Ramen-Ya — Restaurant in Oʻahu

Strengths: big....no..HUGE bowl of ramen Weakness: noodles lack chewiness, soup lacked the pork bone richness, the cha siu was just ok.

I've noticed ramen is quite popular in Hawaii much like Vancouver. Everywhere I drove i see ramen restaurants. After seeing the great reviews of Ramen Ya, I decided to give it a try since I was in the area. Boy was I disappointed.

First thing when I was inside I noticed certificates on the wall that designated the restaurant as the best ramen for the last several years. That just raised my expectations.

When the food came I was blown away by the size of the big ramen I ordered. I don't think three adults could finish it. Now on to the flavours. The noodle was underwhelming. It lacked the elasticity that good ramen should have. This was limp. The cha siu lacked the tenderness. The soup was not rich and flavourful like how pork bone soup should be. The bamboo shoots were not tender. The chicken was good (yes there's chicken battered in my big ramen). The gyozas were good.

Because I have not tried other ramen places in Hawaii, I am baselining this place against Vancouver, Hong Kong and Yokohama/Osaka/Okinawa which may...

We were in Oahu our first night and looking for a quick bite to eat. We stumbled across Ramen Ya in a shopping center and took a chance, wanting to try new places. The dining room is fairly small, with maybe 10 tables. We got seated immediately and there is table service from a serving crew. The menu is large, with many different choices of ramen and other items. We weren’t in the mood for ramen so we went with chicken fried rice, tonkatsu chicken, tonkatsu spam (yes, really), and some pan fried gyoza. Everything we tried we enjoyed very much. The tonkatsu was quite crispy and well cooked, though I personally didn’t care for the spam cooked this way. The gyoza were fresh and hot, and the fried rice was really outstanding. Great flavor and a large portion size for the price. All in all, we very much enjoyed our meal and went there one additional time before we left. The prices were reasonable by Hawaii standards and we felt we got good value...

I hate to do this but this is probably the worst ramen I have ever had. My tonkotsu ramen was not creamy it was bitter and tasted like dirt. I had high hopes because of the reviews and was very disappointed, We also had the miso soup which was very fishy and bitter as well didn't enjoy it. Other items we had were shoyu ramen that was very salty and bitter. Not sure what they put in this to make it taste so bitter ive never had this before. The egg in the ramen wasn't even a ramen egg it was just an overcooked hard boiled egg thrown in. The only thing we got that wasn't too bad was the edamame. We came from Japan and know what its suppose to taste like I honestly could have had better with a cup of noodle. 🫣 They were very nice and packaged our To go order very well it just didn't hit in the...