Sanuki Udon

So sad. They’re closed… but here is what I originally wrote when they first opened!
Good concept, not quite executed right, but it was almost there. Probably the rent killed the business. I sure hope someone can take the reigns and open another. That’s two attempts at opening and running an Udon restaurant /​diner that didn’t work out.
Here’s is my late late review below. Sigh. (thanks Jan for giving me the heads up.)
This review is long overdue. I had forgotten to write about it…
When we came it was new, just a few days old and they hadn’t gotten everything worked out yet. All the important details in food management, organization and being able to deal with the lineups and the rush had to be dealt with care and patience.
So as a result of that, I couldn’t really rate it properly. I did like the cafeteria style, the trays and order your soup and noodles then go down the line to get your toppings and pay.
I have an love affair with Udon. I had wanted to open an Udon restaurant over 30 years ago. I should have! So with hind sight being ²⁰⁄₂₀ We are blessed to at least have more variations upon the Udon theme now. Not as popular as Ramen these days, but I hope places like this will rejuvinate and invigorate what this soup has to offer.
Best of all the pallet is open for interpretation. Imagine this. Ramen was just a lowly bowl of noodles and soup with a soya sauce based broth and some dashi. Now there is Tonkotsu broth, chicken broth, black miso and more. Just imagine where Udon will be and this is the beginnings of great things to come.
I sure hope so. There are some great reviews here now that this place has had some seat time in the kitchen.
Good luck!
typos wrtitten free of charge due to fat fast fingers typing on an upside down keyboard.

My husband and I were really excited to try sanuki udon since we are both huge fans of japanese cuisine. It was way under our expectiations. We ordered rg kitsune and rg niku udon as well as deep fried kabocha, ebi and chikuwa. The broth was just salt water. It tastes like pure msg water. I think you can have better udon anywhere else. the noodles were chewy but it was also salty. we were so glad we didn’t order large bowls.

In the city of Vancouver, where else would we define our love for a restaurant based on its line ups?
Here’s my scoop:
The noodles are really great. I think they have really pinned down their cooking times as my noodles were really chewy and not at all over cooked or bloated. The broth was hot and flavourful, a great complement to the noodles. I had the regular PorKimchi, which was the perfect size for me, including 2 pieces of tempura and 1 niku beef onigiri.
The food is delicious here and I’ll definitely be back.

I love the place, it’s simple and no fancy extras. Order from the list of 6 – 8 udon menu and watch get prep in front of your eyes.
The food itself was flavourful but not too salty. The noodles were perfectly cooked and the broth was perfectly seasoned. I would come back to this place in a heartbeat.
However, I have it a four star due to price. I don’t think udon is worth 8 – 12 dollars in price. It’s pricey due to location in Vancouver. If you can afford it, get it.

First impressions. Totally reminded me of a much smaller restaurant version of Marukame Udon in Honolulu. And much in the same way, their food was also a lesser version of Marukame. Keeping in mind how much I love and adore Marukame, every other udon place just pales in comparison. But I’m not biased, not really.
The restaurant space was utilized well. There was an eating bar against the wall and seating for groups in the back. When you first walk into the restaurant, you order your noodles and get them, then walk to the center to get tempura/​rice balls/​drinks if you wish, before paying and getting your own utensils/​water. Cafeteria style, self serve-​ish.
I ordered the beef udon. Noodles were good — chewy (and I like my pasta al dente). Broth was quite salty and not hot (tempurature) enough for me. I got the zucchini and yam tempura — batter was not drenched in oil but there was no flavour. They have tempura sauce (also self serve) as well; however, I thought the broth was good enough to dip the tempura in.
Their service (the limited interaction we had, since it was cafeteria styled) was really good. They allowed us to make reservations. We went in at lunch, a group of 6; we had our table waiting us. We got greeted promptly at the door, at the tempura station, at the cash register, all by different servers.
The menu is limited, but that’s not a big deal since it’s an udon place (same with ramen places). You can mix and match tempura and rice balls, thus change up your meals. The only real downside of this restaurant is the price. $ 8 for a regular sized beef udon where I have to serve myself is a bit steep. I don’t think it’s much cheaper than a plain udon (no toppings). And I have to factor in getting tempura pieces because the beef topping wasn’t really proportional to if I had ordered a beef udon at another Japanese restaurant.
If I could, it would be 3.5 stars. But I chose 3 because of the price.

