Daichi no Udon Head Shop

When I was looking for udon restaurants in Fukuoka on the Internet, following Maki no Udon, which does not decrease even after eating, I felt “I want to go there…” This is Daichi no Udon, which opened in August 2005 at a place called Kamiyamato, a little west from Hakata, It is rumored to be very good. It is the center of a well-known udon shop group in Fukuoka called “Buzen Urauchi Kai,” and in 2023, it was ranked first in a local TV program’s “Favorite Udon Restaurant Ranking by 5,000 Fukuoka Prefecture Citizens,” a brilliant achievement in the local Fukuoka area. I happened to find this restaurant by surfing the Internet, and I was very lucky.

So one day during my stay in Hakata, I took the subway from Nakasu Kawabata, where my hotel is located, to visit Daichi no Udon Head Shop for lunch. I wonder what it is like to be the No. 1 udon restaurant in Fukuoka Prefecture, as chosen by local Fukuoka residents? I am curious…

It looks like an ordinary udon shop in a town, but… this is what Daichi no Udon Head Shop looks like.

Daichi’s Udon Head Shop is located in a residential area called Kamiyamato, about a 20-minute subway ride west from the center of Hakata, and another 10-minute walk from there. I walked from the nearest station to the shop, but the road between the station and the restaurant is mostly just houses, so there is nothing of interest for a tourist like me.

It was just before midnight when I arrived at the restaurant that day, and perhaps because it was raining, I was able to easily enter the restaurant without waiting in line, despite its popularity. There were 30 seats in total, including 8 counter seats. Both the outside and the inside of the restaurant gave the impression of an ordinary udon shop in town. There is no sense of glitz or glamor.

After passing through the entrance, there is a ticket vending machine on the right side of the entrance. I was pleased to see that a bowl of kake-udon is priced at 350 yen, which is about the same as a standing udon at a station. So far, it seems like a perfectly normal place to eat udon, but what kind of udon will be served after this? I’ll be honestly disappointed if the udon is just as normal as this…

To say the least, this udon is too good to be true… I was shocked to my heart’s content by Daichi no Udon’s most popular menu item, the meat and burdock root udon!

Let me introduce to you the most popular menu item I ordered at Daichi no Udon on that day (priced at 750 yen including tax), the meat and burdock root udon. I was a little surprised that it came out less than 5 minutes after I ordered it, but I was even more surprised when I saw the dish that came out…

The udon bowl was topped with a big bowl of fried burdock tempura. The volume of this burdock tempura is truly impressive. By the way, this burdock tempura was fried this way to preserve the image, but you can also have it deep-fried on a separate plate or in a normal style. As expected, this version has the disadvantage of making it difficult to eat the udon, so unless you have another purpose, such as posting on a social networking site, I recommend ordering it in the normal style.

With that out of the way, let’s get down to eating the udon. First of all, I have to eat down this burdock tempura to get to the noodles…right? So I peeled off the burdock tempura piece by piece and ate it. It is freshly fried and crispy, and the rich flavor of the burdock inside is wafting from my mouth to my nose… Anyway, the volume is so huge that you must be careful not to fill your stomach before you reach the udon noodles.

Another topping, beef, can be glimpsed through a hole in the center of the gobo-ten like this. When I tried it, it looks like a thin slice of meat as it is, not seasoned with soy sauce sauce or any other seasoning. Compared to the burdock tempura, the volume is quite small, and in that sense, the beef could be a disappointing point, but I personally did not mind at all about the beef because the burdock tempura was so large.

Now, it’s time to get to the udon… I was also surprised by this udon. Can you tell from the picture above? The udon is translucent. The noodles are quite thin for udon noodles and look very elegant. Personally, I think this sense of quality is comparable to the original Inaniwa udon I had at Sato Yosuke Sohonten in Akita.

I was surprised again when I actually put it in my mouth. I had imagined that the noodles would have a crispy texture because of the high water content. But in fact, they were not. These noodles are very firm. The thickness is totally different, but the firmness is not at all inferior to Sanuki udon. I wish all udon lovers in Japan could try this noodle if they have a chance…

The broth is a light flavor based on kelp and bonito, and just like the udon, it has a clear taste without any cloying flavors. The dashi broth is of such high quality that you could gobble it up as it is, but the yuzu (yuzu citron) flavor enhancer on the table goes very well with it, so if you don’t mind spicy food, please give it a try (just be careful not to put too much because it is really hot).

I left Daichi no Udon Head Shop very satisfied with my the meat and burdock root udon. Perhaps due to the large gap between my impression of the restaurant and the udon until it came out, I was surprised by the most popular menu item here, the burdock tempura udon, which was one of the biggest surprises in my history. It is quite understandable that it was chosen as the No. 1 udon by Fukuoka Prefecture residents. It is well worth the time and money to come all the way from Hakata.

Examples of other menu items at Daichi no Udon Head Shop (prices include tax)

• Daichi Kayaku udon ¥1,000
• Ebi Oroshi Bukkake udon 850 yen
• Meat Kakiage udon 800 yen
• Tempura udon 800 yen
• Curry udon 700 yen
• Kama-tama udon 500 yen
• Zaru udon 500 yen

There are a total of 8 stores in Fukuoka and Tokyo! To get to Daichi no Udon Head Shop, it is a 13-minute walk from Shimoyamato Station on the JR Chikuhi Line, the closest station to the restaurant.

In addition to the Kamiyamato main restaurant introduced here, Daichi no Udon has a total of eight restaurants in Fukuoka and Tokyo, including the Hakata Station Chikaten, Chikushino, and Tokyo Baba branches. However, to my surprise, it seems that although they are affiliated shops, the noodles at each restaurant are not standardized. This means that if you go to a different branch, you will get completely different noodles. If that is the case, I am sure it would be interesting to visit all the branches and compare their noodles.

Now, here are the details of the restaurant…