Marugame Seimen is a Sanuki udon chain that’s all the rage these days. One happened to open near my place, so I went.
The house specialty: kamaage udon
The skill level looked lacking at a glance, so I ordered the signature dish, and sure enough it was the right call. Eating these floppy noodles bukkake-style wouldn’t impress anyone. The bowl looks big, but a few mouthfuls and it’s gone. On the other hand it was only 230 yen or so, really cheap. It’s not that far off the real thing back in Kagawa.
Tempura toppings
The chikuwa on the left is basically an oden fishcake, and it was just okay. The chicken tempura on the right was decent, but the calories… The toppings here aren’t expensive, but they’re all pretty high-calorie stuff. Sure, tempura goes great with udon, but it hurts my heart… Even ordering all this came to about 490 yen, so it’s very cheap. Taste-wise it’s still edible compared to weird udon shops like Hanamaru, so if you’re stuck with nowhere else to go, it’s worth a stop.
Tsuyu
Well… ordinary…
The noodle-aging fridge
It’s factory-made… I suppose, but I think the reason they still manage to serve reasonably proper Sanuki udon is fridges like this for resting the dough. There are quite a few branches in the big cities, so if you’re ever hungry and want to try Sanuki udon on the cheap, give it a go.