Goma Tei Ramen Restaurant

I really enjoy their ramen’ says well as their rice dishes. The servers are usually very quick to take your order and the food comes out pretty quick too. Portions are just right to fill you up and it’s a great place to grab a quick bite with your friends. Seating area isn’t as big as the one in Ala Moana’s mall but it’s just right. If it gets busy there’s only one bench outside for you to sit and wait. If it’s taken you’ll just have to settle for standing. Price wise is not that bad, it averages around $ 10 give or take per person.
I gave them 4 stars because tonight wasn’t as bust but the servers were on the slow side. Over all is come back again no doubt.

Shout-​out to Lyla D’s review that popped up as I searched for Ramen places (I’m feeling under the weather). I saw her photos & review and KNEW I had to come here. Normally, I am NOT a ramen girl (I love PHO). But my cousin took me here when I first moved to Oahu and I remember it was decently priced & fast.
So… after showing my sister the pics and getting her on board, we went down here. Now everytime I come to Ward Centre, I always feel compelled to ditch everything and go to Genki’s LOL. But I was excited for my ramen!!!
I did order the Char Siu Tan Tan. MAN! It hit the spot & we had left overs. I wish they gave more veggies though, it seems the portion was rather small. But other than that I was full. I actually took the last slice of Char Siu home with me and added it to my ramen, at home. My sister had two left over, what’s wrong with her?
We also shared an order of gyoza, and those were HUGE, crispy and piping hot. Loved it.
I will definitely come back. I saw they had ride plates with their char siu! & their chicken looked good too.

Trying something new! This place was delicious and had great service. We went around 11:30 am and it wasn’t too busy, it was starting to pick up when we left. I got the tofu ramen and my husband got seafood shoyu ramen, we were both very happy with our food. We also shared gyoza, takes a little longer than the ramen but totally worth it!

First review of 2016!
Goma Tei is a place that everyone in the family can enjoy, and yes even for me the newly turned vegetarian. I have enjoyed their meat based ramen options in the past and those were all excellent. I inquired today if they had a vegetarian broth option.
Sadly their standard broths are all meat based (to be expected), they did offer to make mine using hot water– which I thought was very nice of them. However, I opted for the vegetable cold noodle instead.
This was served as described, cold with a spicy sesame based sauce and ample amounts of veggies. My only complaint was I wish there were more shiitake mushrooms! Other than that there were lots of cucumber, carrot, and choy sum pieces that accompanied a variety of mushrooms.
While the dish itself wasn’t extremely standout vegetarian dish, I am happy to see that they at least offer a dish that I could consume. The noodles were perfectly al dente and the veggies were fresh… I can’t complain. It was a dish that filled me up and didn’t seem to make me get an MSG headache post-​consumption.
The service was also fast and efficient, and I headed into the movie theaters at Ward feeling satisfied and full.
Great job Goma-​Tei for consistently being great, I will be back.

The Ward Centre Goma Tei used to be the only location for them. This is the place that started my love affair with Goma Tei!
The restaurant is located at the Ala Moana end of Ward Centre, across from Sedona. There is parking in the garage for the center, across the street in the other garage, or even further down at Ward Warehouse.
This is the smallest restaurant out of the 4 different Goam Teis. There is a counter and about 4 tables. There is a clipboard hanging off the door to put yourself on the waitlist when it gets busy.
Today we got there a little after they opened. All the tables were open, so we grabbed one. We were acknowledged immediately and brought menus and water as soon as we sat down. The waitress came a few minutes after and took our order. We got the pork katsu curry, curry loco moco, ban ban ji chicken, and a side order of gyoza. FYI, they serve Pepsi drinks here.
Our food arrived quickly, so we dug right in. The ban ban ji chicken was awesome, as usual. If you don’t know what it is, it’s a thinly sliced chicken that was cooked in broth, serve on a bed of thinly sliced cucumbers and drizzled with a sesame sauce. Hubby had the curry loco moco. I was not offered a taste, but I will assume it was delicious. There were no leftovers. The pork katsu curry was savory. It is served with white rice and the pork was placed on the rice. The curry is pure over part of the tonkatsu and most of it is on the side of the rice. The gyoza was FANTASTIC! It was crispy on the outside and meaty on the inside. And they serve some very large gyoza!
Customer service was on-​point, as usual. Our water was always filled. Our server was always there to ask if hubby wanted a refill on his soft drink. They also grabbed our plates to pack up in to-​go boxes. (I really appreciate that!) The bill arrived. The total was $ 45. I think that is a deal for the quality of food and service.
Overall, Goma Tei Ward never disappoints. This will always be one of my top 20 places to eat on this island!
(6)

I ordered the Char Siu Tan Tan. Ono ramen, generous pieces of pork. Soup base is very rich so it was very filling. Customer service was good & side dish of fried chicken & Gyoza was awesome.

