Wafu Restaurant

Food was great, service a little slow at first, but there were two large parties, and it improved ¹⁄₃ of theway into the evening. The inari hot pockets are delicious.

Wafu ramen plus pork shoulder and mushrooms.
Nothing to write home about. Food was not worth the money and the vibe in the place is terrible. So contrived and fake feeling. The music play list made me feel like I was in a west Hollywood smug restaurant.
Will not be returning ever.

My friend and I ordered several dishes because we wanted to try a little bit if everything (and ended finishing everything too). The hand rolls (crab and the HHH) were delicious although the HHH was slightly too chewy for me and both expensive for the size. Calamari was delicious. We also shared the ramen soup and dry ramen. The soup was good. The dry ramen was unusual but delicious.
Overall great flavor but wish it was a little less pricey.

After spending a year driving past Wafu, I dropped in a month ago for the first time and have since been back so often I may have to start paying rent. Its quickly become my favorite haunt in SouthEast.
The highlights: its open later than most places, making it the perfect hit for late night. The dishes are incredibly reasonably priced– you could easily get in and out for under $ 15 with a completely satisfying huge bowl of ramen. The dishes are often inventive and the service is really lovely, with wait staff who know the menu, are generally fast and attentive.
Our favorite new trick is that we frequently put our name in at PokPok, try to look unoffended by the waittime, walk across the Wafu, eat, and about the time we pay the bill, we’ll get the notice that we can get into Pok Pok:)
There are phenomenal, smart fusion dishes here and awesome drinks. Try uit.

I dig it.
We started off with the roasted crab roll. It was really delicious and after we finished it, I kind of wished I ordered another one because it was really that good. I ended up getting the vegan ramen with a poached egg, while my boyfriend got the Wafu ramen with double mushrooms. Both were super flavorful and delicious. I just wished it had more noodles since there was a lot of broth. I also would’ve preferred if they offered hard boiled egg instead of poached, but that’s just my personal preference. The egg I got was perfectly poached though, so I can’t hate.
Service was alright, although our server kind of ranted to us and called his boss an idiot. It was also a busy Friday night, so I understand why he was stressed.
Anyway, I’d totally come back for more of their ramen and definitely more of that roasted crab roll. I’m glad Wafu is only a couple of blocks away from our place.

I’m actually more at 3.5 stars — decent bowl of ramen for the price $ 10, but I’ve had way better. Total hipster ramen joint, and I liked that. It was simple, modern and a little fun retro w the art near the bar and an episode of Ultraman projected on the wall.
They seem to have cut down the menu from their opening in 2011. The first few pics on Unilocal mention shoyu ramen, and even their storefront pic is a little misleading since they evidently don’t offer buttered corn as an add on either. I’m used to having more options at ramen places, but at least ordering was really simple — got the «wafu ramen» which comes w a poached egg, nori, fish cake, bamboo shoots then you get your pick of 2 proteins. I opted for double pork — chashu pork belly and pork shoulder.
Broth was good, but made way better after adding their dragon sauce. Good noodles which Unilocal pic implies are handmade, but I didn’t see it stated in the menu. Seems silly not to promote something you make the effort to hand make, so I dunno.
Previous reviews talked about how huge the portions were, but I didnt think the present was really enough as a meal for 2. The bowl itself was huge, so maybe serving size went down too. Their pricing at opening seems to have been $ 9 for ramen with pork belly and other proteins as an additional charge. I thought the current serving size was a perfect meal for 1.
Veggie friends got the vegan ramen and mushroom bao. They seemed happy with both. I didn’t try the bao but the vegan broth was pretty good. Didn’t have the depth of the fatty carnivore broth, but better than I expected.
Got the donuts w matcha powder and miso caramel sauce. Small portion, but it was only $ 4. They were hot so I’m guessing they’re freshly made, but were rather dry. Miso caramel just tasted like plain old caramel sauce to me. But it was good… Just a little disappointed since it sounded super awesome in theory, but it was cheap so who cares
I’d go back if I was in the area like today, but don’t think I’d make it a destination (Yuzu in beaverton is worth the drive). Oh and service was kind of typical Portland — nice and friendly, but always forgetful. There were 2 servers for under 10 customers including us. We only ordered 3 things — wafu ramen, vegan ramen and mushroom bao. Our server still somehow managed to forget about the vegan ramen and only remembered as she brought out mine. Oh well
[7 of 30]

