Tsurumen Ramen

Tsurumen is closed :(I live nearby, & pass it all the time, & their sign is gone :(I only ate here once, & have been meaning to go back because it was really, really good, but I guess I’ll never have the chance now unless they reopen elsewhere.

I ordered the Kotteri paitan shoyu ramen with tofu on my 1^st visit. It was a very flavorful broth however still left me not full. Next time I’ll order side Cha-​shu, or that’s what I think they call it.

So i’ve decided to give this place a shot. i love the idea that they don’t use MSG and is organic. I give them A+ effort for that. But being compared to all the other ramen spots around town… They would have to seriously step up the standards.
Whenever I go to a new ramen restaurant, I have a standard. I usually order Shoyu or Shio if it’s on the menu. Unless there are highly recommended items on the menu then I may give those a shot first.
So I ordered the Shoyu. It was very flavourful, but the broth was very oily. It looked like an oil spill from the top. I have a lot of Japanese friends who give me an assessment of photos but I’m also comparing it to a similar shop back at home for me (Vancouver, Canada) that offers no MSG as well. The one I usually get is not a pig fat soup. This Shoyu I ordered was definitely a pig fat soup. The noodles are nice and thin and chewy. Well cooked. But the Char-​Su was so fatty I felt like I was eating melted jello. I had to pick off all the fat and it was about 50% fat. So all in all, the ramen gets a B– rating.
I ordered Gyoza, I was very disappointed. I know most Gyoza’s elsewhere is filled with lard as a filler. This one was mostly vegetable. It was all green on the inside with very little meat. It needs to be balanced a bit better. It was also a bit on the dry side (needs to be cooked with a little more water) but it wasn’t sealed properly. After the first bite it opened up and fell apart. I give the Gyozas a C–
The service though was good. I don’t know if I’ll return. Maybe one more time to see if it was just an off day for them. Skip the Gyozas for sure. Maybe I’ll try their Char-​Su buns. I know it shows up as a 2 star rating but its more like 2.5.
I’ll update the review with photos later. The photos are on my phone and I’m not near it right now.

Don’t take the 3-​stars as a condemnation: I did enjoy the restaurant. However, their «Osaka-​style ramen” – a minor region for ramen not known for a specific style – doesn’t hold up to the the standard of an area of Oahu littered with ramen shops; it surely stands out with its thick, flavorful broth and all-​organic motto, but in the end it’s ironically not all that to write home about.
That said, Tsurumen is a hip enough restaurant that I can see it flourishing for at least a year’s time. Will I be back? Ehh.

I have always been eating ramen at tenkaippin which is located close to this restaurant but when I discovered this ramen restaurant, i stop visiting tenkaippin. Honestly you will have your most health, best and delicious ramen in whole island! The staff is always so friendly and the atmosphere is cool. I’m blessed to be their customer!

With ample parking and a convenient location, this little ramen café isn’t just convenient, but dishes out a great meal as well. The very small menu is a testament to good eats… they have a specialty and they stick with it. That means 4 choices of really good, really filling ramen bowls, as well as a couple great ad– ons like gyoza, a pork rice bowl, and a super yummy interpretation of cha su bun. Well done! Though the bowls aren’t large like some other places, the quality ingredients mean they are filling. The three of us had plenty of leftovers.
The service staff are enthusiastic and seem to really enjoy their work. Wish they had dessert!

The restaurant wasn’t busy when we got there for dinner, our server seemed enthusiastic about his job. The menu was simple and i got the Kotteri, which wasn’t thick enough to my liking but it was a Paitan broth so i didn’t mind it. The flavor though was very straight forward one direction, in my opinion, some may love it and some may feel its boring. I thought that because the flavor was headed one direction, that made it a good flavored broth. Their gyoza was not good and it was a waste of time, the pork bowl felt like it was trimmings from their char su all cut up and made into a new dish. Their new item on the menu was the steamed bun, the buns weren’t puffy enough and it was served with a pickled carrot/​cabbage and a sweet sauce with a slice or char su. It might be new on the menu but the dish is a lazy cross over of ingredients that was lacking passion! I give it a 3 stars simply because of the broth, the noodles were ok.

