One can get a craving for hot, savory, satisfying soupy noodles anytime, and for us, this includes while we're on vacation! After hearing that Japanese tourists rave about Ramen Nakamura and long lineups for their ramen bowls, we shopped around the area during lunch hour (hoping to avoid the lineup) and worked up an appetite, and weren't disappointed!
This quaint little place is not too hard to find if you know what to look for:
This tiny little venue has a U-shaped counter/table to maximize seating area, with the staff whizzing in to clear dishes, drop off menus, take your order and of course, drop off huge steaming bowls of loaded up bowls of ramen and sizzling gyoza... and the air fragrant with all sorts of tasty smells. There's also a sign saying they accept cash, both US or Yen , and no to credit cards.
They're known here for their Ox-tail ramen, so we order a bowl each as well as a side of gyoza. The waitress suggested we order a special where you get some tasty looking fried rice along with the gyoza and ramen, but we didn't think we had room to finish it all - our neighbouring guests were happily slurping noodles from a gigantic bowl! While waiting for our food to be prepared, we took in the simple decor - one wall was adorned with tile signed by visiting celebrities (most were Japanese)
the FOOD
Itadakimasu! The gyoza came out first - sizzling hot with a thin tender wrapper pan fried to a golden brown crisp, and stuffed with plenty of savory pork filling, these disappeared in a few bites.
Itadakimasu! The gyoza came out first - sizzling hot with a thin tender wrapper pan fried to a golden brown crisp, and stuffed with plenty of savory pork filling, these disappeared in a few bites.
This soya based dipping sauce with a bit of grated ginger added to it was to be used to dunk the oxtail meat from the ramen if we wanted to. The Oxtail turned out to be soft, tender and flavorful enough we didn't really have to use this dipping sauce at all.
And the Oxtail ramen! Swimming in a lightly salted and flavorful shio broth was fresh noodles cooked to perfection, and topped lots of vegetables - tender crisp baby bok choy, crunchy crisp bamboo shoots, sliced mushrooms, sliced and diced green onions, and two pieces of oxtail. The oxtail is about the size of a closed fist, so you can guess at how HUGE this bowl of ramen was... YUM!!!!!
This ramen heaven was topped with fried garlic slivers and a mountain of slivered ginger root. It was a little tricky to free the tender meat from the oxtail with chopsticks, but so worth the time and occasional splashes. Nom!!!
the VERDICT
Overall, hands down the best place on the island to for a comforting huge bowl of traditional ramen. We played tourist and stamped our receipt with a cute little stamp off to the side for kids as we left the restaurant. Gochisousama deshita!
Overall, hands down the best place on the island to for a comforting huge bowl of traditional ramen. We played tourist and stamped our receipt with a cute little stamp off to the side for kids as we left the restaurant. Gochisousama deshita!
Ramen Nakumura
Address 2141 Kalakaua Ave, Honolulu, HI 96815
Phone (808) 922-7960
Hours Open daily for lunch and dinner
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