I will never go here again not because of the wait staff, lovely, but because I’d only go here to eat the ramen and it was horrible. My friend took me here knowing that I lived in Japan for years and love Miso ramen. Though the best ramen is buttery corn ramen from Sapporo. Anyways, I went expecting it to be great because she loves their shoyu ramen. Well, I was less then impressed by this hipster Asian style restaurant.
We sat by the door which was a bad idea because it was a cold day and the door didn’t close well. We ended up moving seats. The waiter was nice and attentive (the only reason I gave 2 stars).
The ramen noodles tasted horrible and the toppings were sad. I have become accustom to having to pay extra on top of a 8 – 10 dollar bowl of ramen for extra things that I just expect to be there, so that was no surprise. Even so, I was unimpressed with the miso broth too. It wasn’t miso-​y at all! No thick brothy taste. If you love miso, don’t go here.. . go to Shigezo at dinner time (they don’t serve it at lunch because they prepare the broth daily).

Pretty good ramen for Portland. If you want really good I recommend making a trip to Beaverton to Yuzu. Otherwise this is your best bet. Not traditional ramen but I like the dry ramen dish and the summer cold noodle dish. Can make a decent bowl on a hot summer night.
For appetizer I recommend the spicy edamame dish… that’s about it.

You know its good when you find yourself scraping the last bits of gravy up, least I did. Open 5pm-​11pm.
First, I love Guinness Stout, so ordered the Echigo (Japanese) Stout. Sweet deep malted flavor, great aftertaste to it. (Highly recommend this to other stout lovers).
The teriyaki barbecue pork belly buns (drooling as I remember this); seriously, nearly ordered a second it was that good. Pork belly melts in the mouth like butta!, folded bread was nice and in a great sauce.
Had the dry ramen chili. This is a spicy dish, really enjoyed it. Kimchi was delicious, not out of a can taste, (this is where I found myself scraping the last bits of gravy up :)).
It’s a cool set up inside, ambient lighting, good 90s music, felt like a club with a section to sit and eat. My meal came up to $ 25, that was the stout, buns, bowl and dessert. It’s not a cheap place but the food Is Good, worth the visit and sure I will be back!
Oh, last note, there are a few gluten free items on the menu too.

I’m not even sure if they deserve 2 stars.
As far as atmosphere and interior design, I love it. Its trendy, modern japanese flair, movie posters, lanterns and everything is awesome. The restaurant layout is long and narrow, very unique and I love the long table in the middle that people get seated at, community style.
But the most important thing that keeps a business, in business is the food itself.
Overall food/​taste experience was disappointing. Appetizer portions are tiny, rolls are small, and the ramen was extremely salty. The noodles were mediocre and I ended up having to pour some water into the broth to make it edible. And price? I felt that prices were too high for the portion size and quality that Wafu serves. I didn’t like that you have a starting price for the ramen ($ 8) that is plain — comes with nothing except broth and noodles… and for each additional item you have to add, costs extra (ie: pork $ 2, shitake mushrooms $ 1, poached egg $ 1, etc.).
On the other hand, the service was great. All the servers were very attentive and checked in multiple times (almost too often) to make sure we were comfortable and had everything we needed.
So as much as I want to give a good rating for Wafu, I can’t. Everything else was great but the overall food experience for its price, quality, and amount, just didn’t cut it for me. Not worth it.

