opened and stretched out for them. Yes, not a single line of dialogue during that time. When she dropped those changes on the counter I was frozen with my hand still stretched out and my mouth half open with a ‘what the s**t just-​happened’ looping infinitely inside my head. She looked pretty angry for some reason, while impressively avoiding eye contact until I regained consciousness and walked defeated to my table. That is not going to keep me from going to Harvest Union because of their awesome products and food, but yeah. I only hope she didn’t do anything to the food.

I like the ramen. The veggie squash ramen was better in my opinion, but both are good. The noodles are much better than at Ramen butcher. The toppings were just ok, but the pork shoulder was very tasty!

Small ramen place with very cute ambience (+1) and cafeteria-​style-​service. Too bad food was slightly below average (–3) :(
Favorite: They sell earnest ice cream!

I love Harvest Community Foods for their noodle soups. Delicious broths, locally sourced super fresh veggies and excellent noodles. Udon, ramen and rice noodles are available along with vegan and vegetarian options. I’m a regular for weekend brunch and love the Breakfast Udon, rich broth, beautiful greens and two poached eggs. Homemade chilli oil is always available made with roasted chillies the perfect finish. And so filling, portions have the feeling of the eyes being bigger than the stomach.
A very popular spot for lunch where Chef Hokuto and server Malika deliver quality, careful and friendly customer service. Harvest is a definite «go to» especially now as autumn leads us toward winter and the rainy weather takes hold.

Harvest does a good attempt at making Asian dishes more appealing to Western audiences who aren’t especially partial to the greasy spoon Chinese restaurants in Chinatown. I tried both the dry and soup noodles here and enjoyed both!
The rice noodle dish had delicious flavours, with the smoked chili really complimenting the hazelnuts and bitter greens. Great for bringing back to the office to eat! The only downside — the rice noodles weren’t cooked properly (overcooked) both times I tried this dish. They fell apart every time you tried to pick them up with your chopsticks! Kind of disappointing for a place that serves primarily noodles.
Ramen was delicious, though not nearly as flavourful as the ramen soup I’m used to. But for the purpose of a mid-​workday lunch, it was perfect. Everything I’ve tried here leaves you feeling not overly full, and energised. Delicious!

Lacking in both flavour and charm. There were some nice quality groceries available, including Earnest ice cream. However, the vegan ramen was awful. The broth was bland, noodles overcooked, and there was probably ¼ cup of salad greens and two slices of sweet potato in there. Sad.

Dropped by for take-​out the other day on my lunch hour. The person working the cash register wasn’t very attentive and didn’t offer much help. That being said, I got the chicken noodle soup. The portion size wasn’t great, but the flavours were very tasty. For the $ 11 price, it wasn’t great value. I may try to dine there in the future to see if it’s better than the take out!

my next best stop if i’m in the chinatown area to get Earnest Ice cream… but just the basic flavours.
Also seems like a good place for comfort food, despite the recent reviews — at least it’s another different option than those asian bakeries haha.

A few of my friends have recommended this place. Cute setup. Restaurant looked very clean and atmosphere was nice.
Nothing positive to say about the food though. Went in and got the pork shoulder ramen, and was totally disappointed. The broth was tasteless. The pork (the few small pieces) was subpar. And, considering the $ 11 that the dish cost, the portion was tiny.
Won’t be back any time soon.

I came here with high hopes in an area that is slowly revamping itself as the hipster retail location, however, the food was disappointing. Worst Tasted Udon ever. Noddles were over cooked, broth was over salty and mine barely had any chicken. The lady at the til had a to force a smile which was disappointing. It wasn’t ’cause it was hot, she genuinely wasn’t warm. The prices were way too expensive wasn’t there. The ambiance is cool and they stock a lot of local favorites.

Ohhhh I was so excited about this place, but Harvest deserves 1 star for sure, for its:
— BLANDEST broth ever
— tiny little portion for $ 10 — after tax and tip it was $ 12
— no friendly service and yet they still ask for the tip even BEFORE we even get any kind of food or service. The whole point of tip is gratitude, that is to show how you feel about the food and service, but at Harvest, you pay that when you order the food standing at the cash register (since it is self service like a Starbucks) before you get your food or even get to sit at your table. Went to Harvest yesterday to check out since I heard so much great thing about the place. We were pretty excited with the idea and philosophy of the place. What a disappointment though… :(
Maybe I should have given one more chance with some other food before I give one star but… wow that Ramen with Pork Shoulder was the worst ramen I have ever had. I am a big fan of Japanese ramen with MSG sensitivity and I have tried pretty much all the places around Lower Mainland and North Shore. I only give 1 star and 5 stars on my Unilocal and their average is around 3 or 4 in Vancouver and Toronto so far so they are not on my Unilocal review (of course I would have given those I had in Japan 5 stars for sure! if they had Unilocal Japan).

