Onoya Ramen: Casual Japanese noodles in Honolulu

Onoya Ramen is a Japanese restaurant serving classic bowls of ramen noodles, located in Honolulu in Hawaii. I came here as a group of 8 friends during my trip to Hawaii in the fall and after 10 days on a cruise, we were all craving something authentically Asian and soupy to soothe our souls. Luckily, we arrived in time for their happy hour, which is Mon-Fri from 3-5:30 pm.

Related: Read about my 10-day recap on our cruise to Hawaii via The Royal Caribbean.

Note that all the prices listed in this review are in USD.

Happy hour

Since we made it for happy hour, we order a few drinks and appetizers to go with our ramen. We order a pitcher of asahi beer for $15, which is a pretty decent price. None of the ramen have a discount during happy hour.

Yuzu shochu ($4)

I try to avoid beer because I notice it’s not very good for my skin condition (psoriasis), so I order the yuzu shochu instead. It comes in a tall glass and has a nice sour ting from the yuzu. It’s a light and fruity drink with low alcohol content.

Chicken karaage ($5)

For $5, you get around 5 pieces of chicken karaage, served with some lemon and a mayo aioli. The karaage is fried well and the pieces are actually quite big and juicy. Good deal for $5.

Chicken katsu ($5)

Chicken katsu for $5 is also a pretty good deal. You get a small-sized mini chicken cutlet and a mini side of salad. Again, the chicken katsu is fried quite well and the inside is juicy.

Ramen

Their menu has ramen and combo sets as well as vegan options. Since we had 2 appetizers during happy hour, my boyfriend and I decided to eat order our own bowl of ramen.

Tonkotsu black ($15)

My boyfriend chooses one of Onoya Ramen’s signature bowls – the tonkotsu black. It uses all natural pork bone broth flavored with a combination of garlic oil and topped with garlic chips. It comes with half a ramen egg, char siu, seaweed and some kikurage (a type of mushroom).

My boyfriend said it was tasty and is very similar to any of the tonkotsu black ramens you can find in Vancouver.

Tonkotsu classic ($14)

I order the tonkotsu white, which is very similar to the tonkotsu black ramen except without the garlic oil and chips. The broth is seasoned with Onoya seasoning instead and is less soy sauce based Toppings are the same.

I thought the broth was light and kind of creamy and I also changed it to thin noodles. Egg was cooked well and the 2 slices of char siu was on the fatty side, but I prefer it that way.

Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

We all enjoyed our ramen at Onoya Ramen. I’m not sure if it is because we were craving Asian food/soupy food so much, but we really felt like it hit the spot. Even though Hawaii is quite hot, we didn’t feel hot or sweaty eating hot ramen (almost night time so it’s not that hot anyways).

Prices are decent for Hawaii, but since I am Canadian I do think everything is a little more expensive because of the conversion. I do think the happy hour is a good deal, otherwise we would have ordered one of their ramen combo sets that come with a rice dish for close to $20.

Food was yummy and the whole place was run by Japanese folks so there is some authenticity there. After I returned home, I didn’t notice being particularly thirsty (that’s how I know the broth uses a lot of msg). I hear they don’t do bill splitting very often in the US but the servers did it for us, which was nice.

Location-wise, it’s not really on the Waikiki strip so you’ll have to drive maybe like 15 mins away from Waikiki strip. But it’s in a nice and peaceful neighbourhood with plenty of street parking. I recommend you check out this spot if you are looking for a ramen joint in Honolulu that isn’t too expensive!

Sincerely, Loewe