Ramen Nakamura

It’s a Koo clean place kill music friendly staff very Japanese all kill to try something new !!

Love!
I’ve been a fan of this place for like a good decade! Even waited in their crazy long lines. Did take out, ate for days!
Best thing ~ oxtail ramen!
It’s seriously the best thing ever. Love the amazing broth, meat falling out of the bone. Chewy noodles! And if you are feeling hungry, combo it up with a side of gyoza and fried rice!
Kimchi miso ramen ~ come loaded with kimchi and garlic chips! Love the eggs too.
Shio ramen combo ~ love the broth in this. It’s creamy and delish. But my favorite here is always their oxtail ramen! It’s amazingly good!
Fried rice ~ garlic chips galore but it is beyond delicious. You can get it on its own or get a small one on the side with your ramen.
The place seats about twenty people max. It’s a typical ramen bar seating: small and cozy. The ladies here don’t speak much English from what I remember but they are always so friendly. The oldest lady is the nicest. She’s always here.
Ive also had their ramen to a few times but turned out to be a disaster. Broth so hot, the container busted every time. Hot temperature seems to be their thing. Prices also keeps going up. My first oxtail ramen was under $ 12 but last visit it was close to $ 22! It is expensive to be right smack in Waikiki! But it is always consistent and good. Piping hot ramen & crunchy garlic on top of everything you order? Sure! Just avoid going on dates after. :D

Pretty standard Ramen to me. Definitely over rated. I popped in one day late afternoon when there wasn’t a line to try their ramen. They only take cash by the way. I wouldn’t consider the food cheap either, Their ramen, gyoza combo, was like $ 20 after tax and tip. That’s a lot of food for one person anyways. Probably best to share a combo and order an additional noodle if you are with someone. I’m not saying the ramen was bad, it was just standard.

It’s more modern ramen bar then the other places I’ve been on Oahu. They have a pretty decent size menu.
Service: 3 out of 5 stars. The servers were talking to one another by the POS machine and we had to flag a server for down to have our orders taken. They refilled my water once and not once did the ask me how my meal was. I also had to walk in to my bill as I got tired of waiting. Service is huge to me and although the ramen was really good I would probably not come back.
Food: 3 out of 5 stars. We started with the gyoza and croquet pork balls (forgot the name) their was nothing unique about these two items and for $ 7 for the balls I thought it was a complete waste of money. Gyoza tasted like any other fried gyoza… Nothing special. And price was it comes down to pretty much $ 1 a gyoza… Pricey. Now I got the spicy ramen with spicy level Epic. Although it was good again there was nothing special about it. My aunt got the shoyu ramen and she claims her noodles were too soggy. Bummer.
Oh, I also brought my 1 year old here and was very disappointed that they had no scissors to help me cut her ramen and they had no plastic to go spoons for me to feed her. The regular spoons are too big to fit in her mouth and when asked if they give a Togo spoon when people order Togo they said no just chopsticks and then no they don’t do Togo. Well okay…

Last time I came here (¹⁰⁄₂₀₁₅) they had a «Conditional Pass» from the Hawaii Dept. of Health. It’s ¹⁄₂₀₁₆ and we’re here and they got a «PASS». It’s usually really packed and so we decided to go on a Saturday at 3:00pm and there wasn’t a line so we ran into the restaurant and grabbed 4 seats. We ordered the following:
Oxtail Ramen: So delicious, definitely my favorite dish at this place. The oxtails were big and very tender that melts in your mouth.
Miso Ramen: My husbands favorite, good pieces of port and some veggies.
We are looking forward to coming here again.

More like «Japanese soup noodle» than «ramen». The soup is pretty underwhelming, and others are not any better. I’m kind of disappointed considering how much people line up in front of this place every night.

I went here to eat dinner with my sister on a thursday night. I suggest going early (before 6) and not with more than 2 people. It’s hard to get a seat at the bar and you will need to wait in line.
Ramen was ok, nothing out of the ordinary. I got the oxtail ramen. My sister got the mini ramen with gyoza and fried rice. Staff was friendly and efficient.
Cash only

Their ramen was so good that we came here twice for our 5 day stay at Waikiki. I got their Tonkotsu ramen both times. But what makes them amazing is not just the ramen alone. Their gyoza is to-​die-​for. My sister and I ate maybe 12 gyoza in one sitting between the two of us, and that’s on top of eating the ramen too. They also have amazing fried rice. If you’re hungry, I would definitely recommend ordering the combo that comes with some gyoza and fried rice so you can try them all. The place always have a line outside. We came around 4:45PM and waited about 30 minutes to be seated. If you don’t like waiting, I would recommend coming either before 5 or after 8:30 as the line seems more manageable during that time. Will definitely come back again next time I’m in Oahu.