I like goma tei, its simple. Its more towards the Chinese/​Japanese style ramen. The portions are huge and the char siu is really tender. I like comparing ramens from other shops and i prefer the tan tan here then to the one at agu. I like that its nothing fancy, just your go to ramen shop.
Tip — you can get an extra bowl of curry and rice for just a little extra when you order ramen!

This is my favorite honolulu ramen place. I prefer this location over the alo Moana location and over Abu ramen.
Their pork is the bomb and there is plenty of it so you won’t go hungry

We stopped by before our shopping trip at Ala Moana and was pleasantly surprised! I enjoyed the flavors of the tan tan ramen, and the fiancé enjoyed his bowl as well. Chicken karage was good, big juicy pieces paired well with the Japanese mayo.
Good pit stop before or after some shopping cardio!

While I can eat ramen daily, the rainy and gloomy weather has made it even more perfect to eat ramen. Hot, spicy soup filled with delicious noodles, yummy broth and vegetables were what I was craving.
And what better place then Goma Tei to get my ramen fix on? My co-​workers and I trekked over to Ward and was able to get a seat at the bar area. We perused the menu and we each ordered something different. I ordered the spicy tan tan seafood ramen, minus the calamari and add on of vegetables. My two other co-​workers order shoyu ramen with tonkatsu and Char siu tan tan.
The ramen came in less than 8 minutes and it was ONO! My ramen was perfect – just enough spice and filled with shrimp, scallops and a heaping of vegetables. I slurped it all up in about 15 minutes.

Excellent Gyoza and Shredded Pork & Szechuan pickle tan tan ramen! Alongside was Katsu Curry Rice, all were cooked and prepared to perfection.
The staff was very helpful and were so nice to help navigate the choices. Mahalo to Rufeng and Shane for very good customer service!

I can see why people like this place. They most likely come here for the gyoza, which is most likely the only reason why I’d come back.
First time trying Goma Tei. I had the Wakame Tan Tan Ramen, 2 orders of the gyoza, and the tatsutaage chicken. The ramen noodles were thick which I liked, the broth was a little too room temperature for my liking, and I wasn’t a fan of the peanutty taste in the broth. The shoyu egg was over cooked and had the green ring around the yolk which was a total turn off.
I’m usually not a fan of eating huge pieces of chicken like the tatsutaage chicken, but there were so many posts about it, thought we would just try it out. It came with big pieces of chicken and the breading was next to none, which is a huge plus when you’re paying $ 9 for chicken karaage. Taste was good, and it wasn’t over fried.
The gyoza was my favorite part, it was very large over stuffed pieces of pork onion long rice filled hot and steamy goodness. Definitely worth the $ 7.97 price tag and I would order 2 orders with rice when I return.
This location is tucked inside of ward right outside of the Sedona store by the bed bath and beyond side. Parking is free, but if you come during dinner time 5−8pm parking will usually be difficult to find. Location is small, so look forward to waiting a hot minute. Service was nice and the restaurant was clean.

I could eat here every day and not get tired of it. Maybe take out though. On second thought, takeout means no wooden spoon. Well I guess it’s time to buy one then. Avoiding a line, wait and a mediocre dine in and ambiance is fair enough. But we love coming here so never mind.
The ramen is deep and soothing and home style. Some of the better ramen I’ve had in Hawaii. There is a hype to it, naturally, because ramen will always and forever rightfully so come with a hype. Ramen = Star Wars.
I admit I get what everyone gets here. How can you not? Tan Tan. Extra Spicy for me though. Maybe extra extra spicy? Amazing. I love their buta and that’s a hard thing to love for me. It is so good here. It is big. It is thick. It is tender. It is in pieces and chunks floating in my broth. Adding to it. Evolving it. Separating the grainy soup. Moving around the oils. Clinging to the thickness of the broth and noodles. Fatty pieces upon fatty pieces. Slurp it all up and lick my bowl I do. Savor that unique peanut-​y flavor. This is my ritual before and after traveling. We crave Tan Tan when we touch down in Honolulu. It’s a necessary must. And this is my favorite location and prices. Lovely Ward. Ample free customer parking, quiet, casual and nice.
Don’t come here if you’re a snob and like to throw stones. It’s tiny with glass doors. And it’s just ramen… But not, just, ramen.

Sorry, serving a magnet in my soup is sufficient reason to 1-​star this place… Too bad I can’t zero star it. See the pic I posted.
All they did is take it off the tab. Not to be a drama queen but hope I don’t get sick or something.
What a shame…

Came here on a weekday night and no line, yes. We get seated right away and I ordered the seafood tan tan ramen noodles and Gyoza. The Gyoza were huge, more like potsticker size compared to other Japanese gyozas I had previously. The tan tan noodles was good and they didn’t skimp on seafood, which is great. Not many Japanese ramen offer seafood as ramen, mostly just pork, so I wanted to try this place out. When. Eating, the seafood and noodle were not spicy, but when drinking the soup base by itself, it was.
Overall, good eats here.

