Tsuruya Noodle Shop

So sad. Flew over from California this past summer to come to my favorite spot, then to realize they closed the restaurant. :(

This is a good Japanese place for a quick fix and its cheap! Service is mediocre which I don’t complain about because this is not a five star restaurant. «Establishment closed down» recently.

This place sucks big time!!! Service was rushed and food was so awful!!! We just just down and it was even 5 minutes when the waitress asked if we were ready to order. I was still looking at the menu. I shouldn’t have left a tip at all. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone!

This place is in Pearl Ridge, located in the Downtown shopping mall upstairs in the food court by the theater. Small little place, great for dine in or take out. I used to go here as a kid, still do when I’m in the area. The curry is really good, probably my favorite. Better consistency and color than Curry House, and the udon is really good too. The staff is nice, very courteous. The menu is kinda small but I’m sure there’s something just about anyone would like. This is a quiet place, but you can go here with anyone. You should check it out!

I always grab lunch from here when I’m at Pearlridge. They are very accommodating since I order the combo teishoku with teriyaki chicken and tempura but substitute it for all potato and no shrimp. I think for a teishoku and a large drink comes out to alittle over $ 10.

Prices for Japanese Food are quite expensive but not here. This place gives you good food at affordable prices.
The Teriyaki Chicken Combo, Tempura Combo, and their Saba Special are good. But I really enjoyed their Miso Ramen. I was surprised by how flavorful their broth was.
They have friendly dine-​in service but seating is limited and space is tight. Despite that, this is a good place to have your Japanese fix at the mall.

I’m happy to say we finally tried Tsuruya again. It’s been 10 months and things were much better (cleaner) this time around.

Standard Japanese fare at a neighborhood restaurant. The food is decent, though nothing unique or outstanding. The waitstaff are OK, but the service is poor. Once our order was taken and food was served, our table was never visited again; we were never given refills of water or asked if we’d like anything else, or how our meal was. And the waitstaff were constantly speaking loudly to one another in a foreign language and totally ignoring the customers. That behavior is fine at home or a night out with friends, but NOT in a restaurant with paying customers and certainly NOT while on duty at work! It’s plain rude and annoying.

The restaurant is pretty small with limited seating but you can also just take out and sit in the food court area. The food is great but the hospitality is below average. The welcomes, please, and thank yous are there but the lack of tone makes it sound forced.
I enjoyed the food enough to still want to come back. I wish there was a little more to make this restaurant inviting.
I was once told when I worked in customer service, when you don’t want to be here, customers know. And it’s true. Your presence and body language shows all.

Eh, decent Japanese food court food at a good price. Their combo specials are probably the way to go when you come here. The chicken curry in the combo is decent but they definitely don’t give enough sauce.
Service here is average. The servers enjoy having side conversations right in front of the customers and you need to work pretty hard to interrupt their side conversations to get the bill or a refill on water.

A quick healthy dinner. Don’t remember the name of the plate, starts with H or something. But its a veggie soba plate with sauce. It was soooo goood. It costed around $ 7. Will be back to try out other food. Yayayayyayay!

Food was good, service was bad. After our waitress brought us out food she didn’t come out from behind the counter once to check on us to see if we needed anything.
EDIT NOTE:
After looking at the photos that I took to post to instagram and compared it to the menu it looks like they forgot to put sesame seed & green onions in my miso ramen. Also after reading the other reviews It looks like I’m not the only one that thinks that they need to have better customer service.

Located in the food court of downtown pearlridge, this unique restaurant boasts dining in as well as taking your food out into the food court. The downtown food court seems so crowded with so little tables, I think it’s nice that they have dedicated seating just for this restaurant.
I was completely out of my comfort zone here. I didn’t recognize most of the dishes and first ordered regular chicken teriyaki. The second time I decided to try the soba nabeyaki based on reviews I’ve read here.
This is not your normal noodle bowl, friends. Chock full of ingredients, including 2 soft boiled eggs and more soba than you know what to do with, you will get full fast. I mean fast! Little ol me can spread this one bowl across 4 meals for sure. And for the price, you are probably getting your best value.
Why only the 3 stars? Because if I waited a few weeks to write this review, I would not have remembered anything about the dish. It’s not memorable.
However, if you are in the mall and all that shopping has left you famished, I suggest going here above any other downtown food establishment. You won’t be hungry for long.

