The Japanese udon chain Marugame Udon, known as Marugame Seimen, in Japan, is a behemoth of a restaurant chain. It has over 1,000 branches, with more than 750 in Japan and others spread over (deep breath) Singapore, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Australia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Russia, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, and Thailand. That’s a lot of restaurants.
And in the apocryphal Japanese style these restaurants are built around a corporate culture and reverence for the offerings that is universal and to the uninitiated can seem a bit cultish. So are they any good?
In a word, yes. With an obvious qualification that this is not the high-end Japanese cuisine that many of us are used to, and it is important not to judge it against that. But when judged at its price point, which is essentially fast food pricing, I can very easily see why these places are so popular.
For example, take the tempura. These are not the small, utterly delicate pieces that I would want from a Mayfair sushi joint, but that sort of place is not going to charge, for example, only £1 for a chicken gyoza or £2.45 for tempura prawn. These are extraordinary prices for tempura that are generous in size and when fresh very tasty and filling. Then there is the omusabi – for £3.25 you can get a pork omusabi (which is a Japanese rice ball with a spicy miso pork filling wrapped in nori seaweed). What’s not to like about that?
Similarly the famous noodles, and their rice dish alternatives. The creamy vegan udon is simplicity itself, but very moreish, clean and healthy and from £6.45 for a small bowl. There is a populist greatest noodle hits on offer, from a BK noodle dish with some great piquant dashi sauce to the ever-present chicken katsu noodles and a stonking pork tonkotsu. There are also a good selection of curries, which are in fairness a little on the fruity rather than spicy side of things, but that is often true of Asian curries.
Now to be clear, not only are these places not comparable with high-end Japanese restaurants, they would not really stand in comparison with Bone Daddies or any of the other deeply wonderful noodle specialists you can find in Soho and elsewhere. But that’s not the point. The point is for McDonald’s money, or not a lot more, people can eat approachable, tasty, clean, health(ier) food served quickly in nice, friendly restaurants with a much cooler vibe than any mass market burger joint. The Japanese, you know, they usually are on to something!
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