Goma Tei is a classic ramen place in Hawaii. You know exactly when a friend is eating at Gona Tei from snapchats of their infamous ramen bowls with long wooden spoons and the side of tonkatsu with the sauce.
My favorite is the Tan Tan ramen and depending on how hungry I’m feeling, I get the Tonkatsu Tan Tan with the Tonkatsu on the side to keep the breading crispy.
I’ve also tried the Mabo Tofu Ramen which has a little kick of spice in the soup with tofu, ground beef, and a sunny side up egg. This is a good alternative when the Hawaii heat is just a little too overbearing and you don’t want to pair the heat with hot ramen soup as well.

The only thing I disliked about this place were the cobwebs on the ceiling lights. Minor considering the overall cleanliness of the place.
Charsiu tan tan ramen is a perfect example of being true to Japanese flavors and accommodating a local market. The tan tan was just spicy enough to cause you to break a light sweat and not hurt from the heat. It was subtle like most flavors in Japanese cooking. The portion was large and there was enough charsiu to fill up a local. The portion would likely be too big for you average Japanese tourist or FOB. What your average Japanese would like are the properly cooked noodles. These are thin ramen noodles but the were still had some firmness or «koshi». The only other ramen place I’ve been to so far in Hawaii that have noodles cooked correctly was Menchankotei.
The tatsutaage was much larger than I thought it would be for $ 8.00. There were 6 large boneless chicken thighs and it wasn’t just all coating like you find at other places. Again subtle touch with the fruit flavoring.
So why 4 stars instead of 5? The wait for our order. Cooking ramen is a quick affair. It took over 20 minutes to receive our order. It is not ridiculously long, but making ramen is a matter of cooking noodles for the proper time and adding it to the prepared broth and garnishes. The kitchen was not well oiled today.
The only other negative is the parking situation at Ward. I like covered parking but the absurdly narrow stalls along with the speeders in the parking structure almost makes me avoid this place.

All Goma Tei Restaurants have the same menu but for some reason I prefer coming to the Ward location over the Ala Moana location. It could be due to food options.
The place is clean and the employees are friendly.
I ususally don’t venture out to much on their menu — I haven’t tried any of their rice dishes, mainly sticking to ramen. Preferably the tantan list over their shoyu based broth list. But what I have tried is always tasty. I would definitely be back.

When in town, I always try to get my ramen fix as much as possible. Oahu is definitely a place where I can get it. I found a couple of places and Goma Tei is listed in that Hawaiian magazine that my Hawaiian local friend showed me as one of the top three. In the top three, oh yes, why not try!
The place was a bit hard to find for a non-​local right me. It’s inside a shopping center most of the shops were closed as I came around dinner time. The place is tiny and clean. Their ramen bar is in the centre so the cooks were at the back instead of in front of the bar cooking them ramens for guests. I actually don’t mind that setup. I find it quite modern and the place can definitely sit more people that way. I am impressed with the menu. They have fusion dishes like mapo tofu ramen, curry loco moco. I am always impressed with fusion menus which is a plus.
I ordered the tonkatsu tantan ramen while my friend ordered the shredded pork. We got gyozas as appetizers. The gyozas were good. Meaty. It came right after our ramen though. It looked like they had back orders of those. The noodles, just right. Not mushy. Always important that noodles not mushy. I’m easy to please. It was my first time trying out a tan tan flavoured ramen since I always default shoyu or miso. I definitely like the sesame flavour for a bit sweetness/​salty taste in my broth. Although, I think I didn’t order right and mistaken the char sui from the tonkatsu. The tonkatsu was good, I just like my pork belly.
Definitely going back here to try fusion dishes and other tan tan ramens! I’m totes a fan!

TL;DR: Some tasty ramen, if not a bit on the heavier side.
We came here on a Saturday around 8 and the place was still packed. When coming here, be sure to go inside the mall. The placement on the map is a little tricky.
Starting off, we got some mandoo, which were large and tasty. We also got some Goma wings, which were crispy and flavorful.
For Ramen, we got two types: Char shu Ramen and veggie Ramen. The broth for both were flavorful but not exactly what you would normally expect from a ramen shop. The char shu was really thick and a little dry.
While I am a fan of feeling full after my meals, this was too full. It was very heavy. If you’re into that, cool, but the broth was just too dense.
Overall, not a flavor you would expect from a Japanese ramen shop, not the best that I’ve had, but tasty nonetheless.