A contemporary Japanese counter restaurant visits our beloved Santa Anita Mall in Arcadia, CA. At Tsurumaru Udon Honpo, you can observe Japanese chefs prepare handmade Udon noodles into delicious bowls of soup. It is the typical food court joint style opened in the corner of the mall in front of Nordstrom. You go up to the counter, order, get a number and seat yourself. There are still items on their menu that’s destined to come soon, but the ones that are out already are pretty good!
Today, my mommy and I tried two Udon noodle soups:
spicy niku udon. This was a very creamy udon noodle soup. The broth is thick and creamy with a strong spicy kimchi flavor. Yes, this is spicy! There is beef brisket and kimchi in this dish. This is essentially the Korean style udon noodle soup.
oden udon. Who likes fish? But without the smell? Or doesn’t want to eat meat today? This is essentially a vegetarian dish because everything in here is not meat. They’re all fish cakes! In a variety of shapes, sizes and styles. The seaweed was surprisingly very saltily flavorful to say the least. Can you imagine how I liked the rest? I LOVED it! It was so simple yet so good! But I also like fish cakes.. 🙂 the broth was perfectly salted and seasoned. The fish cakes were yummy to eat. The udon noodles are chewy, but not too soft. I would definitely come back for this udon especially!!
And on a side note, they do serve some very simple Japanese curry rice dishes here so if you’re ever craving Japanese curry and don’t want to waste ridiculous bucks on the overpriced entrees at Curry House, get your butt here instead! 😀
