A note on the words: udon are thick wheat noodles. Zaru means served cold with a dipping broth, tsukemen the same idea with the broth hot, and mizore (“sleet”) means eaten with grated daikon radish.
Yamamoto Menzou on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hangover Meshi here. I had heard there was an udon shop in Kyoto popular enough to make the Hyakumeiten list — Yamamoto Menzou, an extraordinary udon shop pulling a 3.9. Apparently you cannot get in at all without booking, but I heard that from noon three days ahead you can book the slots outside the morning and early-afternoon peaks. So I rang at noon, three days ahead. The line would not connect at all, but miraculously it went through and I got a booking. Lucky.
The slot was 10:00, right after opening. Not lunch, then — but udon for breakfast is a fine thing once in a while.
Honestly, the line really would not connect, so it must be enormously popular.
Yamamoto Menzou menu
Menu
Limited. Cold udon eaten with grated daikon.
Hot udon.
Cold noodles with a dipping broth.
Large pieces of burdock tempura, with a curry-flavoured spice on the side.
* As of my visit in June 2024. Please check current prices at the shop.
Booking is by phone from noon three days ahead, and only the slots outside the morning and early-afternoon peaks can be taken.
The above is as of my visit in June 2024. The booking system has changed since, so please note. As of August 2026 it works as follows.
- Off-peak slots(09:45–10:45 and 14:00–16:30; until 17:00 at weekends and on public holidays) …midnight three days ahead, from which bookings open.Online booking through TableCheck is also available
- The lunchtime peak（11:00〜13:45）……is taken by phone from 09:00 on the day, all at once
The phone is as hard to get through on as ever, so if you want to be certain, the off-peak slots bookable online are the ones to go for. Please check the latest on the official site or TableCheck.
There is hot udon and cold udon, and reading around beforehand, a lot of people said the strength of the chew here is what makes it — so I thought the cold would show that better and was planning on one of the zaru dishes. But when I got to the shop there was a limited-run mizore udon with grated daikon. That looked very good, so I chose the chicken tender tempura and grated daikon zaru udon.
First, a beer, even though it is morning. Even though it is morning.
When I ordered the beer they brought out a small snack with it. Very kind of them.
Wait, this is 450 yen? Big chunks of burdock tempura, one after another.
There is a little curry-flavoured spice on the side. First, straight, fresh from the fryer.
Hot. Very good.
It is scalding because it has just been fried, but it is very good. Floury inside, with a powerful burdock aroma. This is delicious. It was good with the spice too, but it needs nothing at all.
Here it comes. Looks excellent. The udon is arranged neatly, and it seems you cut it yourself.
It is true that each strand is long. Though honestly I did not much struggle without cutting it.
One mouthful of the noodles and I understood why this place is popular.
Serious backbone, and a good clean finish going down. And the udon itself tastes good — faintly salty and delicious with nothing on it at all.
Well. This is a problem. It is delicious.
The chicken tempura comes in this quantity too. Honestly it is quite a lot of food.
Crisp outside, juicy and soft within. This is very good as well. Good with the udon, good on its own. That it does not even need the broth is remarkable.
And of course it is also good to pour the broth over this generous pile of grated daikon and eat the udon as mizore. Cold udon and the clean taste of grated daikon are a perfect match. I knew that already.
And this is the tsukemen.
This looks good too.
A dessert at the end, and I was very happy.
So: a very good udon shop, and it is easy to see why it is popular. The owner even asked how the food was, which made it a comfortable place to be, and getting udon this good on top of that is about as much as one could want. Lunchtime is presumably very busy and bookings hard to get, so I would recommend trying three days ahead for a slot outside the peak. I would very much like to come back next time I am in Kyoto.
Yamamoto Menzou (udon / Higashiyama Station, Keage Station, Sanjo-Keihan Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.9
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
