Review Shoya Japanese Cuisine - Auckland

Taste: 5/5 Portions: medium Price: $-$$ Atmosphere: 5/5 I had the tonkotsu ramen, which was super tasty, a very rich broth. The curry gyoza (there were 6 of them to start) were also quite good. The dessert was really nice as well. Definitely recommend.

What a surprise! This was simply outstanding. We ordered the Hell Ramen (3) and Tonkotsu Miso. Both were great, but the Tonkotsu brooth was almost identical to what we had in Sapporo in the "Okami" Ramen Bar. Brought us straight back into Sapporo's winter, slurping on Ramen while there was a snowstorm outside we could watch from the window. The only difference we could spot was that the noodles were not home made and the Cashu was thinner and not grilled before it was added to the soup. But apart from that a very pleasant experience. Thank you for bringing back the memories. Edit: it was so delicious, that we went there twice!

Delicious authentic ramen and they make their own spicy hell version, go for it if you like the heat! $10 500ml cans of beer plus $8 curry and rice on the side. $7 edamame. Will be back!

Excellent service, very friendly staff and delicious ramen. I had the Hell Ramen, which you could choose the spiciness level (scale of 1 to 8), and a set of gyoza. The waitress was kind enough to warn me against ordering a level 7 on my first try. The ramen at level 5 was spicy but bearable and very tasty, ingredients like the egg, bamboo shoots and pork had good texture and were rich in flavour. The pork and vegetables gyoza were nicely pan-fried and good as well. Would come again to try the other kinds of ramen.

We loved our food. There are good deals for the lunch menu with large portions. I don't care for matcha flavour, yet I was surprised at how good the desert tasted. Great selection of imported drinks: Ramune, juices, sodas, and sake. Happy to go back again, try more of the menu, and support a great local business.

Omg that’s how much we love the hot pot here! Going to try different ones next time !

The best ramen I've had so far. I ordered the Hell Chasu Ramen at spice level 3 and it totally did not disappoint. Spicy but very flavorful at the same time. Also had the chicken karaage and their ebi gyoza to start. All in all a very great experience.

Delicious vegetarian ramen! Really friendly and quick service. Nice atmosphere. I added a little chilli to my ramen and it was perfect! (Excuse the bite mark in the tofu… that was me 😹)

Nice atmosphere, super quick service, and a very tasty dish - I took chicken on vegetables and rice. Need to go back to try other dishes. And the plum wine is very special, worth trying.

Great japanese experience. Staff is really friendly. Tonkatsu soup is wonderfull 🤩. Really love this place. Great quality for great price

I went this Japanese cuisine with my classmate. My classmate are came from different countries and I was the only Japanese. Staff was really friendly, polite and very quick service. We ordered ramen and some bento box at dinner time. It was blow my mind! Because I wasn't expecting real Japanese taste in NZ.

Beautiful Noodle Broth. Most of ramen stores in New Zealand are just too salty for me, but this one (Tonkotsu Ramen) was just right, rich and full of flavours. The Cha Shu was also thin and tender, like those in tradition

The best Asian food we have tried in New Zealand and we have tried quite some in 3 weeks. All super fresh, tasty, perfectly flavoured with good Orion beer. The service was exceptionally nice and friendly. Highly recommended 💜.

One of the better ramen place I’ve been so far in Auckland ! I got their medium spice hell ramen (chicken broth) and it is actually spicy !!!! Definitely recommend !

Cosy, lovely little restaurant. Been here three times already! Every time is a good experience, staffs are friendly and patience, intruduce me to different meals and options, I like their tonkotsu ramen, unagi eel rice and fried tofu, they are delicious. :))))

The best Japanese noodles you can find in Auckland. If you can't go to Japan, at least you can have a amazing noodle here. worth more than 5 stars! Number 1 restaurant in CBD Auckland for me.

