Went to this restaurant after seeing it featured on Phantom Gourmet and my husband and myself left full of good food. The food was tasty and came to our table ready to eat and the service was great! They gave us everything we needed in a timely manner. The restaurant was on a smaller scale but we got a table pretty quickly without making a reservation. We even had the dessert of the strawberry shaved ice which had a bowl that was big enough to easily feed the two of us and it was very delicious!
Mo B.
Great food! Inaccurate hours & slightly below average customer service. Parking around the establishment can be a bit hard to find. It's all street parking where there's a good chance you'll be parallel parking. Customer service isn't too welcoming there's a good essence of servers trying to get you out of the establishment just as quick as you got in. I've been 3 and have had a sense of urgency to leave due to the servers lack of friendly-ness and persistence to bring me the bill. As for the food there's a great selection of Ramen on my last 3 visits I've had the Tom-Yum Ramen, and Natsu Mazemen (dry ramen), and a great selection of their appetizer. Everything including add ons can immediately run your bill up quickly so I'd recommend be intentional and if you're will to try something new come with the intention that you may be disappointed at a high price. As for the establishment itself it's pretty cozy, tables are almost always full so you'll be sitting pretty close to folks of other party just about all the time if you aren't at the bar, the music is great and not too low and the lights are beautiful being LED and not your topical white/soft white lights you find most establishments; all in all it's vibe, a great space for a date. Lastly the hours of the establishment are inaccurate on 2 attempts to come in within an hour & a half of closing my party & I were informed that they were closed although the establishment was full of people. They did give us the options of ordering to go which you can sit at the bar and order shaved ice while you wait but I feel like there needs to be a sign that instructs customer when the last call for food can be. I've had this not only happen at their Waltham location but also their Harvard square which is disappointing. All in all despite the disappointment, it's still worth a visit. I will continue to go, and hope that service gets better because that's all their lacking which is an easy fix
Beth Redmond Walsh
They serve hot sake! Very nice on a cold day.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Curry Ramen
David W.
It smells like a porta john. Throughout the whole restaurant. We had to leave. It was a rainy night. Udon places should be packed. This was empty. Server not even shocked when we just left w/o ordering.
Jeff H.
Amazing ramen! The lobster wontons were excellent and the broth nice and spicy! Squid balls superb as an appetizer and excellent seaweed salad!!
Christian Kunis
Excellent food and a fun atmosphere, I will definitely eat here
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Signature Ramen, Kaen Ramen
Alex Z
Everything is great guys. I love the music you play and food you make. Grat place, keep it up! Thank you!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Jaimie F.
Very delicious! We got the Chashu Bun, Kyuri (cucumber) salad, and two Signature Ramen - one with chicken and one with pork. Ambience is vibey with red neon light. Partnered this with some sparkling peach sake - yum
Barry Blancha
Hidden gem. Very good Ramen and good selection of sake. Will be going back often.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Matthew Mayger
Really cool place but it is very small. Expect a LONG wait if you try to come on Friday or Saturday night. Food and sake were both quite good. Would love to come back but it is hard to justify with the uncertainty about if you will be seated immediately or if there is a 2+ hour wait list. Would definitely benefit from a reservation system.
This is our new favorite go to place for amazing food and service. Firstly, although the restaurant is small, the ambience is awesome. I love the decor and the music. They have enough space to accommodate a small group of 6-7. I have now visited Waku 3-4 times with different groups and was always treated with warmth and smile. Ae we’re seated very promptly everytime and the chef and staff are always very accommodating to any specific needs such as kid friendly options, vegetarian options, etc. Their peach Sake is delicious. The appetizers we’ve tried were all very flavorful. The edamame, dumplings and the seaweed salad are all amazing choices. Their Ramen is the best we’ve had in a long time. I would highly recommend the Tom Yum ( spicy), Signature and Miso Mushroom Ramen. The Sushi Tacos are surprisingly good as well. We also got shaved ice cream for dessert and it is sooo good! Love this place and their service.Vegetarian options: You can ask to customize dishes to make it vegetarian but they also have many vegetarian items.Kid-friendliness: Very kid friendly!
The taste was average. Won't recommend this place. Although the staff is kind.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 3
Recommended dishes: Signature Ramen
Barbara B.
Front row seats to watch the master chefs whip out the tasty ramen. We all enjoyed our soup. Smartly they give you spicy chili to add so we each could monitor our hotness. They are a busy place so get there early unless you want to wait. Who doesn't enjoy a little mochi for dessert?
Jin Lem
I felt a little rushed but the food was ok. Wasn’t anything too amazing but it was good.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Silly Bandz
Very ? ramen ! I've tried their handrolled avocado sushi and mushroom ramen. This is a festive Itzakura ✨️ ? & seats around 45 at six or seven tables & has counter seats directly facing their kitchen. Sake, plum wine, sake cocktails & beer are available. Moderately priced.Vegetarian options: The Mushroom ramen is vegetarian but most of their other ramen is either pork broth or meat broth based. They have a few vegetarian options. There's sushi handrolls, japanese dumplings, crab fritters, lobster wontons and a lot of other delicious things. I loved the handroll - everything very fresh in the sushi handrolls but each one is $8.00 so it's more of a palate teaser. The tempura shitakke mushrooms that come with the artfully prepared deep fried enoki mushroom cluster? on the ramen were pretty delicious as was the ramen itself and the miso broth it was served in. Will return !
