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| - I was so excited when Manpuku opened up in Village of the Grange in my neighborhood. It's a nicely decorated place - clean and spacious, and the menu is CHEAP. For $4, I can get a steaming bowl of udon noodle soup. For $2 more, I could pick 2 things from the following options: salad, miso soup, takosen (which is Takoyaki sandwiched between 2 shrimp rice crackers), and chips. I always pick either salad or soup, and the takosen. I am addicted to the takosen! There's something perfect about the combination of a hot octopus ball and crispy light shrimp crackers. So much so that I had takoyaki at another restaurant, but when I realized they didn't have shrimp crackers, I bagged it to go and bought shrimp crackers from manpuku just to eat with them. And they were infinitely improved. :)
I went again recently and found that they have added to their menu where you can substitute the udon noodle with another noodle that is supposedly 0 calories. Not sure how that is possible, but it definitely made me feel better about straying off my grapefruit diet. The noodle is white and chewy, and actually quite tasty. My friend I was dining with said they offer that in Japan too (she used to travel there a lot on business), so it's still authentic japanese food.
So I left there having only spent $8 on a bowl of low calorie noodles ($4 + $2 noodle substitution), salad, and takosen ($2 combo option).
Another note - the takosen does take 20 minutes from the time you order, but I don't mind since I just start eating everything else and it comes well before you are done your meal, and I know it's fresh!
Manpuku is definitely a staple for japanese udon noodles that's light on your wallet. The curry is pretty good too.
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