Marukame Udon, Chatswood

Marukame Udon has been in Chatswood for a few months now. I was put off from coming for a while by the long queues and the self-serve system that places like Oiden have. It was thankfully half empty when I visited on a Friday evening, though when we finished eating, almost all seats had been filled.

I tend to prefer ramen to udon because of the egg noodles and richer, thicker soup. The tonkotsu udon I selected was thus a pleasant surprise. The toppings were those that you would expect to accompany ramen (such as bamboo and boiled egg), and the soup was a lovely pork-bone broth. As much as it would scandalise the udon-lovers, I was ecstatic to find that I was pretty much eating ramen with udon noodles :D

I hadn't realised there was a spicy version of the tonkotsu broth, which is why I'd purchased the spicy miso paste separately (and so I foot out an extra dollar). That paste is really really addicting. Ate it with the noodles, the sides, and later, dumped the rest in my soup. It gets pretty spicy, but it is soooo worth it.

One piece of a side costs $1 - 2 each, and I'd picked out a battered chicken drumstick, tempura prawn and a.. I forget what that little round disc is. The chicken was heavily coated in some sort of pasty, floury batter, but it was all quite sodden (probably left out too long) so I took off the batter and only ate the chicken. The tempura prawn was crunchy, though.

Tonkotsu Udon ($7.90)

Miso paste (~$2.00)