Marugame Monzo - Los Angeles, CA

I wanted to go to little Tokyo for lunch, co-worker wanted noodles, what a good timing!?  After we arrived the area, we saw ramen shops and noticed this one udon place. Well why not, udon we went.

Since we got there right before 12, there was no wait at all and we got our seats right away. When we walked in, we were greeted by a guy behind the glasses making udon noodles and it was quite a show. I guess all the noodles were hand made on site to ensure the freshness of their udon. If you are able to find seats in front of the glasses, do it so you can witness the magic.

We got regular udon with fried tofu and buttery udon with squid covered in cod roes. We also got a side of soft boiled egg and kakiage which was a deep fried ball of shreeded carrots, onions and seafood. The udon texture was great and broth was tasty. It was a shame there wasn't enough broth for the buttery squid because it was very thick, tasty, and made me crave for more.

Kakiage was delicious and fried just right. I would suggest to get it at any given visit. The soft boiled egg however was a waste. Bland and tasteless even though it was made perfect. Do not get that.

On my previous visit, I have also tried the sea urchin udon and believe it was an over hyped item. It was expensive, the uni portion was small, and the udon tasted water down with no trace of sea urchin flavor. Not worth of the ordering in my opinion.

Overall thought, if you love udon, you should go to this place for sure. If you don't know what udon is or having neutral thought about udon, try this place and you might be a udon fan after.