WAYA Japanese Izakaya — Restaurant in Dallas

One of Lakewood's newest little gems, this is very good authentic Japanese cooking done right!

We had the Pork Tonkatsu Ramen, the broth was creamy and very well flavored with a solid, meaty taste. The noodles were just the right amount of chewy, very solid texture and just looked appealing and shiny(yes shiny noodles matter to me lol). The PORK, was not just small chashu pork discs they got from the market, it was a bone in Pork Rib, we are talking falling off the bone tender, flavors-the-broth awesome here!

ALMOST the best Ramen in town but I would say they are still second to the absolutely amazing Ten Ramen, which makes sense because those guys are noodle wizards over there.

For sides we tried their Takoyaki(Fried octopus) This is a big one for me, I looooove Takoyaki and ever since having it in Osaka, I've had a hard time finding anything nearly as good here in the states, but I think the owner of this place might be from Osaka because these came very close to the real deal and nearly brought tears of nostalgia to my eyes.

Lastly we had the Yakitori(grilled chicken and rice bowl) Oh man was this tasty, the rice was cooked just right and the chicken was melt in your mouth levels of goodness.

All of our plates were amazing and we will be going back to try other dishes like their Grilled Onigiri(Meat filled Rice balls), Tamtam Men(Japanese style Dandan schezuan noodles), Tempura etc.

Please note they do NOT offer sushi, as this is an Izakaya(Dinner style bar/street food), they offer what would be a typical Japanese meal you'd expect to eat in Japan on the daily and despite popular belief, Sushi is more of a special occasion meal there, unless you're on the coast!

So if you love Ramen, or really wanna try some real Japanese food that's not the usual ramen/sushi you find everywhere else, then get in to Waya and enjoy some culture! Seriously this place needs to have lines out the door!

PS: To the owner of Waya, if you read this, please, please PLEASE, consider adding Okonomiyaki to the menu! I'm desperate for more of that around...

Been here 3 times... first time was amazing. Food was wonderful, we were helped right away, the waitress was friendly and helpful. A wonderful experience that made me want to return again and again. A couple weeks ago, came expecting a lovely ramen dinner again. Instead, we get told by one of the cooks to just sit at the bar. After awhile, a young worker came and brought us water and took our order. We sat for over an hour watching people being served, even guests that came in after us. The guy in charge seemed to care more about changing songs on the tv behind the bar, and one of the cooks was so focused on what was playing on his phone instead of paying attention to the food he was preparing. He kept setting his phone up against a bowl so he could watch it and it kept falling, so he would grab it with his bare hands, readjust his phone and kee working without washing his hands. Then one cook goes, "I messed this order up, it's not supposed to have X on it" to which the other cook says "Just take it off and send it, they'll never know". The dish was promptly returned because of the mistake...

After an hour of waiting for 2 bowls of ramen, I decided to just leave. When I got up to pay for my drink, the same young server asked how my food was. When I told him we never recieved it, he acted surprised but never offered any kind of fix so I paid for my can of soda and left. I wanted to leave a review after that experience but decided to be kind, thinking it was a one-off situation.

Tonight, I decided to try them again. I was seated very quickly and they brought us water and utensils immediately. Then we sat there for 25 mins and no one even came to take our order or even check in on us. So we left again because their kitchen closes at 10:30 and it was already10:15.

It's incredibly disappointing when a restaurant has good food but they miss the service piece by miles....

Do...

Got to the restaurant about 8:15. There were 3 people in line so we decided to wait. There was no host or waiter who came up to inform us about any wait times but we thought it couldn’t take too long because most everyone seated didn’t have food and looked like they were finished and ready to pay. About 30 minutes later two tables get up to leave and we realize that all the other tables haven’t been served yet, but we were the next ones in line. We waited another 15 minutes and still no one even talked to us yet, so we stop a waiter and ask when the kitchen closes. He tells us 9:30 so we decide to order to go while the kitchen was open since we waited so long anyways. Right as we order a table opens and they offer it to another couple behind us since we ordered, but we asked to be seated instead since that was the initial plan. They finally get us seated and people are clearing out so we think our order shouldn’t take too long. They ask us if we were done and ready to leave but we let them know we just ordered and wanted to eat in. Around 15 more minutes pass by and they’re starting to clean up so we ask where our food is and they ask us what we ordered then went to the back. They don’t come back to us and start making our food but it’s to go. At the end we leave around 9:50 because there wouldn’t be time to eat in anyways as they’re already ushering people out. The food was decent but the service...