After a decent session of surfing at Waikiki the other week, my friend and I were hungry so I suggested that we go to Kiwami Ramen. My friend hadn’t gone before and I was in the mood for some chashu gohan. My friend ordered the tororo tsukemen and I ordered the medium chashu gohan with an extra ajitsuke tamago.
While waiting for our food I sipped on my Kirin nama and found out that Kiwami’s noodles are made using the owner’s recipe. They are not quite “home made” as they have it made for them using the owner’s recipe. Still, custom made noodles are better than off the shelf noodles.
Our food arrived and boy was it good. I am beginning to like this place more and more. The chashu gohan hit the spot for me and it was just as Reid describes in
his review.
This last visit sold me. Whenever I am in the area I will be revisiting.
After reading
Reid’s review of Kiwami Ramen he had my curiosity piqued. Recently I was in Waikiki with some friends to pick up a gift and I suggested to them that we try
Kiwami Ramen.
In
Reid’s review, it was the ‘medium charsu rice’ that got my attention. Two slices of chashu, a mound of cubed chashu and to top it off a ajitsuke tamago. So the first thing I ordered was the small chashu rice.
I was a bit disappointed with this dish. The main thing about this dish that disappointed me wasn’t the size of the portion, but the cubes of chashu. They were cold and thus the fat on it was also. Cold fat is never good. I don’t know if they serve it like this for a reason, but it didn’t enhance this dish in anyway that I could think of. Another thing to consider is the price. The small is $2.00 and it is fairly small in portion. The medium is $4.00, but it comes with the sliced chashu and the ajistuke tamago (which is $1.50 on the side alone) in addition to what I would assume is an increase in the size of the portion. On a positive note, the rice was hot so it helped warm up the cold cubes of chashu, which when heated, tasted pretty good and also the hot rice was tasty also.
My friend and I ordered the Goma Miso Tsukemen (胡麻みそつけ麺; Sesame seed and soy bean paste broth with noodles).
Our other friend ordered the Tororo Tsukemen (とろろつけ麺; Grated mountain yam with noodles).
The Goma Miso broth was very tasty. The noodles were pretty good and having them tsukemen style helped a lot with keeping the noodles firm until I finished them all. I still hold Taishoken’s noodles as my gold standard. I tried the Tororo broth and that was tasty also.
If you are ever in the area (Waikiki Shopping Plaza) check this place out. While not quite as good as
Taishoken it is pretty good.
