nomiya: tapas sushi and ramen

good drink specials daily. really great variety of ramen and sushi. nice to see quality and variety inba menu. a variety ofjapaneseimported beer is nice... there's a really good espresso stout that you must try.

wish the spicy rolls were spicier, but sashimi is very fresh and good qualify. get a marinated egg in your ramen you will be happy happy!

staff are all very nice although last time in, we waited a very long time for our bill. my only wish is if they stayed open all day as opposed to closing mid afternoon!

the ramen and special maki rolls together makes it one of the bestjapanesespot in town.

rich flavored soup and consistence in qualities...special maki rolls are also a must try! also give the small rice bowl a try they are all pretty good

only downside if not all the food on the menu is good (unlike izakayatomo!)if you are debating to get the stir fry noodles(yaki soba), don't get it..its very soft and sticky , not like the chewy noodles it should be at all:( the chicken karagge is also a mehh....i haven't try many other stuff on the menu but i suspect i should just stay with the sushi and ramen...

today we went to nomiya to satisfy our ramen cravings! the ramen was delicious and very savoury compared to before. we visited during happy hours and decided to get the chicken karage and dragon rolls (ouuuuuulala). we were surprised when our waiter came out with the torch and lit our sushi up. i thought he was going to burn the whole place down! but thank god, he didn't.

the dragon roll which consisted of eel, salmon, avocado, andjapanesemayo topped with tobiko egg was the perfect combination in my mouth!

the chicken karage was good, but size is smaller than before.

the ramen was delicious! price wise it was around 65 for three people. very cheap and affordable!

service wise, the guy was very helpful, but the lady seemed pretty rude!

we will definitely come back as long as the lady isn't our server! yikes.

nomiya offers thoughtful and solidjapanesefood and ramen that should do for anyone in the craving for such. while the quality of their fish was a little suspect, they do supply a tasty ramen and made it up with an authentic take on century tofu. you will not find finejapanesefood here but rather will find averagejapanesecuisine at a good value.

bad experience started from the door. firstly i have to say the restaurant looks clean and well maintained. first impressions are very important & my first impression was very positive. but unfortunately it was all downhill from there.
the service was ok, i was greeted pleasantly at the entrance but because i wanted to order a take away, i was left to stand and wait by the door for a while, even after it was blatantly obvious that i had perused & browse the menu to it entirety. the waitress even having the odacity to serve and sit 3 gentlemen who had walked in a considerable few minutes after me, while leaving me to stand there for a while longer. 2/10 for the service.
i proceeded to enquire some more detail about my impending choices on the menu and was just treated as though i was an idiot and had no idea about that type of cuisine. by then they had already soured my first nomiya experience.
i kept my cool, ordered my food and just left (no tip of course) after it came. but the final kick in the teeth was yet to unfold when i got home.. i was greeted with some kind of bad attempt at sushi rolls that flaked as soon as a chopstick touched them. needless to say, i won't be going back there again. betterjapanesecuisine can be had from edo (which in itself is not great either).
you might have better luck, but i won't be braving nomiya again. once was enough.

ambitious menu fails to deliver. i recently visited nomiya after i saw that they changed their menu. before, i usually went to try their ramen (which is still served). the new menu consisted of traditionaljapaneseitems, such as bbq skewers, hot pots, and others. i was excited since it's very difficult and rare to find these items in otherjapaneserestaurants in the city. when i was there, i ordered a chicken heart skewer, salmon skin chips, wasabi octopus and the seafood hot pot. the chips and octopus were fine, but nothing spectacular.

however, what i had issue with was the skewer and hot pot. the skewer came out rock hard, literally... i couldn't get the meat off at all as it was severely overcooked. the waitress replaced it without hesitation and it came out much better, but again, nothing special. the broth in the hot pot was very sweet and threw me off.. i then realized it was because it contained copious amounts of red bell pepper. if you know anything aboutjapanesecuisine, bell peppers aren't part of it, esp. in this seafood broth. the other vegetables needed to be cooked longer as they were still very crunchy. there was a lot of seafood, which was good, but there were a lot of fish bones left on the white fish and also within the broth itself. i thought this would be a hazard if a child was eating this dish as the bones in the broth were only noticed after i took more sips of the broth.

overall, i was disappointed with my meal. it wasn't what i expected from the new menu as the execution was not there. i feel that nomiya doesn't have much of an identity. it needs to known for something particular, rather than offering so many items that it can't handle.

just had the foie-gras roll. i can honestly say that was the first time ive ever had frenchjapanesefusion sushi. and it was the greatest roll ive had all year long. delicious with the foie-grass and the apple and the raw beef on top. didnt think it would work but it did and i will forsure be back for more of this foie grass roll aswel as the other rolls on the menu. very modern sushi restaurant worth your while.