I am basing my review on the chicken udon (first item on the chalk board menu). It doesn’t make sense that I paid over $ 10 for a bowl of food that can’t even shut up my nagging hunger. I was only half full. It doesn’t make ANY sense!
The broth was tasty. The flavors was deep but definitely not as rich as your traditional ramen broth but that’s alright. I realize I am ordering udon and not ramen and I am not at a traditional noodle house. The broth was a tad salty but overall, soup base was not bad.
The udon noodles were in plain words — t.e.r.r.i.b.l.e.
They were so soft and lifeless, even my cat’s limpy tail has better texture. Why would you serve terrible food? Why? They taste like the individual udon packs in the instant noodle isle where refrigeration is utterly redundant. That’s the low of the lowest quality.
Very disappointed in the food. Very. My dining partner felt the same way.
Service was unapproachable and unfriendly. There were two young ladies working Tuesday lunch shift.

Went here for the first time today and will, undoubtably, be back!
The service was excellent and the food was even better. I tried the udon with shiso and it blew me away. It was the best udon I’ve had in a very very long time and I can’t wait to try everything else!

Okay. I’m a fan.
It was the Vegetarian Ramen w/​Squash & Miso Broth that won me over. I’m no vegetarian, but if I had to eat that everyday for the rest of my life, I’d be a happy lady. The Ramen w/​Pork Shoulder was good too, but the Ramen w/​Squash will have a special place in my heart now.
I’m actually currently salivating just thinking about it.
So why am I not giving them 5 stars?
I came in one Friday afternoon for lunch craving for that delicious Ramen w/​Squash bowl but was told they ran out of ramen! I was so heartbroken. I stood there sad and confused and finally decided to try the Rice Noodle w/​hazelnut, smoked chili and greens. It was not that good. I was expecting it to be soupy, but it was more saucy. And I found the sauce a bit too salty for my liking.
And I still can’t get over waiting 15 – 20 minutes for a bowl of ramen especially during a quick work lunch break. But I’ve learned to peek inside first and see if people have already gotten their noodle bowls or if they’re still waiting. If they’re mostly still waiting for their food I might be tempted to eat elsewhere. Maybe.

My wife and I bought some ramen bowls to take out at Harvest and I thought it was such an outrageous rip-​off I had to return them. The portions were small and there were barely any vegetables in there. The broth was very bland. My jaw dropped when my wife informed me the two bowls cost us $ 23! We had the most incredible Vietnamese bowls for the same price at nearby Union a while back, so I just couldn’t accept this.
In fairness they refunded without a quibble.
Sorry Harvest, I’m calling ‘hipster fakery’ on your ramen!

When I walked in here, I was not expecting it to serve ramen. I had heard a little about the place and knew that they were a small grocer with lots of organic and local produce.
But the ramen! Oh my goodness. So tasty and perfectly cooked. It had the right bite to it. I got the one with pork shoulder and a bit of bacon. I especially loved the soft boiled egg that was served with it. Very flavourful. The broth was really yum too.
On the side wall they have a collection of locally made products. A lot of tasty stuff. The best part is that they sell Earnest Ice cream which is the best! I ended up taking home a jar of the salted caramel. Mmm delicious.

«Please Sir may I have some more?» and more and more and well you get it!
What a gem of a spot! I would never have guessed that it could pump out such amazing ramen only using induction burners! I thought for sure there were going to be big pots of amazing broth bubbling on a huge gas stove. I even considered looking in an alley to see if he was out there with a camp stove. No my friends it is all done with a simple induction burner.
The egg in my #9 was so perfectly cooked. It just looked beautiful and allowed the flavor of the broth to adhere to it in such a great way.
In the case of my meal at Harvest Community Foods bigger is not always better. They completely understand the tipping point of being overly full to comfortable. The portion was perfect. I was able to enjoy all the noodles, «garnish» and amazing broth without feeling bloated.
In addition to the fabulous ramen they have a little shop that sells locally produced products. You may also want to sign up for the basket program for $ 35 every few weeks. It has amazing products each time you pick it up.
Spread the word my friends this is certainly a community feel restaurant that makes the most of the ingredients. Everything just pops!