I can tell it’s one of the best ramen store in Auckland. If you are spicy lover, pls try the hell ramen. I prefer the chicken one with lv 3 spicy.

the food was really great and friendly staff too only one thing… Inside was way too hot hopefully they will sort this out this summer

Great food and friendly staff! A awesome place to bring friends for drinks and delicious ramen

I've been coming here since they've opened and its always comfortable and consistently delicious. The staff and owners are amazingly friendly and nice which is always a big plus! They're always improving their menu and have expanded to include desserts as well (also very very good). I highly recommend Shoya Japanese Cuisine any day! Ka pai!

Love their Donkotsu Ramen and chashu(((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o)))♡

It's about time Auckland had a really good Japanese restaurant, taste is authentic and the store can sit many people :) 10/10 I have now become a regular customer here. しょう屋は本当に美味しいから常連になると思います。十点中十点！

Yum! Lovely service, delicious Japanese food. Will definitely be back

Been to Shoya a few times now, Really nice and authentic Japanese food. Recommended to try!

This is my first revies, which I really want to write. We went shoyu japanese cuisine restaurant for dinner! The restaurant was not busy at 3pm and staff greet us friendly. The ambience is like Jaoanese mood, so we can see traditional mood. Also the service is really good because the staff is so kind and polite:) And food quality was a kittle salty, but with noodle, the taste is proper. However, the price is a little bit expensive : about $16to19 each plate. Overall a very pleasant experience:)

I love this place to be liked by more people, it is so delicious and makes me feel healed... you can taste they use a lot of ingredients into the soup, rather than fake flavours. Don't let the chicken soup fool you for being bland tasting, it is anything but ordinary.

Good ramen is hard in Auckland specially if you had tried the real thing in Japan, though I had tried several ones there are few who can deliver the real taste and texture, one of those who can deliver is this small place in Upper Queen Street in Auckland called Shoya. During lunch this place is studded with students so be early if you don’t want the hustle and bustle as it fills up fairly quickly around 12 noon.

Nice little ramen shop in the city. Clean and cosy seating. Staff were efficient and friendly too. We ordered the Shio Ramen and the Katsu Chicken bento box to share. Food was fast. Nice flavours for both dishes although I would have liked the broth served hotter. It was very luke warm. <br/>Other than that, enjoyed it and I did notice I didn’t feel as thirsty as I normally would after coming out of other ramen places.

Delicious tonkotsu ramen with a clean, flavorful broth. The type of noodles they use here are thick and curly. Loved that the egg on top of the noodles was perfectly cooked! We also tried the gyokai tonkotsu shoyu ramen which tasted quite strongly of bonito (fish flakes).

As a big ramen fan, Shoya is one of the better ramen shops in Auckland CBD.<br/><br/>We get critical when it comes to the broth of ramen. Shoya scores a high 9/10 from us from a broth perspective. However, noodles and portion (for the price) could be improved on. We reckon the noodles aren’t the best, and will give around a 6.9/10. Texture of the noodles should be slightly softer and chewy when eat together with the broth. The egg is good but not the best. In terms of value (price/portion/quality) is around 7.8/10. Their customer service and friendliness is a 9/10.<br/><br/>Overall, worth to try if you’re after a decent ramen on Upper Queens.<br/><br/><br/>

Super friendly and cosy little ramen joint on upper Queen street. We visited this place on the off chance our first destination was closed and we were very surprised at the friendly service. <br/><br/>The ramen arrived quickly after we placed our orders and the price is good too. <br/><br/>I ordered the spicy ramen with chicken, in number 2 spicy (it was spicy!) but a good spicy. <br/><br/>The chicken was nicely fried and went well with the soup.

Best Tonkotsu ramen in NZ. Eat at least twice a week. Wonderful pork bone soup with excellent half cooked eggs. If you don’t like salty, you can ask for less salty of the soup. The meat and the noodles is a little bit hard sometimes, but it still good. The only problem is the size which is really small, around two thirds of other ramen stores.

