We read about Mentsu-dan on Serious Eats Tokyo and wanted to check it out.
For us, traveling is all about the food. We are selective with our meals since there is only so much you can eat during a short one week stay. Therefore, it says a lot about this place because we ate here twice.
It has the 3 qualities that we like - great quality, a place where locals go, and surprisingly inexpensive.
Let's talk quality.
When you walk in, you are greeted by the guy pulling the udon by hand. Behind him, another guy is rolling out the dough by hand and then feeding it into a machine that cuts the dough one noodle at a time. He watches for quality and discards any cuts that aren't the right length.
Very cool.
In front of these guys, there is a menu (with pictures - yay) offering a selection of hot or cold udon noodles. You tell the guy who is pulling the udon what you want (which in our case meant pointing to the picture) and then he begins the prep. He drops the freshly cut udon into a net steeped in boiling water and when done, he transfers the noodles into a sink and (from what I can tell) washes it before he places it in a bowl (if you got hot udon). Otherwise, he moves those noodles into a second wash to cool it down (if you ordered cold udon).
From there, he places your bowl on a tray and you move to a small refrigerator with goodies that you can self select (potato salad, green salad, tempura, rice cake...etc) before moving onto a large selection of tempuras (various fish, veggies, shrimp, croquettes...etc). Finally, you end up at a small station where you can add as much sliced scallions, tempura flakes, and shredded radish as you like.
From there you pay and find yourself in bewilderment when he tells you the price is 1600 yen (< $16 USD). You just got two bowls of freshly prepared udon and a medley of tempura for less than the subway passes you purchased that day ($20 USD for both of us.)
You sit cafeteria style and self serve your own water. You can order beer through one of those ticket machines, but it was all in Japanese (i.e. no pictures) so I didn't bother trying.
The taste? So, so good. The texture was chewy and delicious and we were both very satisfied. Neither of us have had udon this fresh and honestly, it will be tough to go back to those refrigerated packages we are used to from Mitsuwa. However, we will be back...someday.
For us, traveling is all about the food. We are selective with our meals since there is only so much you can eat during a short one week stay. Therefore, it says a lot about this place because we ate here twice.
It has the 3 qualities that we like - great quality, a place where locals go, and surprisingly inexpensive.
Let's talk quality.
When you walk in, you are greeted by the guy pulling the udon by hand. Behind him, another guy is rolling out the dough by hand and then feeding it into a machine that cuts the dough one noodle at a time. He watches for quality and discards any cuts that aren't the right length.
Very cool.
In front of these guys, there is a menu (with pictures - yay) offering a selection of hot or cold udon noodles. You tell the guy who is pulling the udon what you want (which in our case meant pointing to the picture) and then he begins the prep. He drops the freshly cut udon into a net steeped in boiling water and when done, he transfers the noodles into a sink and (from what I can tell) washes it before he places it in a bowl (if you got hot udon). Otherwise, he moves those noodles into a second wash to cool it down (if you ordered cold udon).
From there, he places your bowl on a tray and you move to a small refrigerator with goodies that you can self select (potato salad, green salad, tempura, rice cake...etc) before moving onto a large selection of tempuras (various fish, veggies, shrimp, croquettes...etc). Finally, you end up at a small station where you can add as much sliced scallions, tempura flakes, and shredded radish as you like.
From there you pay and find yourself in bewilderment when he tells you the price is 1600 yen (< $16 USD). You just got two bowls of freshly prepared udon and a medley of tempura for less than the subway passes you purchased that day ($20 USD for both of us.)
You sit cafeteria style and self serve your own water. You can order beer through one of those ticket machines, but it was all in Japanese (i.e. no pictures) so I didn't bother trying.
The taste? So, so good. The texture was chewy and delicious and we were both very satisfied. Neither of us have had udon this fresh and honestly, it will be tough to go back to those refrigerated packages we are used to from Mitsuwa. However, we will be back...someday.
