Ramen Takara Ponsonby — Restaurant in Waitematā

A great place with authentic Japanese food that could do more for itself. As two hungry vegans, there were lots of designated vegetarian options that seemed like they’d be suitable. Our waitress was very helpful and checked options with an allergen chart to be sure. We’re not vegan due to allergies so it’d be great to see the menu call out vegan options explicitly. The restaurant is sitting on great vegan-haven potential without using it!

We enjoyed some vegetable gyoza to start with which were very fresh and had great flavour. I had an adapted spicy ramen dish using vegetable broth, tofu, and some special egg-free noodles. I can’t say the special noodles were worth three dollars but there you go; the rice noodles were only a dollar extra but I wanted thicker noodles as it was ramen. My wife had a tofu-and-rice dish with an excellent dark sauce.

One thing to note is that the tofu used was very soft - almost silken. As such it had no real flavour and was difficult to pick up using chopsticks. This could be traditional for authentic ramen - and I’m too gaijin to appreciate it - but I don’t think it works. At the very least, have crispy tofu as an option.

Finally, they had a great vegan craft IPA (looked it up online - gg barnivore) and my wife’s plum wine sake was excellent. Perhaps too drinkable! For those that care, you can access Auckland’s free wifi...

We picked this place after a quick google of "Best ramen in Auckland", and to our delight - it's fantastic. My best friend who lives in Auckland quickly confirmed that this is his favourite place for ramen (which is good because he lived in Japan for a while).

We ordered;

Edamame ($6.00); A nice little entree sized portion.

Agedashi Tofu ($10.00); Really great Agedashi Tofu. Cooked perfectly, the only detractor was that I could have had more sauce... but really great.

Negi Charshu Ramen ($14.00, minus Egg, with extra Wontons +$4.00); This was the ramen I chose. I found it really hard to pick from the 12 different ramen options... but I was really happy with this overall. I added a bit of minced garlic + soy sauce to taste... but I managed to finish it completely!.

Tonkotsu Ramen ($14.00, with extra Seaweed Paper/Nori +$2.00, and extra minced garlic +$1.00). This is the ramen my wife ordered. She really liked it, and one comment we made was that it was a very balanced version of Tonkotsu - sometimes it can be quite strong/rich flavoured, but they've managed to strike a great balance.

Pork Gyoza ($8.00); Who comes to a Japanese restaurant and doesn't order gyoza?! They were good, definitely hand-made.

Overall, we have already decided that we will be coming back for another meal before...

WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE. I got shocked because the waiter was pointing at us with finger, and yelling that we're not allowed to have milk. He was also shouting at us "you're not allowed to have it here!!!" haha, he told us that it's a common sence to not have any of BYO but it was not mentioned on anywhere and I thought it would be fine because it's just a pack of milk, not alcohol or anything ever harmful to your place.

To be honest, that staff is disgrace at your place which shows that Ramen Takara never care about the staff training.

Also he was talking in Japanese with another waitress who were there and one thing I felt bad was that I can understand Japanese :) don't talk behind about the customers pls! 😂😂 that's the common sence ....

I asked for apologises, but all I have got was sarcastic ment from your staff. He actually teased on me . I asked him to apology because I felt offended in the way he talk. I had to ask 3 times to get that insincere ment. I thought he was joking. I never experienced something bad like this before.

You really should train your staff and hire someone who understands the...