I may be biased but this is the best ramen restaurant i have been to in auckland so far. Its the closest flavour you will get from japann! Its a shame that they dont open in weekends.....<br/><br/>Flavour-16/10<br/>Ambience-7/10<br/>Service-10/10

As a Japanese ramen and noodle lover. I’ve had traditional and fusion ramen in Japan, Hong Kong, Australia. Tried over 10 different ramen store in New Zealand. I would say Shoya is one of the best Japanese Ramen I’ve had so far in New Zealand. One of my two nz go-to’s when I crave for ramen but only open mon-fri which is a bummer.<br/><br/>BROTH<br/>Their shoyu tonkutsu broth and miso base has a lot richer flavour, slightly thicker and creamier (could be because the pork broth is cooked longer than others). For people thats looking for a very rich ramen broth, I would definitely recommend Shoya.<br/><br/>NOODLES<br/>The noodles are a lot harder than other ramen stores so if you like softer noodles, remember to let the staff know. Its also got the classic waviness of the Japanese ramen.<br/><br/>Extra noodles is really really small. I would say you only get half the size of the extra noodles you get from other ramen stores. Again, remember to tell the staff to cook the noodles longer if you want softer noodles.<br/><br/>TOPPINGS<br/>The cook time for the eggs are up to standard, half cooked yolk. Tends to be a bit sweeter than other stores. The chasu is another level. They have the perfect circle size that they should have traditionally and they are the most tender, soft, just-enough-fat chasu. <br/><br/>EXTRA<br/>The karaage chicken is again unique in New Zealand. Its similar to some of the karaage chicken Ive had in Melbourne. The batter is different, less chunky, not oily, crispy yet tender inside (unlike KFC, these chicken are actually tender inside).<br/><br/>TIP<br/>If you are having Ramen in New Zealand. As a rule of thumb, go for the Shoyu Tonkutsu Ramen first, always. If their Shoyu Tonkutsu Ramen is not good. Dont bother going back to try other stuff.

I had the Abura Soba while my girlfriend had the Tonkatsu Chashu.<br/><br/>The Karaage Chicken was not bad. It is crispy and the flavouring was not bad.<br/><br/>The Abura Soba's serving was small and not enough for me compared to other ramen shops which usually leaves me feeling full. The flavour was ok, it tasted more like a chinese style seasoned noodles rather than a Japanese style kind of noodles. I know that ramen is originally chinese food but the Japanese developed it into their own unique style and taste of noodles. This one I feel did not fully resemble that. The ramen egg was good and the Cha Shu was soft and reasonably moist. I only received one Slice of Cha Shu instead of two but the waitress apologized sincerely and quickly brought me another.<br/><br/>The Tonkatsu Cha Shu's soup was creamy but it lacks the punchy porky taste that is usually found at other ramen shops. The taste is quite light.<br/><br/>Service is quick and friendly though they sometimes busy themselves with cleaning so they aren't looking around to see if a customer needs something.<br/><br/>My girlfriend also ordered a bottle of Kirin branded Milk Tea that was imported from Japan. I was shocked when the bill came because one bottle of the Milk Tea was 6 dollars. This to us was over-priced. A bottled drink like that is usually about 3 dollars in restaurants.<br/><br/>Overall, I don't think I will return unless there are other dishes I feel like trying.

I found a ramen shop that have my ideal type of noodles and a boiled egg😍<br/>The thickness and the wavy shape of noodle is perfect !!<br/>And the seasoned boiled egg with a semi-soft egg yolk is hooray🤣<br/>But the pork meat 'Chashu' was not my type🤔<br/>I hope the portion size was slightly bigger.<br/><br/>

Very crowded at lunch time so we decided to come in and try. I had the miso ramen. The broth is amazing , the noodles are just the right amount of chewiness, and the egg tastes like heaven as well! A little bit more pork would be nice :) But the food is great and staff are friendly, price is decent as well, so definitely worth a try!

