When we saw the menu “Bukakke Udon,” we knew we had to try it. For those who don’t know Japanese porn, don’t google “bukakke.”

You googled, didn’t you?

By the way, KPG (or Kimono Party Girls or Gays), alert! There are many lonelyhearts Japanese executive men eating alone here. Put on your make-up like an amazing before/after Korean-transformer and geisha your way to these salarymen.

Tamoya Udon (House of Tamo?) was first established in Sanuki Province (now known as Kagawa Prefecture) in 1996 by udon champion, Tamotsu Kurokawa. Don’t quite comprehend the write-up on their facebook page–hire a copywriter, kudasai–but I think what it is trying to say is that the ingredients are imported from Kagawa and the imported flour is hand-made into udon in Singapore. Got kawaii Japanese chefs manning the restaurant wor, konfirm authentic.

This shop reminded us so much of Tokyo. The same way of ordering: you order at the counter for the udon you want, and when you get the udon, you move down the line to take the tempura for additional costs. Come to think of it, Ikea and US cafeterias have the same system.

The udon starts from $4.80. The menu is quite simple: both kake udon and bukkake udon are priced the same (Regular: $4.80, L: $6.80). If you want to add beef, it’s $10.80/$12.80. If you want  pork, it’s $8.80/$10.80. Then there is curry udon at $8.80/$10.80. All these, except the plain kake udon (hot only), are available in hot and cold options.

In addition, there are zaru udon ($4.80/$6.80), a cold-only udon, and kama-age udon ($5.30/$7.30), a hot-only udon. If you want to add a raw egg to kama-age udon, it’s additional 50 cents.

THE UDON WAS AWESOME. As good as or even better than the ones we ate at Tokyo. The beef kake udon ($10.80) had the usual sweet-salty beef (better quality than the ones at Yoshinoya)  and pork bukkake udon ($8.80) had a great portion of pork. The udon soaked up the broth completely, making the udon so tasty. Kake was a sourish, vinegary, slightly saltish broth while bukkake was thicker, strong and salty. For those who like light, appetizing broth, get kake; those who prefer heavy flavors, come onto the bukkake.

Tempura must be the only thing that has the ability to get hard when it gets old. The tempura, though tasty, was disappointing because they were left on the shelf for too long, had gone cold, lost their crisp and became hard. TIP: Take the tempura deepest in because the chefs push the old ones to the front. The vegetable-based tempura are only at $1. Prawn tempura is most expensive at $2.50 each, Chikuwa tempura (fishcake) at $1.50 and karaage (fried chicken) at $2.

For the tempura, we realized that there wasn’t tempura sauce and we observed the Japanese around us, inserting the tempura into the broth, softening it and gaining the flavors of the broth. So desu ka, that’s how you eat the tempura.

We took one of each type of 8 tempuras and had two bowls of udon with meat and paid only $32.60 for two. How VALUE-FOR-MONEY for such delicious, delicious food! This is one of our favorite eateries this year; it’s easy, fuss-free, delicious, cheap and you don’t have to fly to Japan to get quality udon. We are now udon-converts. Sorry, ramen. Udon is the new ramen.

Oh, one last thing, no GST, no service charge, so you have to clear your table and return your tray at the collection point when you finish your food. Be considerate, ya? If you don’t return, they may hire someone to clear the trays and then charge service charge. Why do most customers have to suffer just because of some inconsiderate, lazy customers who refuse to return the trays?

Tamoya Udon Singapore

177 River Valley Road
#01-32 Liang Court
Singapore 179030
T: 6337 0301
facebook

11am-9.30pm

Rating: 3.884/5 stars

Written by A. Nathanael Ho.