I’m not a huge fan of Tsuruya but my mom is so whenever we go to Pearl Ridge this is where we always end up eating. We all know moms rule and there is no overruling them. I’m guessing the reason my mom likes it so much is because the soba is quite similar to any soba shop you might find in Japan.
For the most part, the food is pretty decent and so is the service. It’s a small restaurant located on the 3^rd floor of Pearl Ridge Downtown. It’s the only eatery in the food court (besides McDonald’s) that has it’s own seating, so this is a plus as you don’t have to search & wait for open tables. It does get busy on the weekends so you might have to wait for a table but the turn around is fast. You can order from the walk up window and eat in the food court. This helps if other people in your party want to eat something else.
Visual plated meals adorn their window so you can see what your ordering in 3D. This is typical in Japan at most restaurants. One friend from the Mainland thought this was real and asked me if Tsuruya made the food every day and placed it in the window… say what… hahaha…no comment. I suppose she doesn’t see the chopsticks and noodles hovering in mid air… Anywho, this is great for kids as they can see what the food looks like and can point out what they want to eat.
They have counter space and about 6 tables that will sit a party of 4. It’s not a big restaurant so think of it as a fast food noodle shop, it’s not a place where you’ll be lingering. Food comes out relatively fast once you’ve placed your order.
I usually order the Hiyashi Tempura Soba which is cold buckwheat noodles with Tempura on the side. The cold noodle sauce comes on the side, you dip your soba noodles in the sauce before eating it. When placing your noodle order, you have a choice between soba (buckwheat) or udon (flour noodles that are thicker and chewier than ramen noodles), if you’re health conscious, order soba.
Even though Tsuruya is a «noodle shop» they also have rice dishes. The teriyaki chicken is pretty good. It comes with miso soup and tsukemono (pickled vegetables). They also offer combos which includes some sort of mini soba or udon, a rice dish, like curry rice and tsukemono.
I’ve recently noticed they’ve expanded their menu and are now offering ramen. I haven’t tried the ramen yet so I can’t say how it is. For the most part though, their food is pretty decent and a good place to rest your feet from shopping.
Fun fact: In Japan, slurping noodles as loudly as possible is considered good etiquette. In fact, if you quietly eat your noodles with no sound, this is considered an insult to the chef… so get out there and start slurping!

Located in the corner of the food court of Pearlridge’s Downtown, this little restaurant is usually always busy. I usually order their super combo with the teriyaki chicken. It comes with teriyaki chicken on rice, cold soba, a tempura (shrimp, zucchini and eggplant), cabbage tsukemono and miso soup. A lot of food for under $ 10!

I have gone to this place numerous times when I was younger and lived in the area, and I have decided to finally review it. I also wanted to give this place 3.5 stars, which technically rounds up to 4 stars.
Tsuruya is a pretty good Japanese «food court» eatery. The noodle shop provides a little area where you can actually sit and «dine in» but also provides you with a to-​go option. The choice is really nice.
The servings are quite large (typical of Hawaii fast food) and you get a pretty good assortment of choice. You can have soba, udon, or regular ramen noodles… hot or cold… with different choices for your protein. You can have rice dishes and can even get curry. There’s tempura (a local favorite)! You can also get teriyaki chicken, oyakodon, etc etc etc. Needless to say, you can get your Japanese fix (unless your craving sushi).
So why not 5 stars? I just have high expectations for Japanese food. I am willing to spend more for a really amazing Japanese meal and have grown accustomed to doing so. I recently ordered the beef teriyaki and was surprised at the cut of meat I got and how the teriyaki tasted… artificial. However, I got the teriyaki beef teishoku and was pleasantly surprised at how much food I got. I had a ton of rice (too much actually), salad with really good thousand island dressing (probably from the bottle but still really good), some vegetables (meh), and miso soup (YUM). I was full and couldn’t even finish everything.
This place is pretty good for a food court noodle shop next to a panda express and mcdonalds. If you want to satisfy a craving, go here! If you are looking for high quality stuff that makes your mouth drop, look elsewhere but expect to pay a lot more.
Pros
— cheap
— quick japanese fix
— lots of food
Cons
— not authentic
— quality of meat not the best
My rating might also change when and if I decide to get a noodle dish (since it is a noodle shop after all).

First introduced to me by my mother, who is from Japan. Japanese people judge a restaurant by it’s ability to make tempura — crispy, but not oily or over-​battered. My mom enjoys their tempura thoroughly, as well as their soba. Though there has been a change to their noodles, for the price, the place is still unbeatable for Japanese food.
Their new combos — Super Combo and Double Shrimp Combo are a lot of food for a real cheap price. How do they do it?!
I almost tired myself out of this place, eating the Super Combo every time. Then I realized they have an extensive menu and that I could change it up! Dumb? I know. I don’t know what too tell you, but I was so hooked. After a short sabbatical from this place, it is back into rotation and I am excited to try other things!

