Goma Tei Ramen - Honolulu

My all time favorite ramen restaurant in Honolulu! This is the original location, in the Ward Center (across the street from TJ Maxx). Rich, spicy, pork broth, which has no comparison. Definitely try their Tan Tan ramen, which features this outstanding broth. Paired with a thick piece of pork belly, (shaped like a ribeye steak). Thick curly noodles, and Chinese broccoli. For a lighter broth, try their shoyu ramen. I highly recommend their chicken Tatsutaage, marinated boneless chicken, fried in light batter. Served in a generous portion with lemon and house katsu sauce.

TL:DR Hearty broth with a sesame seed flavor. Great noodles! Goma Tei ramen is a local born ramen restaurant. They have become quite popular in Honolulu for their sesame seed broth. Goma Tei has a wide selection of ramens to choose from and even offer a breakfast menu at select locations. I stopped by with my family for dinner at the Ward location and we had the entire restaurant to ourselves. I ordered the Char Siu Tan Tan Ramen. It came with a hearty amount of char siu that melted in my mouth. Super ono and flavorful! The noodles were that perfect consistency of soft with a little bit of firmness. The broth itself was dank! Super super thick with a deep flavor. It had a strong sesame flavor that was nicely balanced with a fatty meaty flavor. In concert these ingredients created an incredibly delicious bowl of ramen. I left feeling 10lbs heavier and totally satisfied. Overall, a great bowl of ramen that will leave you feeling stuffed!

This place is decent+, maybe a B- score at best. We came to the Gomatei at Ward at 5pm on a Sunday evening, and were the only guests dining in. We ordered the Tan Tan Ramen with Chashu and also the one with Seafood. The Tan Tan Ramen seems to be their specialty, so of course that's what we got. However, even though the seafood portions were generous, I don't feel like the flavor complimented the broth all that well. The calamari and shrimp were virtually flavorless. The Chashu however, was sooooo THICCCCC which was a huge bop. I'm used to Chashu slices being paper thin, so Gomatei got this right! The broth itself was slightly spicy, slightly sesame. The flavor wasn't very strong, tbh... I had anticipated more peanutty/sesame/dank essence from the soup, so this was slightly disappointing. Also, I wasn't sure if the little freckles in the soup was fat or just the tan tan stuff. The best part of the bowl was probably the noodles, which had more of a peanutty/sesame flavor and had good mouth feel to every chew. Portion sizes were great, but the flavors left room to be desired. I have had Tan Tan ramen before, and the broth usually is my favorite part. Maybe this place just isn't for me. My boyfriend's mom ordered the Shoyu Wonton Ramen, and she also said that her bowl was pretty weak. Anyways, this place isn't bad. Just not my cup of tea, and one that I wouldn't rave about.

There was a short wait when my friend and I went on a Friday night but got seated relatively quickly since we were a small party. I got the tan tan and she for the spicy tan tan level 3. We both enjoyed our food. Seemed like a lot of noodles in there because we kept eating and our bowl looked almost untouched. Chashu was tasty and I enjoyed all components of the bowl. This place is my go to place for tantan. I also enjoyed their mapo tofu ramen.

What a clean nice place to have very good ramen. I had the Tan Tan seafood ramen which had chunks of calamari and prawns with spinach in a wonderful chicken-based broth seasoned with salt, soy sauce (shoyu), some miso, and sesame paste. It has a little chili and white pepper as well. The seafood was very good and that old freezer burned stuff that some places serve. The service was excellent and fast. My only negative statement is their beer tap was broken so only ice water to drink. I'm sure they'll get it fixed soon. Awaiting parts. Worth the stop for a pleasant atmosphere, great service and wonderful food.