It’s always fun hunting for a good bowl of ramen, and it gets us into areas of Porltand we would otherwise never had a chance to check out. But I don’t think we’ll be making the trek from Beaverton to Wafu in the near future.
I visit my sister in Portland 3 to 4 times a year, and we always set aside a day to go hunting for Ramen Based on information from Unilocal and the Porltand Food board, we went to Wafu. Wow, ramenya and a limited small plate menu.
And! they make the noodles in-​house? We were on our way!
We ended up in a cool, youngish, hip neighborhood, boasting many small independent businesses and restaurants.
Wafu was a narrow and deep space. The front of the house was well lit from the windows, and becamer darker and more moody continuing into the bar area, and the separate room past the bar area.
There were 4 table seatings. All other seatings are at a communal table that is a long, high table with comfortable bar chairs. The reamaining seats are at the rather impressive and extensive bar.
Décor is lean and mean.
The mis-​matched chopsticks and spoons on the tables in a funky cup was not cool.
We ordered the Shoyu Ramen with Pork Belly, Shoyu Ramen with the pork shoulder and slow poached egg, and Shio Ramen with Pork Belly. The smoked pork shoulder was a bit of a surprise, as it was shredded. The slow poached egg was poached, rather than cooked in the shell.
The ramen broth confused me. The broths were all based on a tonkostu broth, which can be in-​your-​face, but the shoyu-​tonkotsu broth was pretty tame, and the Shio Ramen broth was merely meh.
We forgot to ask the waitress if the noodles were indeed, made in-​house, but the noodles were fairly firm and tasty.
We ordered the Hamachi Sashimi special, which was so thin the lovely flavor of the hamachi was lost.
The Roasted Crab Roll, the Grilled Skirt Steak Skewer, the Grilled Lamb Tongue and the Grilled Mackerel.
Everything was delicious except for the Lamb Tongue. We think the truffle oil did not work with the lamb tongue and it tasted, just… weird.
The best deal in the hojuse is the Skirt Steak Skewer. 2 for $ 5.
No, it was not just my sister and me eating all this; her DH joined us for dinner.
Ach, sorry. I am awfully wordy tonight!

I thought I was going to die last night after eating here. MSG overload? Some have told me that Wafu doesn’t use MSG but my body begs to differ. My heart was racing and my insides were all jittery. I couldn’t get my lovin on with my man last night cause I felt like shit… Thanks Wafu, now I’m sexually frustrated.
I will not be returning.

We came here for dinner rather late on a Sunday evening and had an excellent meal, enjoying some incredibly good flavors. The only off note was the way loud music, as has been mentioned in other reviews. If it weren’t for that, this would have been a five star review. To Wafu’s credit, when JP requested that the music be turned down (so we could hear our server describe the specials), they actually did turn the music down a bit. Other than that, Wafu’s interior is appealing and we were quite comfortable dining here.
I’m a big fan of Izakaya style menus and Wafu did not disappoint. For a starter we ordered the endamame. The endamame were coated with a sauce made with sauteed garlic, salt and chilli pepper (originating from a togarashi flavor packet). This is one of the best flavors I have ever experienced! Love love love!
Just about as awesome as the endamame was the miso creamed kale. Absolutely delicious! The light and fresh seaweed & lotus root salad was very good.
We also ordered the pork belly steam bun. As an aside, I had one last year from Hot Boxx at the now defunct Green Castle Food Pod on 21^st. It was by far the best treat I had in 2011, so I eagerly looked forward to trying Wafu’s. However, speaking of Hot Boxx, it is curious that while the rest of Green Castle has been dismantled, there sits the abandoned Hot Boxx food cart all by its lonesome. The demise of Hot Boxx is a terrible culinary loss. Wafu’s steam bun was okay, but maybe heavy on the ginger.
From the specials board we ordered the Scallop Crudo and a Nabe stone pot. The Crudo was good with very thinly sliced scallop served with finely diced pink grapefruit over a delightful citrus butter. The Nabe, made with a white fish, was also quite good.
Our server was friendly, knowledgeable and accommodating. Dishes were brought to our table with excellent timing. You can be sure we will be back!

Upping this a star on this visit because I had the aburasoba ramen this time around, vegetarian style! Did not know you could do that! It was delicious with tons of flavor!!! There were lots of goodies in the ramen, carrots, egg, seaweed, bamboo shoots.
Enjoyed a great aviation martini as well.

