Wagaya — Restaurant in Honolulu

A ramen fanatic's review starts here! A BFF of mine snapped a pic of her and a bunch of potential colleagues grubbing out here. She recommended it, so naturally I bookmarked it and made it a point to try them myself. And drag my spouse along because we both LOVE ramen.

ATMOSPHERE: The smallish restaurant is located on the north side of King Street between McCully & Kemole, across from McD's. Parking sucks, but we luckily found street parking just across the way. The inside is newer looking, clean, and sports regular tables only. The tower of booster seats and boxes should be stored elsewhere and not in the dining area.

MENU: Japanese salads, apps, ramen, simple desserts, soft drinks & beer. Very simple.

FOOD: Edamame Smallish portion dusted with red Hawaiian sea salt. Beans were cooked nicely. I never order this when eating out as I feel you can make them at home lol. But, it was my spouse's choice so...

Gyoza These were very nicely done, with crispy bottoms and moist tops. The wrappers were thinner than usual but held up well. The pork was finely grounded and had great flavor.

Wagaya Ramen While I'm not fond of tonkotsu broths, if given the option of adding garlic oil, GET IN MY BELLY!!!! I know they offer a garlic version but I didn't want the fried garlic because I'd be tooting songs all night long if you know what I mean. Plus, this selection comes with 2 pieces of char siu instead of 1, and is also topped with choy sum, a spoonful of garlic, slivers of mushroom, a nori square, sesame seeds, and the most delicious soft-boiled egg I've ever tasted. How do they season that gooey yolk like that?! The noodles were whiteish in color and cooked perfect. And the broth... Holy yum. Not heavy or rich like a tan tan, but flavorful, a bit creamy, and oral orgasmic with the added garlic oil. Perfect portion size and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Wagaya Tsukemen My spouse's choice. This is a dipping style ramen, so the noodles and broth are separate. While I didn't try the noodles, the spoonful of broth I tasted was an explosion of savory flavors in my mouth. I'd definitely try this one next! The only downfall was that the cold noodles quickly cooled down the hot broth, but we figured if you were served hot noodles, they'd clump together.

SERVICE: We waited about 10 minutes for a table on a Thursday night at 8pm. Our male server was friendly and professional. I recognized one of the owners from the website who takes care of the front of the house. She was also friendly, professional, and refilled our waters.

OVERALL: Simple menu, delicious ramen, good prices. WINNER WINNER, 5...

A delicious ramen dinner from start to finish; the great reviews don't lie. We tried joining the waitlist on a Saturday night, but we didn't need to do so as there were enough seats. Saw some nice art in the restaurant next to our seat.

Appetizers: corn tempura was served with pink salt. Potato mochi was my favorite dish: the mochi was shaped like Christmas objects (tree, star, snowman etc.) and went well with the seaweed. Both appetizers were a great combination of sweet, salty and crunchy. Drinks: I got fruit juice which was a bottle of Snapple apple juice, good with my spicy ramen. Husband got Dassai 45 sake which was delicious and went well with his garlic ramen. Ramen: garlic wagaya ramen (Kuro) was their most popular dish. At level 2 spiciness, the main flavor is still from the garlic. The broth was very rich and delicious, and the pork went well with the noodles. I had the hiyashi tan tan men (cold spicy noodles with a cold broth in a separate cup), would recommend level 3 spiciness for that. The broth was a delicious mix of spicy, salty, sour and creamy! It was mostly vegetables with some minced pork, but it was flavorful enough when eaten with the corn tempura. Dessert: Mochi ice cream was amazing. The mochi is warm and soft, and comes in two flavors: green tea and kinako (yellow bean powder). It went perfectly with vanilla ice cream and Japanese syrup (kuromitsu). Almond pudding with strawberry was sweet, creamy...

I came here with a group of four at around 11:50 AM. There was already a waitlist however it moves quickly. The restaurant opens at 10:30 and they're usually is already align. Also be aware of parking, the parking lot is shared with a church so make sure you do not park in the church parking lot or else you are at risk of being towed. Anyway, the restaurant is relatively small so if you have to wait, you'll be asked to wait outside. We put our names down again at 11:50 AM and waited. Probably about 15 to 20 minutes. As we were seated, there was already water, napkins, and chopsticks waiting at the table. Since we were waiting outside for our table, we were already able to know what we wanted to order and wasted no time in ordering.

The food comes out very quickly and is full of flavor and aroma. The pictures don't do it justice. Each bite was so flavorful and so delicious. It was definitely worth the wait. I ordered the tan tan men, which was spicy however for the day that it was today, it had me sweating. The food portions are relatively large so we left very full. We had four appetizers to share and that might've been a little bit too much food.

If you are coming to this restaurant with the group, the receipt allows, you to split the check evenly amongst the group, which is nice. Or you can just pay with the card and your server, whatever is easier for you. This was a great spot to visit if you're in the...