Noodle Fest Hawaii

First timer at the Noodle Fest Hawaii (2nd Annual). If you love noodles, then its worth checking out! For locals, it's an opportunity to sample festival exclusive noodle dishes from vendors across the state, but mostly from those doing business on Oahu. For all other visitors, it's a good place to learn about Hawaii's comfort food: Saimin.After reading an article by Frolic Hawaii prior to the event, I decided I was going to visit the Sun Noodle booth to try their Noodle Fest exclusive: Garlic Butter Shrimp Saimin. Luckily, I had arrived at 3:00pm sharp, so I was probably the 5th in line. I thoroughly enjoyed their bowl of saimin in a hot dashi, which was prepared by Hokkaido Ramen Santouka. Topped with green onions, fishcake, luncheon meat and garlic butter shrimp, it was satisfying even on this sweltering afternoon in Honolulu! I mean it was prime time heat! So, naturally, I was craving for something chilled soonafter, but the line for Sweet Creams was just too long to stand any longer in the heat.The 2019 festivities were held in the grassy area of Victoria Ward Park, where the old Marukai used to be. There were chairs and tables in front of the stage, and standing only tables scattered throughout. Some folks found shade towards the back of the park and just plopped themselves down in the grass.Before I left, I purchased a Noodle Fest t-shirt designed by VH07V - very cute! Proceeds from the $25 navy-colored event shirt will go to the Hawaii Foodbank.I found free parking at the lot near Ross and actually did some business at the Ohana Hale Marketplace. Fully air conditioned, the Hale was a great place to cool down after (or even during) the Fest, which was conveniently located right next door to the event. Thai Tea Gelato from Friend Cafe Express hit the spot!Wear a hat or bring an umbrella for sun protection. Stay for the entertainment including the Noodle Eating Competitions!

Judging by the crowds and parkibg shortage, Honolulu loves oodles of noodles!!!It was wall to wall people and their four-legged friends seeking good noodle eats!We were in search of black noodles that were publicized on air.Closest we got was the truffle ramen from gomatei. The line wasn't long but the dashi was lukewarm Will try this at gomatei!

Let's type a review while I am waiting in the never ending line to GYOZILLA...This is the second annual Noodle Fest, and my first time attending. It is located at Ward, next to the theatres. Free parking is available all around with multiple parking lots and structures.I luckily found a beautiful, spacious parking stall with no cars around across the venue right when I arrived. There is literally a sea of people here all in search (and super long lines) of noodles, noodles, and more noodles!There are about 20 vendors here. The main vendors are obviously GYOZILLA and The Pig and the Lady based on the exceedingly long lines. There aren't really any other notable ones. Most of the other vendors are nearby businesses, and several repetitive vendors. It's saimin and ramen with a pho here, a pad Thai there, and random pasta ones. There's NO CHINESE NOODLES. How ridiculous and disappointing!!Overall, it is a great event because noodles are very popular here, but there should be a more variety of cuisines and types of noodles. It's not just saimin and ramen!Well, I'm almost to the front of GYOZILLA. Noodle out!

I was excited to go to Noodle Fest this year with my friends. What I really liked:1. Parking....there were plenty of space to park.2. Food was pretty good.What they can do better:1. Shades! So hot :(2. More tables!! There were so few tables...we were very lucky.3. More vendors thus less long line! This is only the second year so hopefully next year will be better!!

