Marugame Udon is a fast casual chain that offers hand crafted udon bowls and tempura from an open kitchen.
Founded in Japan in 2000, Marugame Udon specializes in Sanuki udon which started centuries ago in the Kagawa Prefecture in the southern part of Japan.
The udon are made fresh daily in the open kitchen with flour, salt and water.
Marugame Udon has more than 800 locations worldwide with international locations in the US, Europe and the UK.
Marugame’s Udon options include:
- Tan Tan: Served in Japanese style sesame chili soup with house-made ground spicy soy meat and bok choy.
- Nikutama: Made-to-order Udon noodles served with sweet and savory beef, hot spring egg, and BK sauce. Can be served cold upon request.
- Tonkotsu: Made-to-order Udon noodles served in a pork broth with chashu pork, miso ground pork, garlic, and seasoned egg.
- Curry Nikutama: Their best selling Nikutama Udon served with seasoned sweet beef, soft egg in a curry sauce.
- Beef: Made-to-order Udon noodles served with sweet and savory beef in our signature Kake soup
- Kitsune: Kake Udon topped with Abura-age (sweet fried tofu).
- Vegan Udon: Their handmade udon served with a vegan broth topped with ground soy marinated in lemon and ginger.
- Curry: signature made-to-order Sanuki Udon noodles served with our savory beef curry broth.
- Kake: Made-to-order Udon noodles served in their signature house made dashi broth.
- B.K.: Made-to-order Udon noodles in a more concentrated, stronger house made dashi sauce.
They also offer Rice Bowls (like Beef Gyudon; Chicken Teriyaki Bowl and Chicken Katsu Curry) as well as Tempura (like Chicken; Shrimp; Squid; Sweet Potato; Tamagoyaki; Crab Meat; Big Chicken Katsu and Potato Croquette); and Drinks (like Jasmine Tea; Matcha Latte and more).
I visited the Glendale California location and the experience was pretty straightforward.
The ordering process is somewhat like a cafeteria setting where you grab a tray, tell them your order, and move along the counter to receive your food and pickup a few extras like sides and drinks along the way if you wish.
I got the Nikutama with sweet and savory beef and a hot spring egg. The udon were soft with chewy noodles and a smooth texture.
The tempura which are premade and sitting under heating were OK. They’re not the perfect crispiness since they are not totally fresh but reasonable.
They also had other sides like tamagoyaki; fish cakes; sweet potato tempura and more.
Overall, a good experience at Marguame Udon Glendale. Reasonably priced at around $20 for an udon bowl with a drink and some sides.