3803 Calgary Trail NW, Edmonton

A little while back around Christmas, I went to Nomiya for the first time. Back when ramen options were incredibly limited, Nomiya was one of the few places to even got ramen. I decided I would give it a try. I wanted to see how the ramen in Edmonton compared to what I’ve had in Calgary and other places. There are two locations, one on Calgary trail and the other in Ellerslie. Their ramen is dine-in only, and they discourage packing up leftovers because flavours and textures will change over time.

It’s relatively easy to spot this place and get to it. It’s the sign is clear from the main road, and there’s an ample amount of parking. The interior is relatively small and the decor is what you would expect from a small Japanese restaurant. They have an extensive menu here, and serve sushi and other ‘tapas’ as well. Since I only came for the ramen, that’s all I really paid attention to. We opted to get the Tonkotsu ramen and Shio ramen.

Tonkotsu translates to pork bone in Japanese. They simmer the broth for hours to make it ‘hearty and milky smooth’ or so the menu says. The Tonkotsu Ramen It came with a few pieces of chashu, bamboo shoots, green onions, corn, seaweed, and kikurage mushrooms. To be honest, I wasn’t that impressed with this. The broth was bland, and lacked flavour. The chashu was okay, thin and a little bit dry. The noodles themselves were okay. They were a bit soggy and should have been more firm, but really, it just needed a better broth to go with it. The bamboo shoots was unique. I had bamboo shoots growing up on several occasions, and I never really see the opportunity to eat it when I go out, so I’ll that aspect a thumbs up. Otherwise, it wasn’t too amazing.

The other ramen we got was the Shio ramen. It comes with the same tonkotsu based broth but has added shio (or sea salt) flavouring. Overall, I enjoyed this one more, just because the broth had a little bit more flavour. Everything else about the ramen was relatively the same. The only difference was the hanjuku egg, which was not bad but I’ve had better hanjuku eggs in ramen before. The noodles, again, were the same. A little bit on the soggy side, and really just needed a better broth.

Overall, I’d say that my experience at Nomiya was a little bit disappointing. I’ve had much better ramen in my day. Ramen options in Edmonton are still relatively limited, but more and more are popping up. I likely wouldn’t go back to try other ramen here, but I’d maybe give their sushi and tapas a try (albeit, they seem a little bit pricey). I’d say if you’ve never had Ramen, this is an okay place to start, otherwise, I’d try somewhere else. I just had a few bowls of Ramen in Tokyo when I was there a couple weeks ago, so I’m definitely going to be on the look out for some ramen that can compare!