Before I walked into Sanuki Udon, I expected the restaurant was specialized in udon, so the udon must be good! However, I was extremely disappointed about their udon. I am not exaggerating here. It was the worst udon I had in my life. I agreed with the other Elites Jackie M. and Joseph H.
The udon that I could buy from the supermarkets out there was way better than the one I had at Sanuki. I could cook and made the udon better at home than the one Sanuki cooked for me.
I paid $ 7.95 for a large bowl of Kitsune Udon (tofu one). The texture of the udon was fragile and not chewy at all. The soup base was like salty chicken broth or MSG soup? There was only one slice of tofu. I would rather spend $ 7.95 to buy something else somewhere else that I was 100% sure I could eat better food than the udon from Sanuki.
There was not really any service there. I ordered the food at the counter. Someone in the kitchen put the udon in a bowl for me. I picked up at the end of the counter and paid as well.
Oh! I saw the restaurant got many onigiri, so I picked a salmon one that was wrapped with rice and seaweed. It was the WORST onigiri in my life!!! The salmon was not really salmon and I could barely eat the salmon in the rice. There was no flavour at all.
Overall, bad food and bad service with high price. I highly recommend that do not waste your money to eat udon here. If you are really craving for udon, please please please go somewhere else such as a Japanese restaurant or ramen place to eat it. So sorry to give such a bad comment about Sanuki Udon, but it is really not worth to spend the money here.

To keep it short, basically, don’t eat here. I saw the place being prepped for opening a few months ago, and I was quite excited. I love udon, and I cook it often at home. The Sanuki brand is quite famous for udon. I read the poor reviews, but couldn’t quite believe how udon could be messed up. I mean, I cook frozen udon all the time, and it’s a piece of cake to make it taste great with some soup base, an egg, and some other condiments. How could it fail in a restaurant?
Ah, the adjectives that came to me while I was eating this sorry excuse for udon. Brilliantly bad. It takes genius to take a basic udon recipe and make it this unappealing. I think even the staff know that it’s bad, but it seems like they have their hands tied in terms of suggestions to make it better.
The noodles break. Udon noodles ideally should be elastic, tender, and slightly chewy. They should slurp well. These noodles are overdone and they break while you’re lifting them up on chopsticks. Very bad sign. I’ve had better at airports.
The soup. sigh. The sign says that there is no MSG. If that’s true, then they somehow managed to create a soup that tastes just as if it was a pure MSG soup. No depth of flavor. Nothing interesting. I could take some japanese soup base with some dashi, konbu, and bonito flakes and make it taste better than this. Some soy and some miso. Sigh.
And then to top it off, when they say it is a tofu udon soup, there is precisely one slice of tofu in it. At $ 8.95, all I got was one slice of tofu. A couple blocks away at the half dozen ramen shops, I would get slices of chasu, some seaweed, bean sprouts, egg, etc. Here, there is just one slice of tofu. You’ve got to be kidding me. All the money must be going to the lease and the franchise fee in japanese yen.
Unfriggin’ believable. And then I got the little triangle seaweed rice ball just to see what it’s like. The rice was overcooked and had coagulated somewhat around the very thin spread of salmon inside. Something so basic as a rice ball could not be executed properly here. My girlfriend said that even her mom could cook something better, which is not a compliment. I get the feeling that this is the kind of food served at bad japanese fast food restaurants in Japan, because it’s not possible that all food at all restaurants in that glorious foodie country could be good.
We hope this place closes soon and is replaced by a better restaurant or maybe even a clothing store. Cuz at present, this is a waste of valuable retail space. Or maybe fire the manager and get some real processes in place for proper food. Double the prices if you have to, but make the food competitive with all the ramen shops down the road. At present, this quality of food is disrespectful to the dining community in Vancouver and a disgrace to the Sanuki brand name.

Hmmm. I didn’t want to rate this too low, but due to my experience I really have to.
I came during soft opening and it was the most horrific experience. First I got there 15 min after opening their opening time. They weren’t open yet. One of the workers came out and said to come back an hour later, and that they were very behind.
I didn’t want to go back, but I did anyway.
Finally, they opened, there were maybe 6 people ahead of me. The workers didn’t know what they were doing. I picked out my tempuras, and then ordered the curry udon. They said they would bring it to my seat.
I waited about 30 minutes, keeping an eye on the people in front of me. Finally when people after me started getting their food, I questioned the workers… Where is my food?
They said they would check on it… then finally 10 minutes later they said they ran out of Curry Udon because they burnt the pot. The worker made excuses that they had to explain to other people that they curry was burnt as well… but they failed to tell me, and the other 2 with me. Really poor communication. I would have been sitting there forever with no food if i didnt say something.
We ended up getting a plain niku udon instead, i dont remember if there was a price difference between curry or niku. We werent offered a refund. I’m not one to make a major fuss. 45 minutes plus later… i just wanted to eat and get out of there. At the end of the meal, I was able to finish my food. Thats the only reason why i gave them 2 stars instead of 1. Clean tasting broth. Decent Tempuras. Nothing too salty or oily. But it really should have been an in & out quick meal. Wasted way too much of my time.
They have alot of kinks to work out, but im not in a rush to come back here and give it another try.

