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| - I had such high hopes for Wakado and I was eagerly awaiting it's opening as I live right next door. When I saw that it finally opened, i was excited to give it a try.
I love the way the restaurant is set up - tables with a ramen bar. The decor is on point and the setting and ambiance has the makings of an awesome, local ramen joint with reliable, delicious ramen.
Unfortunately for Wakado, this is where my love story ends. I started with their Gyoza as an appetizer - well, I say started but realistically the appetizer arrived much after my ramen did.... which is not a big deal but....they were really not great dumplings either. They were pretty much clearly factory made frozen dumplings, but I suppose I shouldn't ever expect handmade goodness from a shop like this.
Let's get to the ramen. A ramen shop is about the ramen, and as we all know, ramen is about the broth. The ramen at Wakado needs a lot of work. The broth, quite frankly, is boring. I had the Black Garlic Ramen, and with the ramen of the same namesake at Jinya as reference, the broth lacked so much. The broth lacked the depth of flavour, it lacked the body and richness, and it lacked the layers that one should expect from a strong ramen broth.
The accoutrements left something to be desired as well. The Pork was again boring, and the toppings could have easily had more variety. The Egg - which again is a key component of a good bowl of ramen, lacked the flavour richness required from the soy marinade.
I was really rooting for amazing ramen from Wakado, but unfortunately this is still a miss. With the price point on the higher end of average, it's a double whammy against me returning to Wakado again. There are several better Ramen places in Calgary that are worth a visit.
Well, I suppose that's not true. I know one day I'll be lazy and i'll pay this place a visit again - the ramen is passable.
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