It is always great to find a local’s favorite spots, small, family operated, hidden gem serving delicious food. My eldest sister is skilled at finding these kind of places. She took us to one of her newly found spot called Kamatama Udon Kunugiya, specializing in kamatama udon. If you are not familiar with Kamatama Udon, it is a Kamaage Udon with Tamago (egg). So, basically, it is udon with raw egg, without any soup. Udon is boiled, without being tightened by cold water after being boiled. The raw egg is put on the super hot udon noodles, and by mixing it with the hot udon, the egg gets slightly cooked.
The inside was small, around 20 seats or less. But, it was pretty packed with the locals, always a good sign. They had open kitchen at one corner, taking up quarter or more of the entire space. The front wall facing the street is all window from floor to ceiling, bringing in lots of natural light.
Since there were four of us, we sat at one of the four-tops towards the front, next to the kitchen. We could see them working though the wooden partition wall, which was fun to watch. They had a small mountain of salt in a bowl right at the entrance. Salt in Japan is pretty sacred, it is believed that the salt can keep out evil spirits or bad luck, and in turn, bring in good luck, or more customers. I say the salt is doing its job really well at this restaurant!
Their menu consists of Kamatama Udon with different toppings. They all sounded really good, but we all went with the Mentaiko (spicy cod roe) topping. Few of chose the Mentai-Kamatama (680 yen). It comes with raw egg, mentaiko, dried seaweed and scallions. It looked great! Since the Kamaage Udon is cooked slightly different from normal process, this restaurant came up with THE perfect udon noodle just for Kamaage udon! So, the noodles are home-made. And top of that, they start to cook the udon noodle to order, so you get to have the noodles that has just been cooked, just for you! How awesome! This also means that it takes a little while for your udon to come out. Just take your time and enjoy the anticipation of udon cooked with love and care.
The other one we got was Mentai-Kamatama-Yama (780 yen) which is the same as the above, plus grated Japanese Mountain Yam. Thing of beauty! The portion looked a bit small, but I knew the quality is high, so I was ok with that.
They had some spices and also the special sauce for the udon. We poured the sauce on top, mixed them all together, and finally it was ready to be eaten! The sauce was soy sauce based, but light and flavorful with dashi.
The noodle is thick and had great texture, the egg, mentaiko and yam were all hugging the noodles with love, and it all went into my mouth with joy. My taste buds were having some serious fun, it was really delicious! The noodle was not too soft, cooked just right with still keeping its nice firmness. The egg was getting cooked around the hot noodle, and the sauce enhanced the overall flavor of the dish.
My sister said that they have another very popular item, Chicken Tempura. My hubby also wanted to have Shrimp Tempura, so we ordered them both.
Chicken Tempura (230 yen) was massive! I have never seen anything like it. It is a bit different from regular Japanese fried chicken, as they use the tempura batter. It was really, super juicy and of course, extremely meaty. The chicken was tender and soft, with crispy, crunchy exterior. It had nice salty flavor to it, it didn’t need anything else on it, as it was packed with flavor on its own.
Shrimp Tempura (230 yen) was also pretty big. One large shrimp that was plump and juicy, lightly fried with crunchy tempura batter. For people who wants more flavor to the udon, or just want more food or topping, they have several tempura items that you can order individually. I think that is a really great option to have.
It was a really nice lunch, I was pleasantly full with the udon. Although it looked small, but it was very filling and certainly satisfying. The staffs were polite and efficient. Food was fresh, delicious and high quality. I say my sister has done it again! She knows how to keep up her reputation and expectation high… If you want to try some quality Kamatama in Tokyo, give Kamatama Udon Kunugiya a try!
Kamatama Udon Kunugiya – 2-7-4, Hatanodai, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan
釜玉うどん 功刀屋 – 東京都品川区旗の台２丁目７−４