In a prefecture known as the udon (うどん) prefecture, Udon Baka-Ichidai still stands out amongst the rest. It commands snaking queues from even before it opens. The good thing is that udon is a fast, quick and easy meal, almost the Japanese equivalent of fast food, and even though the queue is long, it moves at a relatively fast and consistent pace.
There are typically two main decisions when it comes to ordering udon:
- Hot (温かい, atatakai) or Cold (冷たい, tsumetai)
- Kake (かけ) or Bukkake (ぶっかけ)
Generally, we recommend people to get the tsumetai bukkake udons as the cold udons bring out the full chewiness of the noodles. The bukkake broths are also stronger tasting, leading to a more satisfying meal.
Unlike your usual sit-down restaurant, Udon Baka Ichidai is a self-service restaurant that moves down the counter as you order, sort of like at a Subway fast food restaurant.
The process goes as follows:
- You start off from the right side, picking up your tray
- Get a glass of water from the dispenser, and put it on your tray
- Then you’ll move leftwards to the ordering station. Make your order to the staff here.
- Then you move leftwards again, picking up a small plate for your tempura (天ぷら, Tenpura) sides.
- Use the tong at the side to pick up any tempura you like, and put it on your small plate.
- When you get to the end, you’ll make payment at the cashier. They’ll calculate the bill for your order and any sides, and pass you your order number.
- Then you take your tray and find an empty seat to wait.
- When your order is done, they will shout out your order number for pickup. You might want to search up the pronunciation for your order number so that you can watch out for it, otherwise if they staff is shouting for a number and no one is picking it up, you might want to bring your order no over for them to take a look.
- Then when you get your bowl, you can add negi (葱, Spring Onion) and tenkasu (天かす, Tempura bits) to your liking atop your bowl
- Bring your bowl back to your table and dig in
- When you’re done, make sure to bring your tray and all the utensils to the return point before you leave
- And, that’s it! It sounds like a lot of steps, but the whole process is pretty intuitive.
