Original Homemade Japanese Udon at Manmaru Restaurant Mid Valley By Best Restaurant To Eat.

What is a good UDON? How do you know whether the UDON is freshly made? With all this question in mind, we venture into Manmaru Japanese Udon Restaurant located at S-045A, Second Floor, Mid Valley City Megamall, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The entrance was brightly lit with Japanese lanterns.

The concept is simple. It is a Japanese Fast Food Udon Restaurant much like in Japan. You decide the type of noodles (10 types) and choose your add on tempura (ranging from shrimp tempura to mix vegetables tempura or side dishes and move to pay at the payment station followed by cutleries and tempura sauce. This self service concept is similar in Japan but in Japan there are no sitting space, you virtually slurp your Udon standing.

So, what makes a good Udon? The ingredient to make the Udon is very important, secondly timing is everything. According to Richard, the manager, brief us that Udon, once cooked have to be consume within 15 minutes, after which it loses the firm bouncy texture.

At Manmaru, this becomes a very critical stage as it takes another 10 minutes just to cook the Udon. So, in order not to have too much slack time, it is very critical to ensure that there are Udon ready to serve but still able to maintain the texture. At Manmaru, if they are not able to serve and consume by the customers within the 15 minutes, the cooked Udon will be disposed off. Kind of waste but this is how Udon are to be served for the freshest and the best of quality when eaten.

There are 2 main types of Udon i.e. Cold and Hot, depending on your preference, probably depends on the time you eat it. On a hot day, you might want to take the Cold Udon, while on a cool night you might want to slurp up a hot Udon.

 For the night, we started off with the Kimchi Udon follow by Curry Udon, Kamaage Udon, Niku Udon, Bukake Udon, Kake Udon, Kamo Seiro Udon, Ume Udon, Zaru Udon and Cream Corn Udon. All in all, we had the privileged to try all 10 of it.

My personal favourite are Niku Udon, I love the beef slice and the springy Udon and it complimented well with the broth. One thing about Beef Slice, you have to consume it quickly as the beef slice will be a little overcook if not eaten quickly.

 

My next favourite is the Cream Corn Udon, a cream based which looks quite similar to carbonara sauce, but here the cream is of a light cream which is very nice. This dish is a very simple looking and delicious Udon.

For Tempura, we were served the Enoki Tempura (golden needle mushroom), Ebi Tempura (Prawn), Yasai Kakiage Tempura (Crispy Mix Vegetable), White Fish Tempura, Kabocha tempura (Pumpkin), Satsuma-Imo Tempura (Sweet Potato), Renkon Tempura (Lotus Root), Nasu Tempura (Brinjal) and Green Pepper Tempura.

My personal favourite was the Enoki and Yasai Kakiage, as it was not too oily and as usual, you have to consume it as quickly as possible failing which it tends to loose it crispiness and become soggy.

And for the Karaage, they have the Ika Karaage (Squid) and Tori Karaage (Chicken). I personally find the Karaage to be a little too salty, but if you are eating with plain Udon, I suppose should be able to neutralized the saltiness.

Finally, is the side order dish of the Hanjuku Tamago (Soft boiled eggs marinated with soya sauce). This side order to me is a comfort food as I love to eat stewed eggs of all types, but personally, it lacks the kick compared to the Taiwanese version that I had previously.

The parting experience from this Udon expedition, the keyword is FAST, i.e. is you really have to eat fast to enjoy a real Udon meal in Manmaru. No time for chit chat during meal.