Wagaya
We got together for some noodles over the weekend at Wagaya which translates to Our Home. The owners strive for a friendly and comforting restaurant with as many local and organically sourced products available. It is a small place with about 40 seats, but they have a really cool electronic wait system that links to your phone. If you have a long wait, you can make the 3 minute walk to Chiko's around the corner for some pre-dinner cocktails and keep an eye on your spot on the wait list on your phone. Wagaya is open for lunch from 11:30am to 2:00pm and dinner from 5:30pm to 9:00pm.
The tonkotsu ramen broth is made from chicken and kurobuta pork bones that simmers in different stages for two days! They also have a shoyu broth made from fish, chicken, and konbu dashi and a vegetarian broth with sesame and miso.
Wagaya offers oodles of customization opportunities like noodle firmness, noodle thickness, noodle serving size, salt flavoring, and spicyness from standard (non-spicy) to Level 5 (ghost). You can also add extra noodles (or even GF sweet potato noodles), extra broth, proteins (such as egg, charsiu, spareribs), spicy toppings (kimchi or chili bamboo), or vegetables (choi sum, green onion, chives, corn, beni shoga, iwanori, nori, fried garlic, garlic oil). So many options!!!!!
Vocabulary I learned during this visit:
Kikurage = Wood Ear Mushrooms
Wakame = Edible Seaweed
Iwanori = Rock Seaweed (because it is found in the crevices of rocks)
Choi Sum = Leafy vegetable commonly used in Chinese cuisine
Curtis - $12.50 - Hiyashi Tan Tan Men, cold version of popular tonkotsu tan tan men (ground pork miso, half soft-boiled egg, choi sum, kikurage, wakame, chili tempura flakes, garlic chili oil, sesame dressing). Many many noodle options, I got softer noodles. I like that. I ordered cold, so the cold broth was citrus and sesame. It was good. Very very many toppings options, even ribs!
Overall this is a 4. The vegetables were distracting to the broth. I would request no yu choy. It was clean and bitter, which I love, but it takes away from the broth. They have parking, but small lot. They have electronic wait list. I actually like their artwork . We ordered the gyoza and beef tongue appetizers. Tongue here is wonderful.
Shannon - $14.25 - Tan Tan Men, rich sesame broth is perfectly balanced with mild spice and miso ground pork (ground pork miso, 2pc char siu, half soft-boiled egg, choi sum, sesame, nori, shredded chili). Medium thickness noodles are the perfect chewy. I love them! Don’t get more than hot, that shit is hot. Sesame broth is delicious. Egg already comes with it love it!
Overall this is a 4.82. There is so much flavor. I loved the way the flavor was there but I could also feel the heat. Between the lack of AC, my polyester skirt, and my spicy food, I was sweating my ass off. Gyoza is super yummy with thin Japense style skin and grilled on one side. The thin cut beef tongue had so much flavor! How do they get so much flavor in such a tiny piece of meat? How did Curtis get me to start eating and liking strange foods like this?
Shizue - $12.50 - Gyodashi Shoyu Ramen (2pc char siu, half soft-boiled egg, choi sum, chili bamboo, kikurage, seesame, noi, iwanori, green onion, thin noodles). Medium Spicy. This particular ramen comes with thin noodles. I like a little thicker noodle even though shoyu ramen normally comes with thin noodles. Next time I would order it with standard (size) noodles, which is an option. Broth is good. I had medium spicy so I could taste the broth and not just heat. Comes with char siu, bamboo shoots, and half an egg. I like that this ramen comes with an egg and that it is not an add on. The choi sum (greens) that comes with it is okay but a little weird to be in ramen for me.
Overall I rate this ramen a 4. I would probably give it a higher score, but I ordered the ramen the way they suggested which I like to do first before I make any changes. If I changed it to thicker noodles (my preference) the rating would probably be higher. Gyoza - decent, thin skin. Beef tongue, always good but could have used a bit more seasoning.
Dusty - $13.25 - Wagaya Tsukemen (diced char siu, soft-boiled egg, choi sum, chili bamboo, green onion, sesame, nori, thick chilled dipping noodles).
The tonkotsu ramen broth is made from chicken and kurobuta pork bones that simmers in different stages for two days! They also have a shoyu broth made from fish, chicken, and konbu dashi and a vegetarian broth with sesame and miso.
