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| - Came here this past Sunday with my husband and Andrew C. We would've went earlier but worked all week so Sunday was my only day off. We all got invited to their Pre-Opening event, which means they were generous enough to gift us with a meal. We have been waiting for Sanuki to open ever since August and boy has it been a long wait. We booked our reservation for 1200PM - 100PM.
We got there a little bit after 1200PM and there was a line out the door. According to the associate, it was going to be a half an hour wait, which we already anticipated. One of our friends was there earlier for his 1100AM reservation and he said the kitchen was backed up. The kitchen couldn't keep up with the volume but that's also to be expected. They are in their pre-opening so they're all trying to get the hang of working in an extremely busy establishment.
I love the layout of the restaurant. It reminds me of the udon places that I've visited in Japan and Hawaii. It's slightly different than your usual American restaurant. It runs on a cafeteria system. You grab a tray, tell them what kind of udon you want, they give that to you, then you move along to the area where all the tempura is at. You get to put whatever you want on your plate and in the end, you get rung up based on what you have on your tray. So it isn't table service so please don't complain that you had to stand and get your own food.
As an invited guest, we were allowed one udon, one mini rice, and two tempura items. With the Yelp check in offer, we also got a free drink. Unfortunately, because we came at the later end of their pre-opening, we missed some opportunities. One of our yelp friends got to order whatever he wanted when he went on their first pre-opening date. But that is fine. I'm not a huge eater -- one bowl is enough. It just sucks when things are not consistent through the same event.
We probably chose the wrong date to go regardless because they did not have the clam udon that day, which was my first choice. Not only that but by the time we were able to order, they had ran out of egg. The eggs they used are imported from Japan so they are much cleaner and safer to eat when the yolk is raw. It's understandable that they ran out but laaaaaaame, my second choice was now out the door. I ended up going with the kitsune udon, which is sweet deep fried tofu with udon. For my mini bowl, I went with the miso garlic pork belly. As for my tempura choices, I went with the sweet potato and shrimp tempura. I also grabbed a mentai (spicy cod roe) onigiri.
For their drinks, they have a drink station, which is pretty awesome. You get to choose between their signature lemonade, ice teas, or create your own drink in their coke machine. I ended choosing their lemonade and I'm glad I did. Their lemonade was not super diabetic sweet. It was light and a little tangy. I definitely recommend getting that.
Their udon is okay -- it was a little more overcooked than I would've liked. I prefer a firmer texture to my udon and it is quite disappointing that Sanuki did not reach that level of firmness. Perhaps it was too busy and it messed up their mojo but one of my friends that went on Saturday said he had the same issue with the firmness. Also, their soup base was luke warm by the time I actually ate it. I don't know if their broth just isn't hot enough or they just took way too long with my order. I like my soup steaming, please.
I also got to try my friend's mentai cream udon. It was fantastic. You can tell that they use super fresh ingredients because it's not fishy at all. I've had the mentai udon at Monzo and it wasn't as good and I've had a mentai cream spaghetti at another place but it was fishy. Good job, Sanuki. Let's hope you keep that freshness level up.
The tempura is decent as well. I just wished they had yam tempura or maybe an egg tempura. But who knows, maybe they had it and ran out. They do not refill the onigiris if they run out because they don't want to waste anything by over-making. They also like to keep things really fresh. As for the pork belly bowl -- I really wished that they cut the pork belly into pieces instead of giving me strips. I was only so-so on it. I did not even finish this but it's partially because I was too full.
Their prices are fantastic. Out of all the udon establishments that we have in Vegas, Sanuki is probably the cheapest. Plus during their pre-opening event, you get 30% off everything!
Overall, I would definitely be back. But if they can stop overcooking their udon and give me steaming/piping hot broth then they'd be perfect (almost) all around.
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