Another bookmark checked.
With the abrupt closure of a popular, similar create your own bowl of ramen business in town in 2019, I was bummed but heard through the grapevine of a matching concept of create your own bowl of noodles across town.
Located in Pearl Kai Shopping Center, Build Your Own Rmaen (BYOR) opened on December 26, 2018 offering create your own bowl of noodles. As a townie and not keen to fight traffic, I've bookmarked this business and finally made it here after 6 years. Late to the party but better than never...
I was invited to celebrate a birthday with noodles and was asked to give suggestions near Pearl City area. I immediately jumped and mentioned BYOR, and used next door neighbor Island Glazed Donuts as an incentive. No further explanation needed so I took off 1/2 day from work to attend this get together.
It was a right decision to come here for lunch as traffic from town was light and lots of parking as we arrived on a Wednesday. With many shared businesses in this lot, parking can get challenging here.
The restaurant was fairly empty as I arrived at 1215pm and sat on a long table for our group of 5. They have picture menus so it's easy to follow the instructions to order. Interior was bright and welcoming with many signs of food pictures posted on the walls and as well on each table.
Near the entrance are 2 long showcases of meats and vegetables. Signs advise you the price and there's also a laminated chart on the wall near the scale that calculates your cost as your bowl is dependent on the weight.
You grab an empty basket and pair of tongs and you select what you want. For me, I chose head on shrimp, book tripe, beef tendon, fish ball with roe, squid, bamboo shoots, black fungus, fried tofu, pumpkin slices and king mushroom. You take your basket to the register to have it officially weighed where you also select your broth and type of starch. I was craving a curry broth but unfortunately that wasn't an option. I then took a leap of faith by trying the spicy sour cabbage broth. In addition to each of us getting our bowl of noodles, my sister also wanted to try their spring rolls.
Perhaps because it wasn't busy our food came out quickly. Piping hot, our creations were nicely presented with toppings nicely arranged. We snapped away with our cameras and it was finally time to dig in.
THE VERDICT:
Overall, very impressed with the food quality and execution. Loved how tender the book tripe and beef tendon were. The head on shrimp were cooked until perfection - - juicy and lots of shrimp head fat. Yummo!!!
My noodles had a great chew and bounce, however, I wasn't a real fan of the spicy sour cabbage broth. Kinda tasted like a tom yum koong but somewhat funky. I jazzed up my creation with their housemade satay sauce that was off the charts. Highly recommended.
Service was above average as the staff came to check up on us and refilled our water cups. She even came to see if we had room for our complimentary Taiwanese style shave ice dessert that comes with ramen orders. This bowl was heavenly. So refreshing and cooled our palates down after a hot bowl of noodles.
We enjoyed our first visit to BYOR and will be back again. I'll be sure to order another broth and perhaps sample other appetizers that got my attention.
NOTE. You pay for your meal after you're done. My bowl was a whopping $35. For a party of 5 service charge of 18% was automatically tacked on to our bill. You also have the option of adding more gratuity in addition to the automatic service charge.
2026 #55 read more