Way overrated place. When comparing to some of the ramen joints in the bay area, the food is 3 star at best. What makes this place a 1 star location is the tip scam they run.
Nowhere else have I ever been to automatically add tip to the bill for a party of 3 (2 adult 1 child). Normally only if you have a large group of 6 or more when tip is added to your bill automatically.
This practice is essentially a scam, or upsell, or maybe even illegal because they might as well advertise their menu price 15% higher.
Will be filing a complaint to BBB honolulu. This practice need to stop. No way to trick tourists like that.

Yummo! Big hot bowls of tasty broth! Tender ramen noodles, bean sprouts, garlic bits, amazing! I have nut allergy and eating out us always a «dare». I was able to eat my spicy soup with no nut allergy complications, the fried rice was great, the gyoza had a great filling taste but a little overcooked. The shio ramen was simple but flavor but no meat, same for the spicy. But the flavor made up for it! The ramen & broth serving is substantial so unless you are ordering the house specialty: ox tail soup, don’t expect meat in your ramen.
The line is long, it moves, luckily people come in as a group and leave as a group so seats clear out pretty quickly.
1 ramen set (shio ramen with 3 gyoza), ox tail soup combo (soup, rice & 3 gyoza), spicy soup, and 1 canned Sprite = $ 53
No military discount
CASH only!

This is a super cute, tiny ramen joint with ridiculously tasty food. We came in around 5:30 and only had to wait a few minutes before we got a seat.
We ordered the ramen combo with rice and gyoza. Those are probably some of the best gyoza I’ve had, with a crispy skin and juicy filling. The rice was also mega tasty, with a good amount of egg and meat in it. We split a large ramen too and the tonkotsu broth was really rich.
We got some other fillings for it like char siu and egg, but the only hiccup of the evening was that we didn’t get the hard boiled egg that we wanted in it (first we thought it was in the bottom of the ramen but it wasn’t). Not to worry, we pointed it out and they apologized and took it off the bill.
Service was really good; the staff were friendly and helpful even though by were super buy and they made sure food was coming out quickly and that our waters were refilled.
Also, this place literally only has twenty or so bar seats. Get here early or be prepared to wait in line.

So my hubby somehow heard about this place and how great it was and it was close to the hotel he was staying in. I don’t venture down waikiki side because well… I’m a true island country leeward girl and when you live in Makakilo now days, they call it the second city. We have everything on my homeside, but hubby was making this a vacation and staying in a hotel. I visited here and there and we ended up walking here. It had a line because the place isn’t very big and you have to wait for open seats of course. I’d say give or take 20 minute wait behind 2 people. Thank god because there was a long line right after us. We got the 2 middle seats with our back facing the door and it was roomy enough too. Is this the best Ramen I’ve had? No, but it is really delicious. Ramen, Saimin all these noodle soups are in abundance in Hawaii so you can get just as good Ramen without waiting in line almost any where here. So here’s the low down:
Everything was delicious, but nothing I haven’t experienced if not better, than just as good. Fried ice was tasty, gyoza was good too and ramen was delicious. Would I drive from Kapolei just to come here though? No, but since we had a hotel there it was a nice place to try. Now sumo on the windward side is my go to, since they closed the one in kapolei. :(This place though is good for tourist or if you live on this side and it’s cheap too.

A very nice noodle joint. CASH ONLY. sit 30. Waiting in line for 10 min and food is out in another 10. 4*
Ox tail raman set is very tasty. The noodle texture is the Japanese style. «surprise»? The clear broth is very savory. The ox tail is cooked to very mild and buttery. Interesting ingredients are fried red onion, string ginger, and pickled bamboo. 4*
The pan fried dumplings are piping hot. May be the taste is more Japanese with more veggie taste. 4*

The must get item on the menu is the Ox Tail Ramen. I’d suggest getting the combo (comes with ramen, gyoza, and fried rice) and maybe ordering another side and sharing. The broth was very light and flavorful, the oxtail meat was fall off the bone tender. Combo came out to be around $ 20. The gyoza was also very tasty (you get 3 pieces I believe) and the fried rice was decent. We also got a spicy ramen, which was okay (not memorable) but it was way too much food (so order a combo to share and get another plate of gyozas or something). The space is pretty small — a U shaped dining set up surrounding a service area. Service is very quick and efficient as they want you out pretty quick to move the line. The restaurant is located on the ground floor of a building near the Hard Rock Café; be prepared for the line! Also — bring cash.