Portions are a tad small, but taste wise its pretty good. Noodles are springy and the broth has a deep flavour. The egg earns its on review-definately would order 2 of those eggs if you love marinated eggs

Excellent tonkotsu ramen, the soup is flavoursome and the chashu is amazing. Also worth trying with the chicken instead of chashu. Probably the best ramen in CBD

Hell ramen is quite good, although a little pricey at $14.50 (with extra pork). It is a good place to visit if you are in upper queen st, since there aren't any Japanese ramen places nearby. There are also cheaper lunch donburi options available

Friendly service. Had the Chicken Yakisoba. Have to admit it the noodles and the chicken were dry and flavourless. Winner was my Apple juice but food can be improved.

not as bad as it rated.<br/>We ordered gyoza and 2 ramen. Both ramen had a half tamago(the marinated soft boiled egg) which is perfect, and the chashu can be one of the best in town. Only soup and ramen noodle is just average. Prawn Gyoza felt like not much Prawn meat inside, also just average. <br/>The service was quick during lunch time. good place to have a quick lunch

Wasn't expecting much, but very pleasantly surprised by this place. A real Japanese restaurant on Queen St! I had ramen, which was excellent - authentic Japanese ramen and came out in no time. I was intrigued to see all the little signs for traditional Japanese dishes around the place, so would like to come back and try some of these. Unusually, has Orion beer, from Okinawa.

Good Japanese restaurant but I think Japanese noodles is main ;) There is a lot of type of Japanese Sake. It's so nice! Budget is unter $30.0( If you won't drink alcohol). Good price ;>

Never judge a book by the cover! Very authentic Japanese ramen, soup is made traditionally in the old way, excellent! Unlike the nearby cheap low quality sushi restaurants, their sushi is very good quality and fresh, worths for the price. Found the Pearl in the hay stack, definitely recommend to friends who visit NZ.

It is definitely nice restaurant, with traditionally Japanese pork soup and ramen, it is so tasty! Can't wait to try it next time! : ) other small dishes are all good and u will be surprised how good that is when u eat them with beers which is local Japanese one.

I had a tonkotsu miso noodles. It was so tasty and soup was so nice! I really like it!<br/>Try it everyone!!!<br/>I'll definitely come again and try it!

After visiting several Japanese restaurants on CBD, Shoya was the only disappointing experience.<br/><br/>I had a tonkatsu noodle, which was way too greasy. I could make it til the end since the flavour was actually good, but me and my veins wouldn't mind if the layer of fat on top of the broth wasn't one inch thick.

Ran into this place today, due to the few people there I wasn't expecting much from this place. I was positively surprised when my order arrives (Hell ramen level 3 with extra pork). The slices of pork were huge and tender, the egg was perfectly between runny and solid melting pleasantly when you bite into it. The dish wasn't that spicy for me, the noddles were chewy, overall a lovely place to visit. Food is portioned well, good prices and friendly staff.

Tried the Hell Ramen with two extra toppings for $14.90 in total, spicy but tasty. To me, the noodle was a little bit chewy, I prefer softer one. Deep fried chicken was crispy outside and juicy inside. Sesame seaweed side dish was also yummy.

It was very delicious Japanese noodles specially hell ramen level 3 was very spicy, also it was very friendly Japanese staffs. I will definitely come back again thank you very much.

Ordered a few dishes from here including ramen and a range of donburis. Nothing was really standout. Don't think I would rush back.<br/><br/>Service was fine and they've recently renovated slightly but still quite a low key dining experience.

Amazing customer services, feels like being in Japan even though I have never been to. Love the hell spicy ramen. I highly recommend to try level 3. Tori tamago toji don is also tasty and very good.

Went here for dinner with friends today and it was a very pleasant dining experience. Excellent customer service - friendly and welcoming staff. Food was of good quality and I'd say it's fair value for money. Definitely would recommend for casual dining.

Ok, not the best Japanese or best value for Japanese I've had but it ticks all the boxes. Not the worst but not the best out of the row of restaurants it sits next go on the queen st strip. We ordered a variety of dishes and they were all ok, didn't blow us away.

This is a great little place. I come so often I feel at home. <br/>Food is great, service is very personalized. <br/>Some of my favorites are chashu ramen and tonkotsu shoyu ramen they are soups that with this cold weather makes my day better. <br/>A place worth visiting...