Ramen Nakamura is known for their oxtail ramen. We came right in the morning when they opened to avoid any line ups, plus we were up early due to the time difference. When you look on the internet, a lot of people say their oxtail ramen is really good, so we came to see if it live up the the hype.
Interior
There isn’t a lot of space inside, but most of the seating is around the counter.
Menu
Oxtail ramen
We ordered the combo and it comes with gyoza and fried rice. 3 items for $23, which was a bit pricey in our opinion since ramen shouldn’t be so expensive. Nonetheless, it does use oxtail, so that isn’t a cheap ingredient.
There is a good amount of oxtail in the bowl. The oxtail was tough and wasn’t fall off the bone as anticipated. It didn’t retain much of the broths flavour and needed a bit of effort to take the meat off. There was also quite a bit of harder fat around some pieces as you can see in the photo. The broth was light and packed full of vegetables that it didn’t compliment the oxtail very well.
I think it would have been better if it was a richer spicier dish, but the both of us though this dish was over hyped. We couldn’t order this again.
Gyoza
The gyoza were pan-fried and comes with 3 pieces for the combo. They tasted ok, but didn’t wow us. A pretty standard gyoza.
Fried Rice
The fried rice came in a mound and was good with bits of pork, egg, and green onions.
Hakata Tonkotu Ramen
This bowl of ramen was a lot better in my opinion. It was slightly milky but it could have had more depth of flavour. It was cheaper too at $11.50.
Final Thoughts
There was definitely too much hype with their oxtail ramen. It could have been better executed and the flavours and tenderness were missing. I wouldn’t come back as there are other good ramen restaurants in Waikiki like Hokkaido Ramen Santouka.
We Rate Ramen Nakamura: 
Address:
2141 Kalakaua Ave #1, Honolulu, HI
