WOKYO NOODLE BAR

LOCATION

Wokyo Noodle Bar is located in JLT cluster J on the lower level next to the lake. Even though parking is difficult in JLT, the ramen offerings at Wokyo are well worth the sticky parking situation. 

The interior of Wokoy is fun and kitschy. There are colorful Japanese posters on the wall, long benches that line the restaurant and an open kitchen allowing you to view the preparation of your meals. 

Opening hours are daily from 11am to 11pm. 

WOKYO NOODLE BAR 

Wokyo is a homegrown concept born in Dubai in 2012. The Sapporo ramen broth takes around 10-12 hours to make with everything made from scratch! They inherited the recipe from a Sapporo City ramen master who they trained with in Hokkaido, Japan for 2 months. After their training, they spent an additional 2 years testing the recipe before introducing it to the market. The ramen master routinely visits to ensure the quality of the ramen. 

The chefs in the restaurant are warriors dealing with continuous orders and billowing wok flames, you can see them in action through the open kitchen. 

Just as a side note, their Instagram management, interaction with restaurant goers and direct messaging is one of the best I’ve experienced in the city. 

MENU

Wokyo has a smart menu in terms of breadth and pricing.

Their menu consists of build your own noodle dish, soups, sides, ramen and desserts. Opposed to many East Asian restaurants that leave me indecisive with too many options.

Their pricing is very clever, all the sides are priced at AED 22, the soups at AED 47, the ramen at AED 49 and the desserts at AED 12. This makes your final spend easy to estimate. 

Examples of each include:

• Soup: Laksa soup: coconut curry shrimp broth with fresh herbs, veggies, nitamago egg, peanuts, and rice stick noodles.

• Sides: Seoul flaming drumsticks: crunchy, fried chicken drumsticks with roasted peanuts and spicy chili sauce.

• Ramen: Sapporo ramen with meat, chicken, beef, menma, nitamago egg.

• Dessert: Berry aisu kurimu: fresh berries soft serve ice cream.

SAPPORO RAMEN

Sapporo ramen broth is not as thick as paitan ramen broth and not as thin as pho broth, its somewhere in the middle. It has the depth of flavor but maintains its light texture. The Sapporo ramen broth at Wokyo takes 10 -12 hours to prepare and is poured over wok tossed veggies and wavy ramen noodles. 

I always go for the shoyu (soy sauce based) meat broth with chicken, beef, bamboo shoots and egg. I’ve come to understand that my taste enjoys beef broth more than chicken broth. Even though having chicken and meat in the same dish sounds a bit off, it really works.  

With the deep but light sauce, the chicken and meat, the bamboo shoots and egg, every bite will be an experience unlike than the next. 

PRICING

Ramen around the city is usually priced at AED 45 to AED 70 so the AED 49 pricing at Wokyo is at the lower end of the spectrum.

Considering the time spent on constructing the dish and all the elements it includes the AED 49 (equivalent to 2 cups of flat white in Dubai) scores high on value for money. 

CONCLUSION

Go to Wokyo Noodle Bar. 

Location: JLT Cluster J

Price for 2: AED 150

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