Marugame Monzo

Place has good ambience, much like how you would find a Japanese restaurant. They make the Udon in house and you can watch the person make it right on the dining floor as you eat. I got the Beef Udon which was good, but the fish/sardine base soup was a little overpowering for me. Once the Beef flavor seeps into the soup, the fish taste became more bearable. The Seaweed Udon has a milder taste on its soup, so I will probably get that one next time. The takoyaki was on point! I will definitely get it again. As for the deep fried chicken skins, it was a little too salty for my taste. Went great with the Beef Udon, though. It cut out a lot of the fish taste. Great experience overall, the service was great and the server was really helpful. Would come back again.

Marugame or marukame is apparently a location in Japan that is known for good udon and now every good udon place slaps it on their restaurant name. Location - It's in the Chinatown plaza. It's on the side with all the restaurants. Don't go around in a circle like me. There was no problem parking and no line at 1:30pm. Value - The pricing was surprisingly good. Every hyped restaurant in the bay area where I come from have jacked up prices. We are talking $6-12 udon depending on which one you choose. Food - I really loved the Negitoro Wrap appetizer! That's what makes me interested in coming back to try others. I was confused when it arrived first but once you build and insert it, it makes sense. Fresh and crisp. Yes, the udon was chewier than most restaurants that use the prepackaged noodles, but don't expect too much. Service - This was VERY GOOD! The waitress was very friendly and the workers all said thank you when I left.

Just an FYI... This is located in the same shopping center as Pho Kim Long... My Google maps took me to the back side... Drive past pho Kim long towards valley view and you'll see it to your right. :) I stopped by lunch and when I came in at 11:40am... The place was shockingly empty but I was greeted right away and sat right away as well. Ambiance was kind of cool as this is another hand pulled Noodle (udon is specialized here) place that has the chef pulling noodles to order. So it's a great place to watch the chefs at work since the kitchen is an open area. The set up was very clean and very well organized. The colors were a little on the dark side but I felt like everything worked very well together to make it an inviting place. 5/5 Service was ok... It wasn't bad but it wasn't amazing either. They gave us the menu and gave us a few minutes to look through the menu but it would've been better if we had gotten an explanation of the menu. It was not a large menu but it was a little confusing. I ended up getting the lunch special combo. It was basically a $3 upgrade to your udon order. With that extra $3 you got a mini rice bowl. It looked like a good deal so I got it. And it was. I'm not sure how large the regular portion is but this was $2-$3 cheaper by getting this deal. (3/5) The food on the other hand was yummy! I got the Mad Tiger Udon... It was served in a nice bowl and it was garnished with the most perfectly soft boiled egg. The soup for this was served in it's own little jug... Served very hot! Basically you pour the soup over and mix and enjoy!! :) The soup was hot enough to warm the entire dish EXCEPT the egg... Sadly it was perfectly soft boiled but when I broke into it and dipped it into the soup... It was cold. I left the rest of the egg sitting in the soup and by the time I finished the noodles, it had warmed through. So I would recommend saving the egg for last. The flavor was very good with bonito being the most dominant flavor with a decent kick. I love bonito so it was perfect for me. :) if you don't like bonito I don't recommend this for you. And if you do not handle spice well... This will be spicy for you but for me... It was very well balanced. (4.5/5) Beef slice mini bowl was a mountain of thinly sliced lightly seasoned beef that was melt in your mouth tender with just a hint of soy sitting on top​ of a bowl of rice. It was totally delicious. This is a dish that I will be craving. 5/5. It was seasoned just enough so that when you had that perfect bite with a little rice and a mountain of meat on your spoon... It was perfectly delicious! And by the time I left around 1pm... The place was packed!!! So my recommendation is come early to not have a wait! :)

Dined in around 8pm and there were only two other tables inside. Not sure if they get a busy crowd in here or not. Parking is a nightmare though, and ended up having to park in the plaza across the street. Tried out the takoyaki which comes out in a skillet, still sizzling. It was delicious, and is incredibly hot so give it time to cool down. The only downside of it coming out in a skillet was that it continues cooking and several of the pieces ending up getting charred on the side resting on the skillet. For udon, we tried the beef and the hot dragon udon. Both broths we're flavorful and the noodles were great. The hot dragon has a rolling heat, so very enjoyable in the beginning but continues to build up. If you sit at the counter you can get a view of them making the udon noodles.

I had the kitsune udon and it was just like what I've had in Japan. The noodles are made on-site and are the perfect texture. The service was also great!