A note on the words: Sanuki udon is the thick, chewy wheat noodle specialty of Kagawa Prefecture, celebrated for its smooth glide and resilient texture. Niku udon is udon in hot broth topped with tender slices of simmered meat, while tendon is crisp tempura laid over steamed rice with a sweet soy-based sauce. In this article, a generous bowl of hot niku udon is paired with a mini tendon of shrimp and maitake mushroom, enlivened halfway through with chili oil (rayu).
Nihonbashi Sanuki Udon Hoshino Akasaka itsuki doori ten on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. Hearing that a new udon shop was opening in Akasaka — or rather, when I walked past the shop around 8:30 in the morning two days before opening day, a staff member handed me a flyer, ha. I imagine they were handing them out to match the morning commute, but thank you for your hard work so early in the morning. The location is on Hitotsugi-dori, next to the shop serving hoto (the flat wheat noodles of Yamanashi), and taking over the spot where Akasaka-tei, a place championing Shizuoka, used to be before closing down.
It seems to be a branch of a Sanuki udon (the thick chewy udon of Kagawa) shop in Nihonbashi. Looking forward to it!
Kake udon — 540 yen
Niku udon — 780 yen
Kamatama udon — 720 yen
Kijoyu udon — 540 yen
There are plenty of items marked “coming soon” too! I would have loved to try the beef curry udon, ha.
Well, since this was my first time, I went with orthodox, hot niku udon (udon topped with thin slices of simmered meat)!
Oh, looking at the back, they have combination sets! I picked the tendon set.
In front of each seat, instructions on how to eat the niku udon were written out, ha.
They advise eating it as-is first, then switching up the flavor with table rayu (chili oil). I see.
The niku udon arrives! Packed with meat. Or rather, isn’t the bowl overflowing with noodles?!
Even without ordering a large portion, getting this much is welcome, ha, but a bit of a surprise. Feeling a little apprehensive that the tendon might have been overkill, I took a sip of the broth. Yes, delicious. Not overly salty, a refined, clear dashi broth whose aroma wafts cleanly up through the nose. The udon doesn’t feel like it’s chasing aggressive extra chewiness, but rather offers a moderate, very pleasant texture. The meat, while sliced thin, has plenty of flavor and is delicious. After eating through a good portion, I added the rayu, and it tightened up the flavor briskly and tasted great. It’s quite spicy rayu, so mind the amount, ha.
The mini tendon, ha. This too is surprisingly substantial! Having a proper shrimp in a mini tendon is impressive.
Making its presence known to the left of the shrimp tempura is a maitake mushroom — a chunky, hefty piece of maitake. It’s hard to eat as-is, so I set the tempura on top of the niku udon and worked through it bit by bit. Yes, for an accompanying set tendon, it’s very well put together and tasty.
Well, in any case, the amount of udon is massive! By the time I finished, my stomach was completely stuffed! Still, being able to eat your fill for this price when you’re hungry is wonderful. Coming from a Nihonbashi udon shop, I had imagined a somewhat daintier portion, so be mindful of the quantity, ha. I wonder if the person behind me who ordered large managed to finish it all, ha.
Nihonbashi Sanuki Udon Hoshino Akasaka itsuki doori ten (Udon (Wheat noodles) / Akasaka-mitsuke Station, Akasaka Station, Nagatacho Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.2
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