This is not your typical food court spot! I was pleasantly surprised how good it was for the price and type of venue. Our total for the two of us was about $ 16 and here’s the breakdown
Hiyashi Kitsune Zaru Soba ($ 7.09): Their soba was really good, not too soggy not too dry. This dish came with fried tofu (the thin skin kind not like actual tofu), wakame seaweed, bean sprouts, green onions, and half a hard boiled egg. This was a good sized dish and was very tasty.
Curry Combo w/​Udon ($ 8.39): The bf got a little bowl of chicken curry and a small bowl of udon with his set. This was a great deal! The curry was good, you could tell it was just those packaged curry but the chicken was very moist and tender. The udon had green onions and fishcake and was pretty good too.
The food looked so good and I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture! Oops.
And yes get a stamp card! They won’t just give you one, we had to ask. But it’s like buy 7 entrees get 1 free! We got ours today and it expires in January so we got about 2 months. Might as well try right?
Now, this isn’t your high quality Japanese cooking but if you’re looking for quick, cheap Japanese noodles, then this is the place to go if you’re at Pearlridge. Now would I drive out of my way from Mililani just to come here? Probably not. But if I’m already at Pearlridge and I’m craving Japanese and on a budget would I go here? Most definitely.

Tsuruya has been around since I was a baby, which was… well, lets just say it was a long time ago! That alone should tell you something. I’m not gonna sit here and say that it’s the best japanese food ever, cause come on, it’s in a mall, it’s NOT the best japanese food ever. BUT, for under $ 10, you can get tempura, soba, and curry and rice. That’s a pretty awesome deal.
It’s cheap, they’re fast, it’s pretty yummy (comparable to a Gyotaku type of joint), AND you can get it while on a break from shopping. Yes my rice was a little mushy, and my kamaboko in my udon looked a little grey, not pink. But everything was still full of flavor. So I can’t really complain. Plus, we got SOOOOOOO much food for under $ 20. I’d definitely eat here again if I’m craving fast American style Japanese food.

STAMP CARD
Ask for a Tsuruya Noodle Shop Frequent Purchase Club Stamp Card if you don’t already have one. Fill up the stamp card by purchasing 7 menu items (one stamp per item, excluding side orders, drinks, and mini combos) and you get 1 entrée FREE! So buy 7, get 1 free. The stamp card expires several months out from the first stamp given, so plan your meals accordingly. Who doesn’t love a free meal?!
JAPANESE FAST FOOD
Tsuruya Noodle Shop is located in the Pearlridge Phase II (Pearlridge Downtown) fast food central AKA the food court. It’s in the same spot it’s been for years – next to McDonald’s in the far back right corner near the restrooms. This location is pretty random when you think about it, but super convenient for Japanese food lovers. What a nice change from the usual unhealthy food court food like burgers, pizza, and fries.
UDON
I’ve been dining here since I was a little kid. My regular dish of choice is and always was udon. I have had Tsuruya Noodle Shop’s soba as well as some of the other popular and traditional Japanese noodle dishes, but the udon is still at the top of my list. The Agemochi (fried mochi) Udon is my favorite; the Tanuki Udon, with tempura crisps /​flakes and veggie garnishing, is also good; and if you like cold noodle, you may want to try the Hiyashi Tanuki – cold noodle with tempura crisps & garnishings. **For most of the noodle dishes offered (excluding saimin), you can choose your noodle – either soba or udon. Soba is cheaper, but not by much.
Agemochi Udon:
FAST FOOD PRICES
Prices are beyond reasonable for this kind of Japanese fare. Most of the noodle dishes range between $ 6-​$ 9 each. And I believe that the most expensive dish off the entire menu is from the Teishoku section: Tempura & Teri Beef for $ 10.99. It’s a combination dish that comes with tempura, teriyaki beef, salad, rice, miso soup, and tsukemono. The Tempura & Chicken Katsu Teishoku is priced just over $ 10.
VERDICT
Overall, Tsuruya Noodle Shop is a perfect option for those in the area looking for some tasty Japanese fare at fast food prices. Choose to dine in or take out. Either way, you get your food pretty quickly. Don’t forget the stamp card!
Unilocal 365 — #273/​365