Ramen here was really good. We went late at night and ordered the miso ramen mini set and also the oxtail ramen for the both of us. It was wayy too much food. I think we could have just gone with the oxtail ramen set ($ 22 or so) instead of the mini set + reg. The fried gyoza were really good (came with 3 large ones and I could have eaten them by itself). Also the fried rice was good (bit blank) but better when eaten with the oxtail soup (due to the salty flavors). I loved the oxtail soup more than my miso since the broth was so flavorful and light. I also liked the bamboo slices in the soup. There only limitation I could see at this place would be that there is not enough seating. We didn’t need to wait but the place was pretty full and only one lady was helping out there.

Opens late and serves ramen, an ideal combo that came up a little disappointing.=
The hakata ramen (combo of shio and shoyu) was not very flavorful, I only tasted a strong salty and umami flavor, there was not a strong soup base broth taste, the noodles were a little too soft for my liking and the toppings (I added corn) were very generic and did not really add to the dish (didn’t even come with an egg…)
I ordered the combo so it came with 3 gyoza and a bowl of fried rice. They made for a good filler but that’s about it, there was not much flavor in either of the 2 sides.
The entire meal which was ~$ 20 and while it was filling, it was not satisfying.
But it open late and the service here is quick.

Popular amongst the locals and tourists, and I can see why. Best ramen I had on the island! We didn’t have to wait because we came for a late lunch right after coming from the airport. It’s located along Kalakaua across from the LV store, if I remember correctly.
Get the spicy ramen! Will definitely be back next time I return to the islands.

This is the gem of Waikiki. The first time I had Ramen Nakamura I made it a point to eat it everyday I was in Oahu. Since that faithful day I have been to Ramen Nakamura many times and it never disappoints. This place can have a line but the wait is definitely worth it. They can only sit around 20 – 25 people so if you’re with a larger group (4+) you may have to split up.
The oxtail ramen is probably the best ramen on the menu and best ramen on Oahu. The broth is perfect never too salty, a hint of ginger, fried garlic, and very savory. The broth feels very light compared to more traditional shoyu, shio, tonkotsu, miso, etc soup bases. The noodles are always cooked perfectly and have a great bite to them. They give you plenty of toppings and the soup usually has 3 – 4 pieces of ox tail.
If you don’t want oxtail ramen they do have more traditional ramen options. You can also make your meal a combo and add gyoza and fried rice. I would also skip adding an egg unless you want a hard boiled egg. Also if you want a drink other than the water and soda they will allow you to BYOB.
Try this place for lunch, dinner, late night it doesn’t matter! If you’re visiting Waikiki I would definitely recommend trying Ramen Nakamura.

While most the reviewers rave about the ox-​tail ramen, i highly recommend the SPICY RAMEN! $ 10.95 a bowl will get you a bowl of soft, slurpy noodles swimming in a fragrant, meaty broth, topped with ground pork!
I added an egg for $ 1.50. I wish the egg wasn’t so hard-​boiled (I like my egg yolk slightly runny), but I still gobbled it up.
To be frank, those in my group that ordered the ox-​tail ramen definitely wished they ordered the SPICY RAMEN after I allowed them to sample my dish. The oxtail soup is a clear soup, and does not really remind me of traditional ramen at all.
Only one lady serves the entire restaurant (which isn’t that big to begin with — only bar seating) but she was super friendly and smiley the whole time. My water cup was never empty, and we never felt rushed out (even though there was a line forming at the door).
I would definitely recommend this place to anyone visiting Waikiki!

A most excellent lunch. We finally had our chance after passing up this place because of the long lines. Perfect timing on a Monday afternoon as we avoided any wait by coming after the lunch crowd.
I think we tried everything.
The oxtail combo with the fried rice and gyoza is the standard and what most are here for. The oxtail is straight up shio and had a very clean taste. The broth was really good. There’s a ginger dipping sauce for the oxtail but it’s already great in the soup itself. The three large pieces of oxtail were moist, juicy and easy to eat with the meat coming right off the bone. I thought the regular shoyu ramen was the best though. It was rich, smooth and meaty without being too flavorful. The slices of pork were just right amount. The actual ramen is good too. Perfectly chewy and not overcooked.
Another group fave was the fried rice. Plenty of flavor with bits of beef. If you still want to order even more, try the gyozas. Oh so good, soft, tasty and slightly crunchy from the pieces of cabbage.
You’re definitely in a bind if you drove here. Parking is going to be tough. They don’t take credit cards, but traveler’s checks and even Japanese Yen are accepted.
I didn’t make it to the restrooms, but just in case, I was told that there is a bidet here too. ;)