Authentic Handmade Udon Taiga

The last apprentice of “Grandma Rumi,” a well-known figure in the Sanuki udon industry, has opened his own udon shop in Fukakusa, Kyoto. I learned of the existence of such a udon restaurant in Kyoto when I visited Gaina Noodle Factory in Kasai, and along with my surprise at the existence of such a restaurant in my neighborhood, I felt like I had to go there! I had been looking for a chance to visit the place for a long time.

Unfortunately, my schedule didn’t work out, and about a year has passed since then. The other day, I finally had time to have lunch in Fushimi, so I went to Authentic Handmade Udon Taiga, a restaurant run by Grandma Rumi’s last apprentice….

Freshly cut and freshly boiled udon noodles…Authentic Handmade Udon Taiga is a restaurant like this…

I visited Authentic Handmade Udon Taiga around 11:00 on a weekday. It was just about time for the restaurant to open, and customers were gathering one after another in front of the storefront after me. There was not a long line before the store opened, but when the store opened, there were about 10 customers. Most of the customers did not seem to be locals, and I suspect that they had heard about this restaurant and gathered here….

The interior of the restaurant is simple but clean, with a total of 15 seats for customers, including 5 counter seats along the kitchen. I was lucky enough to be guided to a counter seat right in front of the noodle-making table. From this seat, I could see the owner stretching and cutting the noodle dough right in front of me after receiving my order. In this day and age, there are many restaurants that serve freshly cut and freshly boiled udon, but being able to actually see this in front of us gives us a sense of security, knowing that the udon we ordered will be made properly…

The price is pretty aggressive… How was it to actually try Authentic Handmade Udon Taiga’s signature dish, Taigamori bukkake?

Let me introduce the signature dish, “ Taigamori Bukkake” (cold), that I ordered at Authentic Handmade Udon Taiga on that day. Actually, the price of this udon is quite expensive (1,530 yen including tax) for a regular serving. I will introduce examples of other udon menu items later, but this restaurant’s udon is priced quite aggressively compared to other udon restaurants.

After about 15 minutes of waiting after ordering, the Taigamori Bukkake (cold) was brought in front of me. You can customize the amount of noodles in four levels: Normal 300g, Large 500g (+170 yen), Extra Large 700g (+220 yen), and Extra Large 1000g (+330 yen), but this time I chose the default, Normal. The noodles are topped with several toppings, including chicken tempura, shrimp tempura, and chikuwa tempura. But to be honest, I didn’t get the impression that the price of 1,500 yen was worth it…

That aside, let’s pour lemon juice and sweet dashi soy sauce over the noodles and slurp them up… I was a little surprised to see that these noodles are not Sanuki udon. The noodles are thick, but they are flat and their form is rather similar to the Odoru Udon in Takii, Osaka. The surface of the noodle is a little rough so that the dashi broth and soy sauce can be thoroughly absorbed, and when chewed, the noodle is soft at first and has a gummy texture with strong resilience inside. I guess this area has been arranged to suit the tastes of Kyoto people. If expecting authentic Sanuki udon, you will be disappointed, but the quality of the udon itself is as good as you would expect from Grandma Rumi’s last apprentice.

And now to the tempura toppings. The tempura was deep fried after the order was placed, and the oil was well drained and the texture was crispy. The ingredients in the tempura are heated just right, and give the tempura a freshly made flavor that you cannot experience with ready-made tempura. The chikuwa tempura is very generous, and the prawns are large with firm tails…perhaps they use higher quality prawns than other restaurants. On the other hand, the chicken tempura was too thin and slender. I thought it was a little too thin. I can somehow tell that they use good ingredients including chikuwa and shrimps… 

Taigamori Bukkake at Authentic Handmade Udon Taiga is a high quality udon itself, but I still had the impression that it took a little courage to pay 1500 yen for it. After all, the price for a bowl of udon easily exceeded 1,000 yen (1,130 yen including tax). Well, there are many ramen stores that have surpassed the ¥1,000 barrier, and this will probably happen in all areas in the future. I hope my salary will go up enough to be able to eat this udon without hesitation…

Examples of other menu items at Authentic Handmade Udon Taiga (prices include tax)

• Tempura Udon (hot) 1630 yen
• Kizami Kitsune Udon (hot) 1280 yen
• Kama-age Udon (hot) 1730 yenOkawamori
• Sudachi Oroshi Shoyu (cold) 1630 yenOkawamori
• Zaru Udon (cold) 1580 yen
• Ten Zaru Udon (cold) 1680 yenTori
• Chicken, Mai Tororo with Soy Sauce (cold) 1530 yen

You can take home tenkasu for free… To get to Authentic Handmade Udon Taiga, a 9-minute walk from the nearest station, Fujimori Station on the Keihan Electric Railway line.

At Authentic Handmade Udon Taiga, you can take home the tenkasu (fish cake) at the cash register for free … 

Tenkasu is not just any tenkasu, but these tenkasu apparently contain udon soup stock. Since these tenkasu contain broth from a popular udon restaurant, the quality of these tenkasu is quite different from the tenkasu you can buy at the supermarket. It looks quite large in volume, but since it is tenkasu, it seems to be able to be stored for a long time… I think it is possible to take a bag home with you in case you want to eat udon at home.

Now, here are the details of the restaurant… 

P.S. If you are looking for delicious Japanese udon in Kyoto, please stop by this article below…