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| - This place is friggin fantastic.
I need to address something quite shocking. I personally hate udon noodles. Whenever I go to any Japanese restaurant, it's EXTREMELY rare that I'll end up getting udon. If I'm in the mood of Japanese noodles, I normally default to either soba or ramen noodles and go to their respective specialty stores. Udon noodles for me have been too thick, too hard and the texture has never been my favourite. Most of the Japanese places that I've been, never been hand-made, primarily store bought and I just never fully enjoy them.
Up....until now.
My lil niece suggested this places and was constantly talking about "dessert noodles" (Udon Kinako) and I was eager to try them (since udon noodles I've had have always been entree like) - I'll discuss more about the dessert noodles down below.
So I ordered "L4" which is a set course that contains Curry Udon with Beef, which comes along an appetizer of sashimi, grilled fish (I forgot what fish it was) and tempura shrimp/vegetables. All these set meals (there are 5 of them) are priced at $25 which is a tad expensive for udon but honestly it's definitely worth it.
As for the tempura, I can't review the shrimp one because my niece and nephew ate them all but judging their faces I can only imagine that they were fried to perfection. The vegetables were really good, put two of my favourite veggies (Yam and Zucchini).
The grilled fish (sadly I don't know what it was), was a fatty kind of fish with a thousand island-ish dressing. Add on the lemon and you have the acid from the lemon cutting through the fattiness of the fish and the sweetness of dressing. It's a myriad of different flavour notes that makes the fish really sing.
And finally the sashimi...SO good. High quality fish and tempered at the right temperature. I'm seeing some reviews stating that the sashimi isn't so great and honestly I'm baffled by it. The salmon sashimi was a perfect cut, and with that perfect melt in your mouth buttery texture (literally disintegrates in your mom upon eating it). The other slices, I forget their names (one's translucent and the other one is an opaque white) were equally delicious. And yes...nothing frozen in the middle...
Finally the udon. Like I said I had the curry udon and this place has truly made me a convert of udon. Because it's in a bowl of hot curry (was on more of the spicy side), the noodles were soft but had the absolute perfect bite I could ever expect on ANY noodle. Dressed with the curry and the dish as a whole was so good. My family ordered the other set meals (my mom got the shrimp one and the broth is cold but it's so pure and clean). My mom's dish (L5) is perhaps the quintessential perfect summer dish to have. If I ever do come back, I'm having that or what my brother ordered which was L3 (pork broth....and udon).
The dining area is small and there's two servers but the service to me, was excellent. Even though they did miss out on an order of california roll, they quickly apologized, told the sushi chef to make it right away. Also gave my niece an opportunity to watch the sushi chef make the california roll. ;) So all is forgiven. ^_^
But aside from that, they were so courteous, pleasant to talk to and you can tell that they oversee the restaurant very well, poured water regularly and just were very attentive.
The ONLY thing that deters me from giving a 5 stars rating is unfortunately the dessert noodles. While I did enjoy the flavour, I think there were a couple of blunders that made this dessert just ok. So the dessert noodles (Udon Kinako - maple syrup dressed noodles with strawberries and green tea and red bean icecream), my family got two large orders to share upon and presentation wise it's decent. However some of the issues I had with the dessert were primarily the noodles, they were more on the harder side and almost revisit the reason why I don't like udon in the 1st place. Also as much as I love the ice cream, I wish they were a bit more frozen so that they could hold their shape longer...I felt like no more than a few minutes the dessert was on the table the ice cream melted immediately and turned into a pool. The ice cream (green tea and red bean) was delicious though, and I normally don't fancy green tea ice cream, but this was very good and not overpowered with cream.
Having said all that, I'm definitely coming back for another round, and try out another dessert, the other desserts do look amazing.
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