New ramen restaurant opens in downtown Kamloops

Photo: Sydney Chisholm

Jimmy Wang

A new ramen restaurant has moved into the former downtown Kamloops Boston Pizza location.

Jimmy Wang, the owner of Ramen Time, came to Canada from China as a Thompson Rivers University student. He said he started working in a Chinese restaurant in town to pay the bills while he was in university, and developed his love for cooking.

Wang never had a formal education in the culinary arts. Instead, he said he taught himself the skills of the trade, and perfected his ramen through eating.

Wang told Castanet Kamloops he would try ramen from many different places to tweak his recipe and learn what he wanted his ramen to taste like.

“I want to make ramen so that Canadians love it, not Japanese love it, but different because in Japan their ramen is very thick and tons of fat,” Wang said.

“In Canada, I think people here really care about their health, so they do not want tons of fat, so I changed it a little bit to make it more clear.”

He said his favourite ramen place is Jinya in Vancouver.

“I tasted all their [Jinya] ramen, and after that I think that Kamloops deserves a restaurant like Jinya," he said. "That's why I opened this one.”

He said his current menu has all of his favourite dishes.

The walls that formerly housed Boston Pizza, at 102-340 Victoria St., are now covered with pop art images of cats.

Wang said his own pet cats are depicted on the walls.

“I want to bring my life to this restaurant, that like other people can feel the happiness actually, from my family and from my food, so that's why I bring my cats here,” Wang said.

Ramen Time launched a soft opening on Monday. Currently they are open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week.