Wagaya offers oodles of customization opportunities like noodle firmness, noodle thickness, noodle serving size, salt flavoring, and spicyness from standard (non-spicy) to Level 5 (ghost). You can also add extra noodles (or even GF sweet potato noodles), extra broth, proteins (such as egg, charsiu, spareribs), spicy toppings (kimchi or chili bamboo), or vegetables (choi sum, green onion, chives, corn, beni shoga, iwanori, nori, fried garlic, garlic oil). So many options!!!!!
Vocabulary I learned during this visit:
Kikurage = Wood Ear Mushrooms
Wakame = Edible Seaweed
Iwanori = Rock Seaweed (because it is found in the crevices of rocks)
Choi Sum = Leafy vegetable commonly used in Chinese cuisine
Curtis - $12.50 - Hiyashi Tan Tan Men, cold version of popular tonkotsu tan tan men (ground pork miso, half soft-boiled egg, choi sum, kikurage, wakame, chili tempura flakes, garlic chili oil, sesame dressing). Many many noodle options, I got softer noodles. I like that. I ordered cold, so the cold broth was citrus and sesame. It was good. Very very many toppings options, even ribs!
Overall this is a 4. The vegetables were distracting to the broth. I would request no yu choy. It was clean and bitter, which I love, but it takes away from the broth. They have parking, but small lot. They have electronic wait list. I actually like their artwork . We ordered the gyoza and beef tongue appetizers. Tongue here is wonderful.
Yuka - $13.95 - Tsukemen Garlic (diced char siu, sof-boiled egg, choi sum, chili
bamboo, green onion, sesame, nori, fried garlic, thick chilled dipping
noodles). Middle thickniss, pretty standard. I ordered firm and came as al dente. Flavorful! I order salty. It’s a nice well balanced tonkotsu soup and probably nice soybase fish dashi in it. Comes with egg, menma... maybe. Kikurage? Awww already forgot. Lots of stuff and I felt too much topping for amount of noodle.
Overall I rate this a 4.5. Pretty good, good quality, and well balanced, but not blow my mind good yet... Easy access and not bad to finding parking spot on the street. People are waiting there all the time, but they have a cool waiting app! Plus point! Gyoza and beef tongue! Beef tongue was sooo good! Taste like Japanese Izakaya :)
Shannon - $14.25 - Tan Tan Men, rich sesame broth is perfectly balanced with mild spice and miso ground pork (ground pork miso, 2pc char siu, half soft-boiled egg, choi sum, sesame, nori, shredded chili). Medium thickness noodles are the perfect chewy. I love them! Don’t get more than hot, that shit is hot. Sesame broth is delicious. Egg already comes with it love it!
Overall this is a 4.82. There is so much flavor. I loved the way the flavor was there but I could also feel the heat. Between the lack of AC, my polyester skirt, and my spicy food, I was sweating my ass off. Gyoza is super yummy with thin Japense style skin and grilled on one side. The thin cut beef tongue had so much flavor! How do they get so much flavor in such a tiny piece of meat? How did Curtis get me to start eating and liking strange foods like this?
Shizue - $12.50 - Gyodashi Shoyu Ramen (2pc char siu, half soft-boiled egg, choi sum, chili bamboo, kikurage, seesame, noi, iwanori, green onion, thin noodles). Medium Spicy. This particular ramen comes with thin noodles. I like a little thicker noodle even though shoyu ramen normally comes with thin noodles. Next time I would order it with standard (size) noodles, which is an option. Broth is good. I had medium spicy so I could taste the broth and not just heat. Comes with char siu, bamboo shoots, and half an egg. I like that this ramen comes with an egg and that it is not an add on. The choi sum (greens) that comes with it is okay but a little weird to be in ramen for me.
Overall I rate this ramen a 4. I would probably give it a higher score, but I ordered the ramen the way they suggested which I like to do first before I make any changes. If I changed it to thicker noodles (my preference) the rating would probably be higher. Gyoza - decent, thin skin. Beef tongue, always good but could have used a bit more seasoning.
Dusty - $13.25 - Wagaya Tsukemen (diced char siu, soft-boiled egg, choi sum, chili bamboo, green onion, sesame, nori, thick chilled dipping noodles).
Gyoza $5.95 - Traditional Japanese style with thin skin and fried on one side. Pretty tasty! Made in house daily.
Beef Tongue - $9.50 - This stuff is so yummy! So much flavor in every bite. How do they do it?
Otokoyama - $45.00 - Curtis said this was his favorite so we got a bottle for the table. It was so good. At first we thought the bottle was too big and then it was gone so fast, LOL.
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