so here is a little gem of a place that i often go to. perhaps i am a bit biased since it is convenient for me geographically and i happen to know the chef, some of the servers and also enjoy their happy hour days. here is a sample of their menu: this promotion has lasted for a while, i believe it started around october 2012. though nomniya is known for their ramen i learned that their ramen chef is notjapanesecertified. however, i have tried their ramen multiple times and though it is not perfection it is pretty good considering the lack of ramen stores in edmonton, especially edmonton south. my all time favourite roll out of the selection would be their dragon roll. the picture below is what is served up to your table from the sushi chef. (they have an open bar concept where you can see him make all your food sushi wise)then a waiter comes over with a flame torch and tobiko in a cute little dish. this next photo shows the flame blowing action: it really doesn't get old and i have s

fantastic food, service and specials!. nomiya really blew me away with its fantastic food specials, (happy hour with $3 - $11 specials)

they have a lot of really great dishes (katsu kare and a wide variety of ramen noodle options) and the staples such as salmon sashimi are done to perfection. they took the time to carve our lemon slices into little animal shapes and everything!

i really highly recommend nomiya for a greatjapanesefood experience - if you are looking for sushi, sashimi as well as cooked foods for those who do not enjoy raw.

love it!!!

worstjapaneseexperience to date!. other reviews seem to indicate this establishment quality continues to decline through 2012.

wanting to try a newjapaneserestaurant, we decided to check out nomiya for lunch.

firstly, premises seemed unclean (dirty floor, unclean entrance door)... should have taken this as a premonition and left immediately.

ordered bento boxes... half empty tables still took 35 minutes for our order (i don't, however, rate a restaurant for service...i'm most interested in food quality). food overly salted for some reason... rice seemed 2-3 days old, chicken karaage horribly fatty (as others have pointed out) and heavily salted. having eaten in severaljapaneseestablishments, this clearly ranks as the worst food experience. hard to believe as some mention that this establishment is owned byjapaneseowners (i.e. producing authenticjapanesecuisine).

those seeking their first or lastjapaneseexperience should take a pass on nomiya. management clearly not interested in being on par with otherjapanesehouses. sorry, quality not even close to acceptable.

i came for the ramen.... and i was not disappointed! the first time i dined here, i ordered the tonkatsu ramen. i believe that a good ramen restaurant can be determined by the quality of their tonkatsu base. the second time i dined, i ordered the tonkatu ramen again! i enjoyed the noodles and the toppings that came with it, but i absolutely loved the soup. it’s so satisfying to, at the end of the meail, wrap two hands around a large ramen bowl and drink it to the last drop. i have also sampled a few of the appetizers and side dishes and they were alright. they were prepared nicely and were enjoyable, but it wasn’t anything notable. if the executive chef is reading this: would it be possible to prepare the yam fries in a tempura style? that’s what i expected from ajapaneserestaurant and i was a little bit disappointed by the beer battered fries.

4/5 for nomiya. nomiya is a fairly new restaurant (about a year old) located in an area that has seen a lot of growth as far as restaurants go in the past little while.
upon entering, you find a fairly small-ish restaurant that has been beautifully decorated. while the decor is very nice (lots of blacks and reds), it's also not too much. many of the tables are sectioned off from each other which does a lot to make you feel like you aren't sharing your meal with everyone else in the restaurant. they also offer the option of eating at the sushi bar. once seated at the back by the friendly server, there were a few things clear about the menu; there were different experiences to choose from. you could go the ramen route and dine on huge bowls of soup. or you could go the sushi route and sample a variety of things. we started with green tea (which was continuously replenished for us throughout the meal) as we perused our tough decision.

we seemed almost certain that we were going to order the 'happy boat for 2' - a huge wooden boat filled with sushi, tempura and tons of other things. this seemed like a very good way to sample a lot of different things at once, which is always a good idea when trying out a new restaurant for the first time. but then we looked at what the other patrons were eating around us... all ramen. so a last-minute decision was reached: we were having ramen!

i settled on the buta kakuni (our miso soup based ramen; topped off with marinatedjapanesebraised pork belly, corn, green onions, kikurage mushroom, bamboo shoots, naruto and nori - $11.00) for myself. it came out in a massive bowl, very similar to what you would see when ordering pho. the spoon to eat with was more like a ladle and i was also outfitted with chopsticks. the #1 rule is to slurp! the soup was very tasty, especially with all of the different great components. i loved the miso broth very much - the broth really does make the dish in meal-soups such as this. it wasn't too salty and it allowed the other ingredients to shine; the pork belly was flavourful (although a little too fatty for my liking), the noodles were perfectly cooked, and all of the vegetables were fresh. this was definitely an eating experience all in itself, a new craving all it's own. "let's go for ramen!"
(let it be known that this is nothing like the $1 styrofoam cups of mr. noodle that i'm sure everyone knows... it's interesting to see what they were trying to replicate with those when you actually try the real thing.)