Bright, clean and friendly. Fairly limited menu but they have a vegetarian (vegan?) option!
As is often the case, the vegetarian dish is more expensive ($ 10.95) than some of the meat dishes ($ 9.95) — which doesn’t make any sense to me. You can opt to add tofu ($ 1.25) or a boiled egg ($ 1.50) to the top. Big plus that tofu wasn’t the only option (which is usually the case). I chose the egg. Mushroom based broth was fairly tasty.
As others stated, plenty of parking right in front. Only complaint is that waitress dropped off bill after my friend was done with his bowl, but I was only about halfway done with mine.

Quick and easy like ramen should be, plus it was better than the average ramen I find in Hawaii. I got a simple shoyu ramen, and it was the «sappari» kind of ramen I was looking for. Some people may think their size is a bit small, but it was good enough for a hungry college girl. If just ramen isn’t enough, you can always order some gyoza or try one of their set menus.

Tsu-​ru-​men Ra-​men. The rhyme in its name forces me to really stop and think while saying it aloud. Reviews state 3.5 star but I’m always looking for a new ramen spot so hey… chance ‘em!
During lunch on a weekday it was surprisingly quiet. Just us and another dude in there. No shocker, the service was pretty awesome. The menu is veeeerrrry small. The ramen wasn’t much bigger. The broth of the shoyu ramen was flavored well but single dimensional. The noodles were chewy and cooked well. I like the extras they include-​green onion, nori, bamboo shoots. I also really like how they do not include MSG.
Honestly I think Unilocal was spot on with 3.5 stars.

I tried the paitan shoyu ramen and really liked the broth. It tasted much richer and thicker than any ramen I’ve had before. It was savory and satisfying. My friend thinks it’s too sweet – I agree that it’s sweeter than normal ramen, but I liked it. I also liked the whole wheat noodles a lot, it was different in a good way. I will definitely be back! We came for dinner at 6pm and there was only one other table besides us. The service was very good. Surprisingly, the gyoza was bad (which is difficult to do imho). Somehow, the cabbage tasted off.

Tsurumen was good, but not special. I had the tan tan men, and the broth was thick, oily and tasty, while the boiled egg was nicely done. I like the strips of bok choy as a nice added ingredient. The bowl looked artful (check out pic). Portions were a bit meager, but it was on the price side. It is a small place but super clean, and for the amount of tables, parking is free and sufficient. It shares a parking lot with a shrimp truck. I imagine a place like this in Tokyo for a quick bite. The patrons seemed to be Japanese nationals, so that may be a good sign. Worth a try, but I like places like Kiwami, Lucky Belly, Agu, Goma-​Ichi, and Hokkaido Santouka better.

Organic and no MSG! BYOB too!
They are located at the corner of Kapahulu and Kaimuki Ave. There is a private lot that you can park in or look for street parking by Crane Park. When we entered, we were immediately greeted and seated at a table of our choice (wasn’t busy when we went). Water and tea were quickly brought out. The place is very clean and you can look into the kitchen through a hole to see your ramen being made. They buy locally and that is a ½ star bump up for me because I believe in supporting local businesses.
Ramen here is average with smaller portions than I’m used to at a similar price point. The one piece of Char Siu was very fatty and had little meat to it. Egg was good and the center of the yolk was still gooey which I liked. Broth was rich and thick. If I didn’t drink it all, I wouldn’t have been full after the meal. The gyoza looked very good when they brought it out but after trying it, we all agreed that we had better gyoza before.
Ramen: 2.5 stars
Gyoza: 1.5 stars
Service: 4 stars
Cleanliness and Décor: 3.5 stars
Price and Value: 2.5 stars
Overall: 3 stars (½ star bump up for supporting local businesses)

Overall food was ok, but like many said the soup was just too salty. Ordered Tan Tan Ramen and the broth was too rich, creamy, and saaaaalty.
Service was excellent, the waiter was very nice and sincere.

The rundown:
–Quick service.
–Easy parking.
–Delicious tsukemen ramen.
This was my boyfriend and I’s first time at Tsurumen, and I’m not sure if it was because it was a Thursday night, but when we arrived there was no one else in the restaurant. This made it easy to find parking.
We were immediately seated and had our order placed within minutes. The hostess/​waitress was very friendly and quick.
I ordered the Tan Tan, spicy miso, ramen and added bean sprouts. Additional toppings are $ 1.50 each. The tan tan was rich and spicy which I really enjoyed. We also shared a pork rice bowl. It was delicious and simple, spicy pork served on rice with bean sprouts mixed in. My boyfriend tried the shoyu tsukemen ramen. This style comes with thicker noodles and the broth is thicker, richer and served on the side. The noodles soak up the broth when dipped in. I enjoyed the tsukemen but think it was a little too salty for myself. Lastly, we ordered boiled gyoza, this was pretty standard so I had no complaints.
The only suggestion I would have for Tsurumen is that the very cold air conditioner caused the food to become cold, and fast. It did help to cool the area and keep you from sweating while enjoying the ramen.
I would definitely recommend trying the tsukemen ramen and return back to Tsurumen for my next ramen craving.