I don't know why "Noodle Fest" isn't a thing globally! I mean so many cultures incorporate noodles into their cuisine, it is a crying shame to deny yourself oodles of noodles. This was held at the Victoria Ward park, and true to form; if you build a festival, locals will come in droves! Parking was available for a very lucky few and when that filled up, they were on their own to find a parking lot. I decided to bring my younger teen daughter and wife to this event. Normally, crowds can cause tension in our little clan, but we gave ourselves some healthy perimeters, each had money to go spend where they wanted. There were vendors all along in a horse shoe like shape, the Pig and the Lady, Shige's Saimin Stand, Laverne's, and everything from Ramen to Pho to Spaghetti noodles were well represented! There was a small stage set up for entertainment, and plenty of round tables and chairs for people to hang out to watch young Ukulele performers, martial arts demos, and raising money for the Food Bank. Here's my brilliant idea that went over about as well as tying a brick to a string and calling it a "kite". I wanted to prepare ahead of time and brought out own bento shaped Tupperware and flatware so we were not contributing to more disposable waste. Sounds altruistic right? My family begrudgingly took their containers and got into line for some Saimin and Ramen. So, I get in line for Shoyu Ramen. The lines were long, and the sun was beating down. As I approached to make my order, I say "Shoyu Ramen please, and if you could use my container, I would appreciate it" This woman just gaped at me like "What is this Haole doing?" My container was not bowl shaped, it was rectangular with sections in it! I felt so embarrassed as I waited, wondering if the chef was going to come after me, flinging fish cake and swearing! But no. They were ultra polite and delivered my bowl of Shoyu Ramen in the best way they could! My daughter was already looking at dessert, and we just happened to sit down in the grass next to the Hawaiian Honey Cones booth. This "J" shaped cone smells like Captain Crunch cereal, but has a honey taste and is filled with Vanilla ice cream. Perfect way to cool off under the hot sun. Since my family and I usually have about a 3 hour max for most festivals we attend, we missed the Noodle eating contests. Sadly, 2020 cancelled the 3rd Annual Noodle fest, but we are crossing our fingers that they will have one this year! The last I read, it was March 2021..... Either way, we will be there and I will bring a Ramen Tupperware bowl like a normal person!

Checked out NOODLE FEST HAWAII 2019 On 3/30/19 Saturday @ Ward, and man what can I say it was PACKED HOUSE inside the VENUE area. Got there about 6/615PM And there was a lot of people. It was our first time checking out the noodle fest, didn't go to the 1st annual noodle festival last year. VENDORS * Lots or different food vendors and other vendors selling T-shirt's and other items. IMO and what I noticed is that there was couple food vendors were the LINES was very very long probably wait time is approx 25/30MINS I would say just to order and get your food. One was *Hokkaido Ramen Santouka x SUN noodle food stand And *GYO-Zilla, Sweet Creams 808 just to make a few. The first line we waited at was the line for the GYO-Zilla And we were about 20 mins in waiting in-line but still far away from the front, then we hear from the front of the line that they RAN out of GYOZA and I was like what is out someone says GYOZA, I was like What in the world I was literally waiting 25 mins in-line and found out they RAN OUT (SMH) very disappointing I tell you. How can they don't really stock up for this event. Bad planning I would say. Then the other Food eatery we stand in-line was SWEET CREAMS 808 another long line waited about 20mins +. And gladly here though they didn't sell out outta of the RAMEN ROLL BOWLS. One thing I wish I tried and wish they wasn't SOLD OUT, Was FRIED SAIMIN noodles from SHIGE's FOOD STAND. They were sold at 6PM (SMH) Parking for the event * LOTS OF FREE PARKING around WARD.

The noodle fest this year, 2019 was held at ward, next to the theaters, where the Christmas lights were held. This event showcases a taste of different restaurants serving saimin or Ramen noodles. There were many more vendors, but I only tried the below:Nori - 5 stars - for $6, there wasn't a very long line like some others, but I thought their cold ramen bowl was the best. The noodles had a flavorful shoyu based dressing with fish cake, onions and nori. They also sold pickled mustard cabbage in a jar and chocolate mochi cake.Santouka - 3 stars - for $6, they sold butter ramen only because they ran out of shrimp ramen before I arrived, which was only a half hour after the event started. The ramen was ok, but it's sun noodle. They had a display of different sun noodles which was interesting.Shige's - 4 stars - $7 for saimin, $5 for fried saimin - loved their homemade noodles which tasted so much better than regular sun noodles with a fresh chewy texture. However their broth and fried saimin was really salty.Burgers on bishop - 4 stars - for $11, 2 large pieces of soft teri pork belly with a lot of fat on ramen was very filling, but also very oily. They sold water in an aluminum reusable bottle, which was very useful. The person taking orders was very animated and funny.Yelp booth - of course 5 stars! Raelyn was very helpful and friendly in checking in, and giving me a choice of a cooler or eco bag.This event had long lines at certain tents and only within half hour after opening, some items were sold out. It was great to be able to buy a small servings of ramen or saimin at different restaurants.Parking - all around ward, but we decided to walk to the event after shopping at ala moana. I noticed they had a Lyft drop off area right next to the event.