This place was disappointing to say the least. I ordered the kitsune and added the complimentary tempura batter bits with green onion on top. Against my better judgement, I had a piece of potato tempura and prawn tempura with it.
The kitsune broth was beyond salty. It tasted like week old salt marinated crap. The noodles were OK (probably the only saving grace).
The tempura selection was beyond pathetic. Half the selection was empty, the ones that were there looked like they were sitting in its own grease for the past few days.
Prawn tempura was so small and soggy (sitting in its own grease?).
I would not recommend this place. You’re better off going to Aki and getting a bowl of nabeyaki there.

pretty authentic udon bar. good soup, fair udon and some of the tempura options are great. (* recommend the KAKIAGE — mixed vegetable) Don’t forget to load up your soup with the help-​yourself-​condiments like tempura bits and green onions. The Onigiris are, however, much below standards. room for improvements I guess. Eat up!
limited seating, expect long waits on a busy weekend.

I had the curry udon with beef and vegetables, 2 pieces of shrimp tempura. For the udon, I was expecting it to come in a curry based soupy broth, but it was really thick and not broth-​like at all. I also didn’t get any beef and had to bring it up to the workers. Most of the tempura baskets were empty so I picked 2 pieces of shrimp tempura to add to my udon. Nothing much to say except that it was soggy and mediocre.
I also shared a pork onigiri with my friend. It was underwhelming since it didn’t really have any pork filling at all.
Price = $ 13.00
I think the concept is great, but I probably won’t visit again.

Nosh and Nibble came here for an early dinner and I had a great taste of the following:
PorKimchi Udon (large: $ 8.95)
Curry Udon (large: $ 8.95)
Prawn Tempura ($ 1.50)
Kakiage (Mixed Vegetables) Tempura ($ 1.25)
Chikuwa (Fishcake) Tempura ($ 1)
Yam Tempura ($ 0.75)
Sweet Potato Tempura ($ 0.75)
Potato Tempura ($ 0.50)
Kabocha (Japanese Pumpkin) Tempura ($ 1)
Zucchini Tempura ($ 0.50)
Eggplant Tempura ($ 0.50)
Inarizushi ($ 1.25)
Spam Onigiri ($ 1.75)
The PorKimchi Udon (great compound word) was a mix of spicy pork with kimchi atop fresh Japanese style noodles. I thought the broth for this was great and the meat was pretty juicy. It was also quite spicy with some kimchi thrown in. Remember to add some green onions and tempura crumbs. Pro Tip: Order your noodles «al dente» or «Sanuki style» so that they come extra chewy. Maybe tourists come here and find the noodles too chewy, but I actually found them a bit soft but confirmed you can get the noodles the way the staff originally intended them to be. This was my favourite udon out of the two thanks to the broth.
The Curry Udon was a Japanese style curry with beef, mixed vegetables, and fresh noodles. If you’re looking for a fully-​stocked bowl, this is the one. There’s potato to help fill you up and the broth was a creamy soupy curry. Again, you can order the noodles to be chewier if you follow my recommendation. In general, both udon options I tried were very fulfilling and I could drink the whole broth (no MSG or preservatives!) if I wasn’t so full.
The self-​serve station is where you can customize your tray with choose-​your-​own tempura, inarizushi, and onigiri. My favourites were the chikuwa (chewy fishcake), kakiage (mixed vegetable/​potato), and the prawn (true classic).
The Inarizushi was a great add-​on. This was a sweet tofu shell filled with rice. Great surprise.
The Onigiri comes in a variety of flavours and is sort of like a seaweed rice sandwich. I chose spam because spam (prepared ham) was a thing in Hawaii and I wasn’t ready to let go. Call it clingy, but I could go for one of these onigiri just for a takeout snack if they’re always so fresh-​tasting. Watch out Konbiniya.

Udon doesn’t get better than this! Seriously, it’s time to ditch that frozen udon you been having most of your life… hhhaa Myself included. It’s really rare to find a cool, affordable and fresh udon bar like this on Robon Street of all places.
I had the Kimchi Pork Udon and it was delicious. The noodles were nice and soft/​chewy. Broth was good not overly salty and portion size for a small was fair. I did notice my broth was not super boiling hot like I had at another place so I asked a staff member why. She explained if the broth was super hot the noodles would continue cooking and that would alter the texture/​taste of the fresh noodles. Hey, you learn something everyday. Regardless, my noodles/​toppings were still yummy.
The friendly staff at Sanuki Udon were also nice enough to fry a small batch of kabocha squash tempura as it was all gone at the time. It tasted like butter in a good way; not greasy as one can sometimes expect. Try not to share with anyone as they will try to take your last piece! Both of these items cost about $ 11 with tax. Not bad for an afternoon snack.
This will be my new go to place if I am craving udon. Now, it they can just open another location closer to my house that would be ideal. :)

Place is clean, service is fast and the servers are nice. The food was good.
Maybe if they added other options for toppings than tempura it would be better.

