This post was written in 2008. Shop details and prices may have changed since then.

There was a nationwide Sanuki udon boom at one point, but finding good udon in Tokyo still isn’t easy. Tokyo has always been soba territory. Famous soba shops are a dime a dozen, but truly great udon places are very few, and the reality is that udon mostly gets treated like a side dish. Not long ago I bought the Zagat Survey 2008, and while flipping through it I found out there’s a renowned Sanuki udon shop not far from my place. I couldn’t just take Zagat’s word for it, so I searched a word-of-mouth review site, and sure enough, the reviews were mostly good. No way I could skip a place like that. I went the very next morning.
The shopping street in Jujo

A classic Japanese shotengai scene. Even when big supermarkets move in, these shopping streets don’t disappear, because they have a charm all their own. Prices are cheap, and there are everyday local favorites that have been going for decades.
The udon shop sits in a corner of the shopping street.

The stools are for people waiting. Apparently on weekends people come from far away and line up. It’s a tiny place with just 6 counter seats and two tables, so maybe that’s why it’s nearly full even on weekdays. It was so crowded it wasn’t really the atmosphere for a leisurely meal. Still, weekdays seem like the better bet.
The house specialty: assorted Sanuki-style oden

I honestly don’t think oden this good for 500 yen exists anywhere but here. The gyusuji (beef tendon) especially was superb, soft and melting. With some sake it would have been perfect, but it was daytime, so I didn’t order a drink. It made me want to come back one evening and share it with good company.
Kamatama udon

It was good, but not the best. The noodles do have chew, but compared with what I had in Sanuki itself they’re a notch below. The Sanuki region uses special flour, after all. Even so, for udon you can get in Tokyo, this is on the good side.
With noodles like these, I think zaru udon would work better than kamatama. So when I came back the next day, I ordered ten-zaru udon.
Tsuyu

You dip the noodles in this.

Ten-zaru udon, 1,000 yen

The portion is huge. Tempura this good for a thousand yen… It reminded me of the time I paid 1,300 yen at Ueno Yabu Soba for a tempura soba with a single lonely piece of tempura and nearly cried. At Namiki Yabu Soba in Asakusa, half this amount cost 1,600 yen. And as I expected, it’s tastier eaten as zaru udon. It falls a little short of the real thing in Sanuki, but that’s probably down to ingredients rather than skill, and for Tokyo, this level is worth the trip even from far away. It’s close to home too, so I think I’ll be coming here a lot.
On a side note, like every other restaurant guide, the Zagat Survey doesn’t seem all that reliable. Not all of the reviewers are gourmets, and the selection criteria differ by area and by genre. There are also plenty of places the reviewers miss. These days I’m thinking of cross-checking a few guides, listing the places that overlap, checking online reviews, and then going. Looks like the fun food hunting will continue for a while. ^_^

한국어로 읽기日本語で読む