I went around 3:15 and didn't want to chance parking at ward warehouse area so I parked by the old sports authority and walked in. A lot of people were doing this XDIt was already super packed when I got there! One had a line across the street and then some. Lots of local favorites were there. I hightailed it to shiro's because I don't get to go to Aiea that often anymore. They thankfully had a short line, I was almost distracted and went to S&S who had no line. One of the things about a noodle festival is everyone who serves ramen it is really hot!!! So need to wait to let it cool before eating and you need to be careful to not spill anything on you. It impedes how much food you can consume. Next I hit up sweet roll because I needed to get their "ramen bowl" just for the photos...I mean it was good too but yeah! I was a little bummed they forgot my ice coffee and had already walked away by the time I noticed =(That day was raining all morning so I was glad it finally stopped at around 2:45 and it was dry. It was super humid tho and with it being so packed didn't help =( some people saw my IG feed and decided to come down because they saw it wasn't raining XD overall it was enjoyable, I had to run to another event or I would have liked to stay longer than an hour and a half to eat more.

We got to Noodle Fest (2019) at around 5:30pm, and had a relatively easy time parking in the lot right across Victoria Ward Park. There were many people and lines were packed, but I loved that there were so many vendors to choose from. **GYOZILLA** I've always been meaning to try Gyozilla ever since I saw them at the events hosted by Art + Flea. We got the Okonomiyaki Gyoza, Garlic Gyoza, and the special Baecon (Bacon wrapped mochi), and Garlic Noodz (egg noodles with shoyu, garlic, and parmesan) Everything was SO good and the workers were very quick to get everything out to us. Will definitely check them out at other events!** SWEET CREAMS ** I used to work right next to Sweet Creams when they first opened, and remember seeing lines go out the door every night. I was reminded of that at this event, because the line to get the Ramen Rolled Ice Cream was also insane. Their special was super cute and actually resembled a ramen bowl (white chocolate egg, the "kamaboko" was mochi, coconut flakes for the "green onions" and pocky sticks for chopsticks). We got the tea "broth" and it paired well with the biscoff ice cream! I love their creativity and can't wait to see what they'll bring next year!The only negative of the event (besides the crazy long lines) was that ambiguity of the parking. I had the VIP parking pass and followed the map, but couldn't find the designated place to park. Luckily, it didn't take too long to find a stall, but hoping to get more clarity with parking next year!Can't wait for Noodle Fest 2020!

This was the first annual Noodle Fest! A small portion of the street was blocked off in front of Ward Center and man was it packed! It was pouring rain all day and luckily it cleared up right in time for the event. And it was overcast so it wasn't too hot. There were tons of different noodles from around the world...saimin, ramen, pho, pad thai, pho to name a few. They even had a cute ice cream place that had ice cream that looked like a little ramen bowl. And if you didn't like noodles, there were other food choices too, not a ton but afterwards this is a Noodle Fest right? Interestingly, no Italian spaghetti or even Chinese noodles. Most places were reasonably priced. It's an event after all! There was a noodle eating contest and entertainment too! The lines were long but they moved pretty fast. Some places ran out of food early. Sad. But a lot of other places still had a ton of food at least! This was actually a more fun event than I expected and will definitely come check it out next year, if they have it again. ********Do you like noodles? Then this is the place to go! oodles of noodles