Maki no Udon Kafuri Head Shop

The Kafuri Head Shop of Maki no Udon, which has 18 branches in Fukuoka and Saga prefectures, is a well-known specialty of Fukuoka. The soup made at the Kafuri Head Shop is carried to each branch and used for udon (to be exact, the noodle factory is located a little south of the Head Shop), so this is the headquarter of Maki no Udon both in name and reality.

This time I made the effort to visit the Maki no Udon in Kafuri right after it opened at 9:00 am. I left my hotel in Hakata before 8:00 a.m. and took the subway and JR Chikuhi Line to get there. As expected, though, unlike the Hakata Bus Terminal branch, there was no line. That aside, let me quickly introduce what kind of restaurant it was…

Take a rest and stretch your legs on the spacious tatami room seating…Maki no Udon Kaburi Head Shop is a restaurant like this

Maki no Udon Kafuri Head Shop is located along Route 202, about a 9-minute walk from Kafuri Station on the JR Chikuhi Line. In fact, this Route 202 has an aspect as a gourmet street in Itoshima, with restaurants such as Drive-in Tori Itoshima Branch, where you can enjoy soul food of Saga Prefecture residents; Anzen Ramen, which serves extremely gentle-flavored pork ramen; Itoshima Shokudo Head Shop, famous for its rare seafood bowls; and Tsukamoto Fresh Fish Restaurant, popular for its hearty seafood bowl lunch.

Maki no Udon Kafuri Head Shop is a drive-in type restaurant with a seating capacity of about 80 people. The seating area is especially spacious, so we can stretch out your legs and take a relaxing break.

Ordering is done on an order form system, with customers selecting what they want to eat from a menu of more than 50 types of udon and soba combined, and checking a box with a pencil. The order form also allows us to choose our preferred degree of noodle hardness in three levels (soft, medium, or hard), but at the time of my visit, the soft noodles were not ready to be cooked, so I was unable to order. When I had the meat udon at the Hakata Bus Terminal branch, I had made up my mind that “Next time, I will definitely have soft noodles!”, but… I guess this happens just after opening time. Hmmm…too bad.

A Hakata udon staple! How was the burdock tempura udon at Maki no Udon Kafuri Head Shop?

What I ordered at Maki no Udon Kafuri Head Shop this time was the gobo-ten (burdock tempura) udon, a Hakata udon staple (medium noodles, priced at 460 yen including tax). At the Hakata Bus Terminal branch, a bowl of this gobo-ten udon was 520 yen, so it was about 10% discount…

Looking at the udon brought in front of me, the color of the broth is completely different from the meat udon I had last time. This soup stock is lighter in color and clearer like Kansai udon soup stock. The amount of udon soaked in the broth is quite large. If you can eat this much, you would normally be full…

Now, let’s eat it right away… The noodles are as thick as Sanuki udon, but soft and chewy like Hakata udon. Some of the noodles have absorbed some of the broth, making them fluffy marshmallows. On the other hand, I was a little surprised to find that the udon broth is kelp broth. It is like Osaka’s udon. I heard that Maki no Udon uses about 7% of the amount of Rishiri kelp consumed in Japan. This is amazing…

Now, let’s put aside the udon for a moment and turn our attention to the burdock tempura topping. This bite-sized burdock tempura is 3/4 of the batter, so the burdock doesn’t have much of an impact. If you want to feel the burdock root, you may be a little disappointed. However, if you leave this gobo-ten soaked in the broth with udon noodles, the batter around the gobo-ten crumbles and melts in the broth, becoming like the tenkasu of tanuki udon noodles. Therefore, it would be better to wait until the gobo-ten becomes soft in the broth, rather than rushing to put it in your mouth.

So, pour the kettle full of broth into the bowl and let the udon noodles and gobo-ten sit for a few minutes. When the udon has visibly swelled up, I take the chopsticks out again. I can’t get enough of this marshmallow-like fluffiness. I didn’t feel it the last time I had the meat udon, but the kelp broth that soaks into the udon makes it stick to the inside of my mouth. This is a feeling that we probably cannot experience with Sanuki udon, and I would like people from Kagawa in particular to try it once…

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

• Curry (udon or soba) 620 yen
• Meat (udon or soba) 600 yen
• Zaru soba (cold soba) 470 yen
• Kama-age with sauce (udon) 470 yen
• Kitsune (udon or soba) 460 yen
• Egg (udon or soba) 450 yen
• Kake (udon or soba) 360 yen

The take-out kashiwa bento (lunch box) was also quite popular… To get to Maki no Udon Kafuri Head Shop, a 9-minute walk from the nearest station, Kaburi Station on the JR Chikuhi Line.

Maki no Udon Kafuri Head Shop also offers take-out…

Looking at the customers’ movements, it seems that the Kashiwa bento is very popular. While I was slurping my udon, a number of customers came in and took home their Kashiwa bento in droves. They were selling so well that I decided to buy one on my way hotel…. If you don’t have time to relax in the restaurant, please consider Kashiwa bento from Maki no Udon Kafuri Head Shop as an option.

Here are the details of the restaurant…