Mikaku Udon Bar

We visited this spot for lunch. It was quiet when we arrived, but gradually filled up as the afternoon progressed. While most restaurants in the area open around 11:00 or 11:30 AM, this one doesn’t open until noon. The menu appears to be pared down compared to other locations. Notably absent were items like grilled butter squid, shimesaba, and assorted fried cheese. Food Impressions Buta Udon – The portion was disappointingly small. At $15.99, we expected more pork belly and a more generous serving of udon. The soy sauce base was unremarkable and lacked depth. Maze Udon – Visually appealing and definitely Instagram-worthy, but the serving size was tiny. We finished the noodles in just three/four bites. Priced at $16.99, it felt overpriced for what was offered. After finishing the udon, they brought out a bowl of rice for mixing with the remaining sauce—a nice touch, but it would’ve been helpful if this was mentioned on the menu or explained when we placed our order. Chicken Curry Udon – Arguably the best of the three dishes. The sauce was creamy, though it tasted more like cheese than curry. We couldn’t detect the signature Japanese curry flavor. The fried chicken portion was again minimal. This dish costs $17.99. Soft Tofu Salad – A letdown. Essentially just tofu, vegetables, lemon juice, and soy sauce. Despite some YouTubers calling it a “must-try,” we’d call it a “must-skip,” especially at $5.50 per plate. Atmosphere & Decor The space is quite small and becomes noisy when crowded. The decor is clean but feels generic, almost as if everything was sourced from Temu. Final Thoughts This is one of those places that gains traction through social media hype but ultimately falls short of expectations. While the presentation is nice, the portion sizes and flavor profiles don’t justify the price point.

Got there 15 minutes with my wife and two kids after they opened and got the last table. The place was rocking! Ordered the chicken curry, oden and tofu be udon and squid karage. Everything was really fresh and great. Chicken curry udon was so creamy it was like cheese whiz. Chicken was cooked crispy and tender. Udon was chewy and bouncy. The oden udon was clean and refreshing and the tofu veg udon has a miso based broth. The service here is outstanding. Without asking the waitress had two forks ready for my kids and when ordering the oden udon she warned us of the black pepper which we were able to ask for it to be put to the side. Really well run place. Clean and inviting and decorated nicely. Want to go back and try the seafood udon. It looked so good at the table next to us.

The store is small, tucked in the corner of the mall, not easy to find. The entrance is narrow and a little messy, but once you enter, the interior decoration is pleasant with nice music. We actually came a couple of times before, there was a long line, the waiting time was more than 20 mins. When we arrive at 6:00pm today on Saturday, it was almost full. We ordered Maze Udon, Buta Udon and Curry Udon, all very tasty with different flavors. The buta udon soup really yummy. The curry udon has the most value, as it has big volume. Maze udon is very similar to what we had in Tokyo. The price has not increased much in the past few years, so it is not that expensive now. The service is quick and straight forward. Will come back to try their other items.

The Udon soup was delicious with a little smoky flavor. Curry udon was very cheesy not particularly my favorite but my bf loved it. The oden udon was sold out, will come back to try it next time :)

The chicken curry udon was absolutely delicious, and the chicken karaage was excellent as well. The buta dish was also very enjoyable. The atmosphere was welcoming, and the service was outstanding. Definitely would come back!

TL; DR - Good flavour, poor portion. No extra noodle option, can't pack sauce separately from noodles for take-out. Not the best value. Had this restaurant marked on my map for a while now as there aren't many udon restaurants. Finally tried but got it to go. Ordered: Chicken Curry Udon. Veggie Udon and Spicy Creamy Seafood Udon. In terms of broth and sauce flavour for all three, they're actually tasty and worthy of another shot, but will try dining-in next time. My disappointment is in the micro portion of ingredients... It's like they cut half a tofu but paper thin to make it look like you have more... Same with the mushroom... And one premature baby bok choy. And just look at that micro chicken, which was dry and unsatisfying on its own. Again, probably the portion of one small thigh, but cut up ten times. That container isn't a regular size take-out one, it's the same as the diameter of the take-out bowl. Seafood udon actually had decent ingredients, few mussels and shrimps, though they should use larger ones. Bacon was.. maybe 1/4 of a strip? And it lacked flavour, wasn't crispy, didn't get incorporated into the sauce. Service wise, interesting choice to not have an option for ordering extra noodles... I was also afraid the noodles would be soggy by the time I got home, so I asked if the sauces could be packed separately. Wasn't allowed, but thankfully, the udon remained a nice chewy texture. Considering each udon is basically $20 (after tax), portions don't match price, but flavour does. Their site didn't mention about making the noodles in-house, so that's another strike against the premium pricing.

We were craving some good udon and Mikaku Udon Bar nailed it for us. The Chicken Curry Udon was good. The chicken was crispy and delicious. The curry was rich and flavourful. The udon was perfectly cooked and soaked up that delicious curry sauce. The Spicy Cream Udon was delicious. The cream sauce was rich, savoury and went well with the udon and seafood. The Chicken Karaage was good. The chicken was crispy on the outside and soft and tender on the inside. The small salad that came with the Chicken Karaage was good too. Overall, we enjoyed the udons and chicken karaage that we got as take out :)

Ordered the spicy creamy udon and the oden udon and both were delicious - Perfectly creamy with lots of seafood, and oden soup was perfect for the cold day.