3.5 stars.
Both the aburasoba (no broth) ramen & the shoyu ramen are great choices but I’m going to go with aburasoba as the better ramen. I could taste more flavors from this than I could from the shoyu. This very well could be because it’s a no broth ramen where shoyu is a soy sauce based broth.
Shoyu’s only flavor comes from the rich soy sauce base. It’s powerful. I added pork shoulder for $ 2 & a slow poach egg for $ 1 & I could’ve done without the egg since it just didn’t produce anything more for the dish. The pork shoulder however was great; worth the extra $ 2.
The aburasoba with its extra ingredients than the broth ramens, i.e. kimchi & pickled shredded carrots, was more enjoyable, tasty & the presentation, colorful. The noodles for both ramens are not as great as Mirakutei in my opinion. I like my noodles more soft & chewy. If a mild ramen isn’t your thing add red dragon sauce for spice. It’s really good.
Tempura shrimp ($ 7) is a definite recommendation for an appetizer. Two different sauces drizzled over shrimp equals incredible flavors. I wanted to order another but knew I wouldn’t have room for all the ramen if I did.
Like Orian I. commented the ala carte menu seems unnecessary. The broth ramens are $ 8 without any additions & additions (minus the egg as I mentioned before) are necessary. I think the aburasoba at $ 12 is a bit steep but I’m willing to pay for it a few times a year.
Wafu fills up very quickly so be prepared to wait. It’s located in a busy section of Division so street parking a few blocks away is also something to prepare for if the lot across the street is filled. The service is consistently friendly, attentive & hard working; pretty awesome. There is free Wi-​Fi if you need it so just ask your server for the password. Now, go try Wafu.

This place wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t special either. Wafu sits on Division next to Bula Kava House. We hoisted a few coconut shells at Bula, and then headed over to Wafu for some Ramen.
The interior of Wafu is post-​industrial urban chic — Japanese style. It’s a long narrow space, that accommodates a few tables and a long narrow bar. In the rear, old Japanese films with subtitles animate the walls of a small sequestered dining room. Japanese «B» movie posters cover the wall in front of the bar. Paper lanterns round out the ambiance.
We ordered spicy edamane, ceviche, a crab roll, and a bowl of spicy Ramen with egg and mushrooms. The food arrived almost before we finished ordering it. The spicy edamame was good, and I enjoyed the crab roll which was wrapped in soy paper. The Ceviche was okay but certainly not extraordinary.
Now I don’t really know anything about Ramen, and I couldn’t describe the difference between it and Soba or Udon or Yakisoba — not without Wikipedia anyway. So I won’t try and describe the physical or mechanical properties of the actual Ramen noodle — their modulus of elasticity, or their coefficient of thermal expansion — except to say that they seemed like… well…like noodles. They were sort of long, soft and noodley. However the dish, the bowl of soup, the combined ingredients, the unified flavor, was thin, bland, and had a touch to much salt trying compensate.
Service was good, and the space was comfortable, but the food left me a little disappointed. I was expecting something special, and it really wasn’t.

I left really disappointed and with a sad wallet. My ramen was super salty, and that was about the only flavor it had. I see pictures of their Ramen on Unilocal,and I think I was short handed. There was NOTHING in my ramen except noodles, two or three shreds of bamboo, and one big chunk of super salty tofu. The noodles were fine, but honestly, I wish I had just settled for a pack of ramen noodles and stayed at home (and I’m not a fan of Top Ramen, if that puts things into perspective.) A friend who dined with me who is from Japan said it was the worst Ramen she’s ever had.
That aside, the service was incredible. It was an hour and a half wait for our table, but we were promptly called on our phone (we were elsewhere having a pre-​dinner drink). Our waitress was friendly, helpful, and the perfect amount of attentive. If not for her, the experience would have been hugely frustrating.

Am I ramen expert? you betcha, where does this fall in pdx ramen hierarchy? fairly high at the top. Although their noodles were a bit spongy and the broth thicker and darker than what people might be used to it’s still a pretty decent bowl.
The bad: I do not understand this ala cart nonsense and this whole ramen at $ 12 a bowl. it’s like biwa did it so now every one does it? what up with that? ok i said my peace amen.
The decent: the ramen, tasted the abu ramen very nicely done, esp. with a good dose of the dragon sauce, nice presentation. the wafu bowl is tasty, I grew up in tokyo and I like a little bit salty, the only part that was a little hrmmm more decent that great was the noodles, a little on the spongy side and lacked that great chew I was looking for. wafu has found it’s niche though I think by putting up something desirable and then having those exquisite small plate that are fantastic. the only one which feel a little short were the shrimp, as delicious as they were and the shrimp them selves tender, the tempura was soggy which was a little sad face.
The great: braised lamb tongue omg. soooo good!!! it’s like a fatty piece of lovely meat. don’t be scured of the fact it’s tongue, you’ll thank me. this dish is fantastic. braised octopus. oh holly hell where did this come from? sooo good!!! amazing actually. you want this, trust me.
The exceptional service must be noted. our server was friendly and worked her butt off for 20+ Unilocalers there. The GM was also great making great pains to make sure everything went smoothly as we basically took over his Restaurant nicely done. I had a great time. come join the ramen club for our next adventure!
oh i forgot to mention the vegan broth! very very tasty and on the sweeter side.

