Rejoice! I finally found a ramen restaurant with a vegetarian ramen option on the menu. My lunch date and I arrived at Wagaya last Sunday, at 1:30pm (30 minutes before the end of their lunch service). It was a full house, but we only waited a few minutes, before being seated. This was our first visit to Wagaya and had read the online Yelp reviews and perused their website, prior to our arrival. I quickly ordered the vegetarian ramen which was made with a vegetable broth flavored with miso and sesame. It was topped with a soft-boiled egg, miso cabbage, corn, choi sum, kikurage (mushroom), sesame, nori, green onion, and fried garlic. Is your mouth watering yet? I’m a pescatarian who eats eggs, and I must say that the soft-boiled egg was my favorite part of the dish.
I liked that you could customize all aspects of your meal, including noodle firmness (firm, standard, soft), noodle thickness (thin, standard, thick), noodle serving (small, standard, large +$2), soup flavoring (saltier, standard, less salty), and soup spiciness (levels 1-5). I ordered the standard settings for the noodles and the less salty soup flavoring, which was perfect for me. I also ordered a level 2 spiciness, which was plenty spicy for me. The serving size was large and filling!
My carnivorous date had the Wagaya ramen which was made with a tonkotsu broth. He described the broth as thick, rich, and flavorful. For $3.95, he had gyoza and a mini karaage don added to his meal.
For dessert, we ordered the yuzu sorbet and almond pudding. The sorbet was very refreshing and had a strong citrus taste. The pudding was a tofu consistency and the strawberry sauce was definitely the best part. Both were good choices, after eating all that soup!
I’ll definitely be back to eat the vegetarian ramen again. There were also several side dishes on the menu that I’d like to try in the future, including the potato mochi and corn tempura. Check out the full menu on their website.
- Wagaya: 2080 S. King St. Honolulu, HI 96826
- phone: 808-949-0670
- www.wagayahawaii.com
- Parking: small lot right in front of the restaurant or street parking
- Bathroom situation: very clean and inside the restaurant
- Feels: casual and comfortable, not too loud and tables were spaced nicely
- Lunch 11:30am-2:00pm
- Dinner 5:30pm-9:00pm
- Closed Mondays
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