UDON-YA SAN@ Pandan Indah Cheras – Quality and Affordable UDON Review

There are not many specialized UDON restaurant in Malaysia, the one that are around are mostly quite pricey for a bowl of it due to the expensive and quality of ingredients used especially in the making of the UDON and the KAKE soup based. Best Restaurant To Eat was invited to review UDON-YA SAN Restaurant located at 65, Jalan Pandan Indah 4/6a Pandan Indah, Cheras Kuala Lumpur.

UDON-YA SAN@ Pandan Indah Cheras opened recently in August 2014 and has a very minimalist Japanese setting. It exudes a simple family dining environment.

All the UDON at UDON-YA SAN are hand made daily by the chef – so you get the assurance of the freshest UDON possible.

The recipes used to prepare the UDON and all its broth have time tested and gone thru the mill for more than 20 years. The chef is very particular on the use of good quality key ingredients and condiments that are used to prepare and serve to its’ customers.

We started with the TSUKIMI UDON SOUP. To taste whether an UDON restaurant passes the most fundamental test in the preparation of UDON, is to really taste its KAKE broth. This UDON is using the KAKE soup base with added TENKATSU, TSUKIMI and a warm (half boiled) eggs with runny egg yolk.

The KAKE broth was very flavourful and at RM7.00, it is a steal.

MENTAIKO UDON –The MENTAIKO (cod fish roe) aroma pulled our noses down towards the bowl. Bowing our heads willingly, the UDON was chewy with a slight bounce.

With each mouthful of this UDON, which were coated with a generous portion of the super tasty and bouncy premium MENTAIKO was a delight to be eaten.

TSUKIMI UDON DRY is also called the Moon Viewing UDON  – there is no soup added into this UDON - Mix the semi cooked eggs and viola you get a strong egg flavoured UDON.

This is a dry version in which you can slurp your way into the delicious goodness of the UDON with the fragrant flavours of the TSUKIMI and topped with the white and yolk of the semi cooked egg, it makes the UDON silky smooth with an added crunch from the TENKATSU.

CARBONARA UDON – is a specially concocted gravy of Ooey-Gooey carbonara based infused with Fresh Cream, topped with succulent chunks of pancetta cured pork belly pieces, is enough to make you salivate.

Each pieces of the cured pork belly has a unique salty taste.

SALAD UDON – Cold Udon, Refreshing taste, this UDON is very popular in Japan. The strong texture of the UDON, have a distinct chewiness. It blended well with the sesame enhanced gravy and the freshly cut strip of salad green gives you a more balanced meal for those who are a little health conscious or want to be vegan for the day.

CURRY UDON – it have a distinct Japanese curry taste and flavour, although pale in comparison to a local Malaysian curry noodles. The curry is cooked using carrot and onion as its' base. The spiciness level is low, so anyone with a low tolerance of spicy level will find this curry to be acceptable.

KAKIAGE – mixed vegetable strip tempura. This is a nice starter that goes well with the KAKE based UDON. As when you dip it into the broth, you will find the KAKE soup infused into the tempura giving you a crunch of KAKE coated flavour.

ASSORTED VEGETABLE TEMPURA – The batter used to coat this vegetable tempura is not that thick, which we preferred. The assorted vegetable used was the ladies finger, brinjal, long beans and lotus roots. Comes with a ginger based tempura dipping.

The TONKATSU uses a special imported Japanese breadcrumb PANKO (fresh bread crumb type) and was lightly coated to the pork with a delicate texture. It has a special thin crispy tasty layer that was a delight to bite in. The accompany dipping was a mustard based sauce which have a smoky BBQ flavour.

CHICKEN KATSU – this KATSU uses dry bread crumb as compared to the TONKATSU. The difference is in the taste and the different texture of the fried chicken.

The chicken was fried to a deep golden brown and has a thicker and fluffy crusty feel.

CHICKEN KARAAGE – the Japanese Fried Chicken. Fried to perfection, not too dry ... smell good, taste good with the in-house marinated flavouring. The deeply flavoured skin crackle and crunch with the slightest touch of your teeth, and the meat is still moist, tender, and flavourful.

AJITAMA – served with a drop of special fragrant oil and top with a sprinkle of fresh spring onion leaves, it was sprung with a little creativeness to these authentic side dishes. As the size of the eggs was a little smaller, we were told that these were the free-range chicken eggs which explains the deep orange colour of the yolk.

SESAME SAUCE SALAD taste wise is quite similar to the coleslaw but this is infused with a strong sesame taste mayonnaise.

For drinks, UDON-YA SAN@ Pandan Indah Cheras, serves a few special in-house concocted drinks which are the Lemon Grass with Lemon, Cucumber with Lime, and Passion Fruit with Lime.

Overall, UDON-YA SAN@ Pandan Indah Cheras which emphasise on serving good quality UDON at a reasonably price will make UDON lovers or someone who loves to try out UDON, the opportunity to try it out.