Ramen shops have been popping up in Portland on the regular lately, and I couldn’t be happier with that fact. My love for ramen started out where most every white buy’s affinity does — in college over a packet of Nissin. I’ve long ago left that mess in the dust as I’ve made my way through an abundance of fancier ramen brands from all over Asia, as well as professional hand-​made ramen in Japanese restaurants. But it’s Portland’s graduation into a culinary city that has brought restaurants focused primarily on Ramen into the scene.
Wafu is pretty much the newest incarnation of PDX ramen. Literally translated, it means «Japanese Style» and without getting too deep into the rabbit hole, that means something about the ramen. I know what I like but I’m no snob, and I’m not going to wax poetic about whether this matches a specific form from some distant prefecture. In fact, I can’t talk about the broth at all, I haven’t had the ramen. I’ve had a good portion of the rest of the menu and I can say that I’m totally sold… and super excited to try the soup itself.
What I have sampled at Wafu demonstrates Trent Pearce’s skills and deft hand with seafood, land meat and Japanese fare. His ceviche is fantastic. The lamb tongue is unique and much more delicious than you’d imagine. Even his stab at chawanmushi (not on the menu) that I had the privilege of sampling was pretty decent. But what really had me locked in was the «dry» ramen I tried last night — a pile of noodles atop a reduced soy concoction with piles of greens, onions, kimchi, pork belly and egg on top. All mixed together it’s a fantastic noodle dish that has brilliantly independent flavors that, combined, play incredibly well off of each other. Each bite features a different balance between salty, sweet, bitter, fermented and deep savory. A damn fine dish. The consistency of the noodles is on point as well.
Another note is the cocktail program. It’s impressive. A nice selection of sake, shochu and Japanese whiskey backs up a carefully-​constructed cocktail list that’s executed in professional fashion. Try the Improved Yamazaki 12 drink, a mix of Japanese whiskey, maraschino, sugar, bitters and absinthe (ask for it with Herbsaint instead), or the nice, heady peated scotch concoction. It’s really the expert cocktails that round out the equation and bring Wafu up to that coveted 5^th star. That and the fun style and design of the place, which has just the right feel — fancy wood juxtaposed by Japanese movie posters along the side wall and classic movies projected on the wall in the back room.
if you have not made the trip down to Wafu yet, don’t wait. Do it. It’s not your typical Japanese ramen spot.

I’ve been waiting for five years for great ramen in Portland. Ramen that competes with other major metros, like the best from Los Angeles’ Sawtelle Blvd., San Francisco’s South Bay, and Ippudo in NYC. There have been several contenders, including Biwa, The Ramen Truck, Yuzu, and Shigezo. All have been good, but not great. Boke Bowl was the closest, but it was an occasional once-​a-​month event.
I was the first customer in the door yesterday on Wafu’s opening day, marched to the counter, and ordered the Wafu Ramen with pork belly and egg, and waited and watched as Chef Trent Pierce and his sous chef both worked on my bowl. They lovingly added each ingredient, stirred it up, and finally, Pierce handed me the dish over the counter.
Portland Ramen Lovers: The wait is over. Wafu is offering, hands-​down, the best ramen in Portland, and a bowl that competes with the best I’ve ever had. Rich, deep, and balanced flavor. Perfect execution of toppings. Fresh, handmade noodles with the right thickness and texture.
And I haven’t even explored the rest of the menu! I tried the onigiri, which was delicious, and the creampuff, which still needs a bit of work. But the rest of the entrees sounded delicious, and lots to dig into and try. Oh, and vegans? They offer a vegan ramen on the menu (extraordinarily rare for a good ramen house), which means I’ll be able to come here with my vegan wife.
Beyond thrilled that Portland finally offers a world-​class bowl of ramen. I’m looking forward to going back to Wafu again, and again, and again.