The Most Creamy Udon
- Ryan
- Aug 17
- 3 min read
I often use Google Maps or Reddit to find new restaurants to try. I forget which one brought me to Udon Mugizo, an udon noodle shop San Francisco's Japantown, but I do remember I was curious about the creamy udon dish that kept popping up when people discussed it. It sounded like one of those unique, "must try" dishes, and so I did what must be done: went there and ate it, and even lived to tell you about it.
(Side note: While typing this, I misspelled "restaurant" a few times, and it got me thinking what an oddly spelled word it is. I thought, "It has to be French" — yep: "to restore or refresh". Today I learned!)
I went on a Sunday at noon, and was seated right away. The servers were quite attentive, giving me a full walkthrough of the menu since I said it was my first time at the restaraunt.
I started with edamame.
I don't think I've ever had edamame that wowed me. But, I do tend to order it at Japanese restaurants because it's a pleasant, sharable supporting act that's fun to go back to while working through more substantial dishes. This rendition performed its job admirably.
Edamame might also play a role beyond adding flavor, color, and texture: Perhaps it is an important psychological marker for my Western brain, whose formative years occurred without any Japanese food (including edamame). Edamame is a pure, unique flavor that says "Yes, body and mind, we are in fact really eating Japanese food now: Prepare yourself!" I just wish they stayed as warm throughout the meal as they were when first set down. But that is an issue with edamame anywhere, not just at Udon Mugizo.
Next up: tempura gyoza with spicy garlic and sesame oil sauce.
I've had steamed and pan-fried gyoza before, but I can't recall having tempura gyoza. These had a pork, green onion, and cabbage filling, and the crunch of the tempura crust was excellent. However, the overall flavor was uninspiring: I wanted more of everything — spicyness, garlic, sesame, and salt — from the condiments. If the condiments were powerful flavors, this could have been an outstanding dish.
I couldn't tell what the green wrapper around the filling was. Shiso leaf? It didn't have a strong taste, perhaps because the deep frying process destroyed something critical.
Onto the main attraction, the main dish, the reason I came here: mentai cream sauce udon. The udon had seasoned cod roe, parmesan cheese, green onion, kaiware sprouts (from daikon radish), tempura bits, and nori seaweed, all in a creamy (butter? heavy cream? both?) broth. I added an ajitama egg (soft boiled egg seasoned with soy sauce) — I can't resist those and I thought it would work well with the rest of the textures and flavors.
Wow! Amazing. I came here to try this dish, and it surpassed my expectations. It had a wonderfully rich mouthfeel. It was slightly — but distinctly — fishy from the cod roe and nori. The parmesan melted into the broth, which combined with the soft-boiled egg yolk and envoloped the chewy noodles in a luxurious coat.
The picture above is one of my favorite food pictures I've taken recently. I love how the light glistens off the udon noodles all across the picture, how the little pink fish eggs cling to the noodles, how the noodles weave their way amongst each other, how it reminds my senses exactly how rich the texture was.
The only downside of the dish: It was incredibly salty. Three hours and a few glasses of water later, I still had the lingering sensation of salt in my mouth. But like when I eat ramen, I expected that going into the meal, and dealing with the admittedly outrageous quantity of salt is worth it once in a while.
It's the type of dish that I always want one more taste of. I finished the last few bites feeling reassured by the knowledge that I'd be back.
With my outlook on the culinary world restored and refreshed (so yes, Udon Mugizo did live up to the etymology of "restaurant"), I exited the restaurant, already looking forward to the next visit.
Thanks for reading!
Wow that looks amazing Ryan.