1. Verdict/​Value: It’s quietly good — nothing special, but it does beat beat more expensive competitors like Agu Ramen on price for the same size and quality.
2. Food: The Shoyu Ramen ($ 10) comes with a couple of pieces of char siu, some bamboo shoots, a piece of nori seaweed, and green onions on top of al dente thin noodles. The soup is pleasant enough without being too salty. The size is smaller than that found at Goma Tei but matches that of Agu Ramen. Overall it’s alright — nice if you’re looking for something simple, otherwise, nothing special.
The Mazesoba ($ 10) features bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, half a soft boiled egg, green onions, fired pork bits, and a single piece of char siu on top of al dente thin noodles. It’s dry, like a Vietnamese noodle bowl (bun). The taste is pleasant though the complimentary bowl of white rice accompany the dish is appreciated to offset the salty taste of the fried pork.
3. Service: Great in English and Japanese, though I should note that there were no other customers at 7:30 pm on a Thursday night… so you would expect service to be prompt and pleasant. The music in the background was soft but the lack of activity made waiting for our food seem a little long…
4. Atmosphere: It’s clearly an older place that’s renovated. Goma Tei and Agu take the top honors for environment, but Tsuramen’s not far behind, looking all white and contemporary. The parking is a little awkward in the odd-​shaped lot and the space is shared with a restaurant next door, which could seem confusing upon entry.

I think the convenient location really helps out with this place. But the limited parking will really cause some people frustration.
When you enter the restaurant. it can be confusing as there is another right next to it. So you kind are just wondering where do you go? If you are looking for ramen, make sure you go to the right.
The food was okay. nothing special to write home about. There was not much distinction between the other ramen places. They did have some really cool condiment containers.
The area was well kept and clean, with very friendly staff. so that is always a plus in their favor. But when I started eating a fly just started buzzing around my table. I was hoping that it would just fall out of the air so I could eat in peace.

I went there on Wednesday lunch time and nobody was there… i mean no customers.
it was really slow and saw only 1 couple while we were there. Instead there were so many tiny bugs flying at the dinning table.
I had Miso Paitan and it wasn’t memorable at all. I don’t want to pay $ 12 for it again. I prefer Agu Ramen much better. I liked Kai Ramen a lot but too bad they closed…

I loved that they use the skinny noodles for their shoyu ramen. Actually that’s the best part! The flavor is ok. Nothing really WoW or special. They have these fried onions on the table that you can add to your ramen, which gives it a crunchy feel to your ramen.

Went here for lunch the other day because I heard they had Tsukemen. I’ll normally take tsukemen (dipping noodle) any day over Ramen. Not many places in the state of Hawaii actually serve this dish either. I can only name a handful of places that actually serves traditional tsukemen so I was delighted to hear that another eatery opened up offering this menu item.
Parking here is limited so you either have to hit this place at the right time, get lucky or find parking on the street. This is why a lot of past businesses in this lot has failed so I wish them the best that they can overcome this.
The menu is fairly limited with 3 types of ramen and a Tsukemen. They have one particular bowl of ramen which they only serve 20 bowls of per day — the Kahuku Shrimp bisque ramen. They also have a char siu rice bowl and a few other side toppings.
The entire lot is a co-​op with a couple other places, Tsurumen will be on your right when you walk through the door. Order at the counter and get a number and take a seat. They will bring you your order.
When the tsukemen arrived for my friend and I the noodles and presentation looked good. I enjoy thicker noodles and they did not disappoint. The shoyu egg and the charsiu was good too. The broth was a bit on the saltier side and had a strong sense of vinegar. I feel like this needs a bit more work and then I’ll really be able to enjoy this dish. I sense it’s almost there and the chef is still working on perfecting the flavor. Next time I go I’ll try a bowl of Ramen to compare.