Marukame Udon, Chatswood

The next big upcoming hub for Asian food is in the north, Chatswood is on the rise (quite literally) and with it comes a surge in Asian restaurants ranging from Chinese to Japanese. Marukame Udon is a small but very popular noodle bar is one of the cheap and efficient eateries that’s just perfect for a quick and filling meal.

The awesome dish featured above is the Ontama Bukkake Udon – a simple yet filling dish, one that makes me feel relatively healthy and is a classic. I particularly love this when it’s served cold with the half boiled egg mixed into the udon. The noodles served here are the proper flour noodles and not the cheap type you get from instant noodle packs which have a plastic-like texture.

During our travels to Japan we visited Sapporo up in the snow capped north of Japan. I will never forgot the amazing curry udon there which is one of the regions signature dishes, I find myself ordering this dish quite often in Sydney with hopes that I will discover one just as good as Sapporo. This was quite spicy and not quite the same but the heat is perfect for the very chilly days that Sydney has been experiencing. This dish is more flavoursome and has more meat (beef strips).

We didn’t go for any sides as we typically bloat ourselves with delicious bowls of noodles but the setup is similar to Menya Mappen in the CBD where you pick sides in a cafeteria style setup.

Our most recent visit was on a Saturday night and by 7pm the place had formed quite a queue that snaked out the door, one can easily have a great meal here for under ten dollars!