Concept/​Menu system sounds exciting but definitely needs more work.
I ordered Kitsune Udon + Deep fried Chikuwa and Age dasi.
Noodle — Soft. Is this really freshly made?
Soup — Okay. No deep taste or anything but okay. At least it’s not salty.
Deep fried — well taste is good but…
Yes, overall needs more work. The concept sounds exciting though…

Ugh. It was disappointing to say the least.
What’s the biggest difference between frozen/​packaged udon to the ones at good sit-​in udon joints? the Noodles of course!
Good udon should be chewy (referred to as «Koshi» in Japanese — a term used to describe the chewiness of noodles) not flaky, not soft.
Well the noodles here seemed like it was overcooked — it didn’t have any «koshi» at all.
The second thing that was disappointing was that their self-​pick tempura baskets were 90% empty. They had 2 or 3 in every basket.
It’s like the feeling you get when you walk into a bakery or a store, and the displays/​shelves are empty and they only have 1 or 2 items displayed.
It get it — it totally makes sense from a business standpoint because if they don’t get enough customers the tempuras would sit there forever, and they’d end up throwing everything out.
But still, it’s not very eye pleasing.
On the plus side, the place was very clean and the staff was very friendly.
It wasn’t terribly bad per se, but I wouldn’t pay $ 10 for it.

I know that I can be a bit harsh when it comes to critiquing Japanese food because I always compare it to Japan. But that said, this place is sorely lacking.
I was pretty excited to learn that an udon shop was opening up with handmade udon. In Japan, fresh udon is such a treat.
However, I was really disappointed with everything here. I had to repeat my order a number of times to the lady who took it. The portions were really small. The broth was unbalanced and overly salty. The tempura bar (where you can add tempura battered toppings to your bowl of noodles) was so very sad. The vegetables had been sitting out on oily sheets for quite some time by the time I got there. I added some to my noodles anyway but wish I hadn’t.
My Japanese mother agrees.
All in all, I say, buy the frozen noodles a few doors down at the Japanese convenience store and make it yourself. Even if it’s not fresh and you make the sauce from concentrate (which they also sell), it’ll taste better and cost ¹⁄₅^th the price.

I am very excited to have a udon shop in downtown Vancouver.
Most of the Japanese restaurants here are ramen, sushi, or izakaya. Not much variety. ToT
So it is good to have another choice ^^
The price I would say is on the high side for the quality and portion, but oh well, that may be because they are on Robson street in Westend.
Their udon to me was very soft. I prefer more stretchy and chewy udon, but it is ok. Each restaurant is different.
But yes I will go there often for sure. I have been wanting to eat udon every since we came to Vancouver from LA.

I’ve always been looking for a good udon place ever since I went to Japan. Let’s just say this place screams nothing but UNDERWHELMING. 8 dollars a brown for literally two pieces of kimchi cabbage and 3 tiny biteful of pork. I’m so disappointed after being excited that finally Vancouver had an udon place. Walk down the street to santouka for ramen instead, wayyyyyy better

A bit overdue Vancouver, but alas we have a fresh udon place!
Since this is a relatively new spot, I will likely come back to try it again in a couple of months, at which point I hope I’m able to improve the overall rating for this place.
The good:
— Fresh udon, simple menu.
— Relatively well priced for a prime Robson St. location. I ordered the beef udon; honestly though, the curry is the best bang for your buck given abundance of ingredients in the stew.
The bad:
— Slow service/​not well organized. The queue at the front of the restaurant is misleading; really it’s just a massive bottleneck until your udon is ordered and made, at which point you walk down to the end of the shop to pick your sides and pay.
— The sparse pieces of tempura left looked like they had been sitting there for a while. Mine was COLD and rather soggy. I suggest finding a better batter recipe and a better heat lamp. And definitely ensure the baskets are full of product at dinner time.
— Nigiri was okay, nothing to rave about. I had taken one Tuna and one Spicy pork from the trays, but when opened, both turned out to be spicy pork…
— Broth was too salty. Good flavour, but too salty. Also the meat serving in the niku udon could have been more generous, I received mostly shards of onions. Like I mentioned, the curry base is a better value.
— Lastly, while the udon is made fresh, mine was overcooked IMO. It didn’t have that chewiness or bounce back I had been craving all day. Perhaps allow patrons to choose their level of firmness going forward as so many ramen shops have been offering as of late.