along with our ramen, we also enjoyed some agedashi tofu ($5.50). essentially, this is just deep-fried tofu served in a hot tentsuyu broth. this was as good as i'd ever had it. crispy cubes on the outside, soft tofu on the inside, swimming in a delicious salty bath.

i thoroughly enjoyed my experience at nomiya and now i certainly need to return so that i can try all of their other specialties. i've heard that their sushi is some of the best around and i'd like to put that to the test!

instant noodles? r u kidding?. @brenden: instant noodles? r u fracking kidding me? if you cannot tell the difference between instant noodles ramen and restaurant grade ramen then you deserve to eat instant noodles for the rest of your life. if you want all ramen shops to taste the same according to your standards then you do deserve to eat instantly noodles for the rest of your life and your after-life. first if all you can do is write 1 line with your mobile phone to bash someone's hard earned establishment then you don't deserve to be a critic. freedom of speech yes, idiotic and mindless comments don't really help other prospective customer. i went there after reading your comment and for sure it did not taste, looked like instant noodles, and it certainly was not served in a numbered recyclable plastic bowl. don't get me wrong folks; you cannot expect all ramen shops in alberta to taste like the ones in japan. second, every ramen chef produces different flavors of ramen, the texture of the noodle itself, the flavor of the broth, texture and flavor of the pork slices, the other ingredients that supports ramen itself. i am from calgary myself, edmonton is a great city by the way, we have a lot of ramen shops in calgary that's very authentic, shikiji, wa's, muku (owned by globe fish) they all taste different but very authentic. what i like about nomiya it's the salt level in the broth is just perfect for me. it's not overwhelming like the wayjapaneselike it, it's just enough for me to taste all the efforts that the chef put into making the soup. if you are looking for the layer of butter that normally would put in the broth, don't bother. i know it supposed to be there for tradition, but if you like butter than go to red lobster, lots there. with the low sodium, i can taste great flavors from the pork meat, pork bones they used to make the broth, it's smooth and its quite rich. the noodle itself, slightly thicker than the ramen you might find from the shops in calgary or other places in edmonton but has its own uniqueness to it. it's got a bounce to it as well when you chew it. it's quite interesting. the flavor of the noodle itself is not as strong as the ramen you will get at otherjapaneserestaurant that i am pretty sure. generous portion for the pork slices, generous portion for the noodles. another bonus is that the owner actually sat down with me and asked how everything was and kindly took in my honest opinion. to me, it shows that she cares about her customers and her business. and the owner also said that they might start to make the noodles in house eventually that is quite ambitious and i respect that, i hope she will succeed. this is what it's all about. i am not going to talk too much about the quality of service but everyone should know that it's not easy to please people in the service industry. good business owners will learn from comments and customer experience over all, i enjoyed my visit and will be back again to try their sushi and other ramen. i really do appreciate the chef taking the initiative to be a little adventurous by adding a few unique ramen flavors to their menu and using her own approach to make a great tasting bowl of ramen for her customers. people should give this place a try. thanks for reading with respect.

edmonton's bestjapaneserestaurant. nomiya was up and down at points but recently the place has really started to shine. their new sushi chef is from japan and has revamped a lot of the items, as well as having some of the best sushi in town hands down. the prices aren't too steep so you can go and enjoy a lot of different foods and i've always been so satisfied. their tan tan ramen is the best from the ramen choices but their tsukemen and spicy miso are all good too. definetly check this place out.

deliciously satisfying!. i was visiting edmonton this past weekend and came across nomiya while driving into town on calgary trail. i lovejapanesefood and it was conveniently on the way and plus, we were hungry so we decided to give it a try.

ambiance/atmosphere: 10/10
my first experience walking into the restaurant was positive. the restaurant looks fairly new and the décor is modern, charming and appropriately decorated with ajapanesetheme. i love thejapanesestyle wood frames used throughout the restaurant as room and booth dividers. the cherry blossom tiles in the bathroom were also a nice touch. the restaurant itself is intimate and cozy and offers comfortable, family-style dining.

priority for me is obviously the food but i was also pleasantly impressed at the ambiance and atmosphere of the restaurant. it made for a very enjoyable lunch experience.