Went to this restaurant after seeing it featured on Phantom Gourmet and my husband and myself left full of good food. The food was tasty and came to our table ready to eat and the service was great! They gave us everything we needed in a timely manner. The restaurant was on a smaller scale but we got a table pretty quickly without making a reservation. We even had the dessert of the strawberry shaved ice which had a bowl that was big enough to easily feed the two of us and it was very delicious!
Great food! Inaccurate hours & slightly below average customer service. Parking around the establishment can be a bit hard to find. It's all street parking where there's a good chance you'll be parallel parking. Customer service isn't too welcoming there's a good essence of servers trying to get you out of the establishment just as quick as you got in. I've been 3 and have had a sense of urgency to leave due to the servers lack of friendly-ness and persistence to bring me the bill. As for the food there's a great selection of Ramen on my last 3 visits I've had the Tom-Yum Ramen, and Natsu Mazemen (dry ramen), and a great selection of their appetizer. Everything including add ons can immediately run your bill up quickly so I'd recommend be intentional and if you're will to try something new come with the intention that you may be disappointed at a high price. As for the establishment itself it's pretty cozy, tables are almost always full so you'll be sitting pretty close to folks of other party just about all the time if you aren't at the bar, the music is great and not too low and the lights are beautiful being LED and not your topical white/soft white lights you find most establishments; all in all it's vibe, a great space for a date. Lastly the hours of the establishment are inaccurate on 2 attempts to come in within an hour & a half of closing my party & I were informed that they were closed although the establishment was full of people. They did give us the options of ordering to go which you can sit at the bar and order shaved ice while you wait but I feel like there needs to be a sign that instructs customer when the last call for food can be. I've had this not only happen at their Waltham location but also their Harvard square which is disappointing. All in all despite the disappointment, it's still worth a visit. I will continue to go, and hope that service gets better because that's all their lacking which is an easy fix
They serve hot sake! Very nice on a cold day.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Curry Ramen
It smells like a porta john. Throughout the whole restaurant. We had to leave. It was a rainy night. Udon places should be packed. This was empty. Server not even shocked when we just left w/o ordering.
Amazing ramen! The lobster wontons were excellent and the broth nice and spicy! Squid balls superb as an appetizer and excellent seaweed salad!!
Excellent food and a fun atmosphere, I will definitely eat here
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Signature Ramen, Kaen Ramen
Everything is great guys. I love the music you play and food you make. Grat place, keep it up! Thank you!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Very delicious! We got the Chashu Bun, Kyuri (cucumber) salad, and two Signature Ramen - one with chicken and one with pork. Ambience is vibey with red neon light. Partnered this with some sparkling peach sake - yum
Hidden gem. Very good Ramen and good selection of sake. Will be going back often.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Really cool place but it is very small. Expect a LONG wait if you try to come on Friday or Saturday night. Food and sake were both quite good. Would love to come back but it is hard to justify with the uncertainty about if you will be seated immediately or if there is a 2+ hour wait list. Would definitely benefit from a reservation system.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 4
Restaurantji Recommends
This is our new favorite go to place for amazing food and service. Firstly, although the restaurant is small, the ambience is awesome. I love the decor and the music. They have enough space to accommodate a small group of 6-7. I have now visited Waku 3-4 times with different groups and was always treated with warmth and smile. Ae we’re seated very promptly everytime and the chef and staff are always very accommodating to any specific needs such as kid friendly options, vegetarian options, etc. Their peach Sake is delicious. The appetizers we’ve tried were all very flavorful. The edamame, dumplings and the seaweed salad are all amazing choices. Their Ramen is the best we’ve had in a long time. I would highly recommend the Tom Yum ( spicy), Signature and Miso Mushroom Ramen. The Sushi Tacos are surprisingly good as well. We also got shaved ice cream for dessert and it is sooo good! Love this place and their service.Vegetarian options: You can ask to customize dishes to make it vegetarian but they also have many vegetarian items.Kid-friendliness: Very kid friendly!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Signature Ramen, Miso Mushroom Ramen, Seaweed Salad
The taste was average. Won't recommend this place. Although the staff is kind.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 3
Recommended dishes: Signature Ramen
Front row seats to watch the master chefs whip out the tasty ramen. We all enjoyed our soup. Smartly they give you spicy chili to add so we each could monitor our hotness. They are a busy place so get there early unless you want to wait. Who doesn't enjoy a little mochi for dessert?
I felt a little rushed but the food was ok. Wasn’t anything too amazing but it was good.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Very ? ramen ! I've tried their handrolled avocado sushi and mushroom ramen. This is a festive Itzakura ✨️ ? & seats around 45 at six or seven tables & has counter seats directly facing their kitchen. Sake, plum wine, sake cocktails & beer are available. Moderately priced.Vegetarian options: The Mushroom ramen is vegetarian but most of their other ramen is either pork broth or meat broth based. They have a few vegetarian options. There's sushi handrolls, japanese dumplings, crab fritters, lobster wontons and a lot of other delicious things. I loved the handroll - everything very fresh in the sushi handrolls but each one is $8.00 so it's more of a palate teaser. The tempura shitakke mushrooms that come with the artfully prepared deep fried enoki mushroom cluster? on the ramen were pretty delicious as was the ramen itself and the miso broth it was served in. Will return !
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Signature Ramen