food (quality, portions, presentation): 9/10
i came into the restaurant knowing nothing about it except that it said it had ramen on the sign outside. i instantly was subconsciously comparing it to anotherjapanesenoodle house in calgary that is quite popular. i was definitely excited to try the ramen to see if it was up to par with what i had in mind.

the main focus of the restaurant is that it is a ramen restaurant but they also have sushi and otherjapanesedishes. the menu boasts 7 ramen dishes - tan tan, spicy miso, tsuke-men, vegetarian, miso, shoyu, shio, with prices ranging from $8.95 to $11.00.

they all looked delicious but in the end, i settled on the tan tan. i chose it because 1) it was cold and rainy that morning in edmonton and i wanted something thick and hearty to warm me up and 2) the description of the dish was similar to another ramen dish that i always eat at anotherjapanesenoodle house in calgary. my friend ordered the shio ramen. we also ordered the lobster roll (at the server's suggestion) as well as assorted tempura and some assorted pieces of sushi. this was a lot of food for two people but we wanted to indulge before we had our drive back to calgary!

our food arrived promptly and the portion sizes were generous. we were very excited to try the food and it certainly did not disappoint.

tan tan - pork soup base seasoned with spicy sesame and peanuts. it had minced pork, green onions and was topped with peanuts. the broth was thick and hearty and full of flavour which i loved but i understand not everyone wants this type of thick broth in ramen. my friend tried my ramen dish but liked her shio ramen better. the noodles were perfectly cooked (i hate mushy noodles) and i thoroughly enjoyed my tan tan ramen. it was also quite comparable to a similar ramen dish that i enjoy back in calgary.

shio - the ramen came with bean sprouts, green onions, nori, egg, and slices of pork. of course, i had to sample my friend's shio ramen. from the other reviews i read, i think shio means salt in japanese. ironically, the ramen was not salty; it was light and clear and savoury. i also enjoyed this dish but would prefer to save it for a hot sunny summer day because of the lightness of the broth and noodles in the shio ramen.

the lobster roll arrived as we were in the midst of devouring our ramen. we ignored the roll for several minutes as we continued to enjoy our noodles, at which point, the server came up to us and suggested we try the roll while it was still hot.

zomg, i cannot even begin to describe how unbelievably good this roll is. but first, i need to explain. we ordered the lobster roll at the server's suggestion. it was listed as a lunch special on the board at the front of the restaurant and it wasn't on the menu so we honestly had no clue what was in it when we ordered it. secondly, because he asked us to try the roll before it got cold, i stuffed the first roll into my mouth without taking a second glance at what was in it. upon the first bite, my taste buds were treated to the most flavorful mixture of tastes - all the ingredients were fresh and delicious, the fish on the outside was seared perfectly and melted in my mouth and the sauce on top blended everything together in harmony.

good thing i took pictures of everything! the lobster roll had avocado and unagi on the inside, topped with seared salmon and a specialjapanesemayo sauce and roe. after the first bite, we quickly polished off the rest of the roll. we also told the server that this roll should be added to the permanent menu. he agreed.

the assorted tempura and pieces of sushi came shortly thereafter. these dishes also did not disappoint and were cooked well but they were nothing special compared to otherjapaneserestaurants.

we finished our meal feeling (extremely!) full and satisfied.

service: 10/10
we were glad we arrived early before the lunch rush because shortly after, there was a steady stream of customers all afternoon. nonetheless, the service was warm, friendly, polite, prompt, and accurate.

our server was friendly and knowledgeable. we asked him for recommendations on what dishes to order. he was attentive and very helpful and gave us suggestions based on our preferences. based on his recommendations, i asked for my tan tan ramen to be extra spicy (because i can handle my spice!) and i'm really glad i did. (as a note, the tan tan is actually not spicy for those that can handle their spice. even after i asked for it to be extra spicy, it definitely had a kick to it but it wasn't that spicy)

we were checked on regularly and our tea was refilled on a timely basis. our server also took time to chat with us and followed up with us to make sure we were okay. he was a delight!

pricing: 9/10
the pricing is comparable to mostjapaneserestaurants in calgary. i don't know why other people were complaining about the ramen prices in their reviews. the ramen prices range from $8.95 to $11.00, which i think is great value for your money, considering that you pay almost $10 (or more!) for pho at some vietnamese restaurants in calgary. ramen is definitely not ichiban instant noodles and i think that is a very ignorant statement to make.

overall: 9/10
highly recommended and i would definitely come back to this restaurant the next time i am up in edmonton. i can't wait to eat the lobster roll again and try out some of the other ramen dishes.