Takeuchi Udon Restaurant

I visited Takeuchi Udon Restaurant, an udon specialty restaurant established in Nakatsu in 2006 by a former businessman to establish his own restaurant. This restaurant is known as the originator of “Toriten Bukkake (noodles with chicken tempula)” in Osaka, and has won the “100 Best Udon Restaurants” award six times in the “Tabelog”. The apprentice of this restaurant opened his own restaurant (Ogimachi Udon Asuro), which won the Michelin Bib Gourmand award, and it is one of the restaurants that cannot be missed when talking about udon in Osaka. I woke up early on a weekend morning to go to the restaurant to enjoy the original toriten bukkake served here…

A regular restaurant on the 100 best udon restaurants in the Tabelog, has a slightly unique atmosphere… This is the kind of restaurant Takeuchi Udon Restaurant is.

I arrived at Takeuchi Udon Restaurant around 11:00 on a Saturday. It was 30 minutes before opening time, but there were already three customers lined up in front of the restaurant. After that, the line grew longer and longer until the opening time, and by 11:30 a.m., when the store opened, it was about 25 people long. As one would expect from a restaurant that regularly appears on the “100 Best Udon Restaurants in Japan” list, the popularity of Takeuchi Udon Restaurant is as great as the rumors say.

Inside Takeuchi Udon Restaurant, there are 12 U-shaped counter seats along the space that extends from the kitchen to the center of the restaurant, and 4 tables on the far side of the restaurant, for a total of 16 seats. I was shown to the counter seats, and it is interesting that the counter is all tiled. It gives the restaurant a unique atmosphere. In addition to the owner, there are four female staff members working at the restaurant. There was a review on the Internet that said the female waitstaff had a bad attitude, but while they were certainly not friendly, I didn’t think they had a bad attitude. Everyone seemed to be doing their jobs in a casual manner.

A whopping 1kg of noodles! I ordered a large portion of Toriten Bukkake, a signature dish at Takeuchi Udon Restaurant…

Let me introduce the signature dish, Toriten Bukkake (cold) that I ordered at Takeuchi Udon Restaurant. This time, I ordered a large portion, and the price was 980 yen plus 500 yen for a large portion, which is 1480 yen including tax…

The noodles must have been boiling and ready before the restaurant opened. Only 3 minutes after entering the restaurant, my order of Toriten Bukkake Large portion arrived on the table. Can you tell from the picture above? The bowl is about the size of a regular bowl of ramen, and is filled to the brim with noodles. When I ordered, the waiter confirmed that a large bowl holds 1 kg of noodles. The double portion of Handmade Udon Rakuraku, a famous restaurant in Katano, is said to be about 800 grams of noodles after boiling, which means that the large portion of udon at this restaurant is much larger than that.

Let’s slurp up some noodles… Although the noodles are thick, the thickness of the udon is about 2/3 of a typical Sanuki udon. The surface is slippery, and like the noodles of Kidatake Udon, it is very long and soft boiled so that you could crush it with just your mouth lips…I thought so, but when I put it in my mouth, it was totally different. It was soft and glutinous, as it should be, but the force of bounce back when chewed was tremendous. I have never experienced such a strong firmness before. I can understand why it is described as “gummy” in online reviews.

On the other hand, the dashi soup stock is stained black with the color of soy sauce, but the taste is rather light. It is not very salty and has a slightly sweet taste, giving it a gentle impression contrary to its appearance. However, there is little sense of seafood broth, so if you are expecting Sanuki udon with bukkake udon, you may be disappointed. Even without the soup stock, I also felt that it could be a little saltier…

Along with the noodles, the other mainstay of the dish was the toriten, which consisted of a total of five pieces the size of a chicken egg. The batter is rather thick and firm, but juicy juice overflows from the thigh meat inside. If the chicken tempura is not tasty, it is not a Toriten Bukkake dish. I think the quality of the toriten is high enough to trigger the spread of toriten bukkake to Sanuki udon restaurants around the country.

Like this, I finished a large bowl of Toriten Bukkake, Takeuchi Udon Restaurant‘s signature menu item, in about 10 minutes. The price of 1,480 yen for toriten bukkake may seem quite expensive, but the quality and volume of this dish is enough to convince me. In particular, the firmness of the noodles, which is probably one of the best in Japan, should be experienced at least once by any udon lover. However, this may conversely lead to difficulty in swallowing, so those with weak swallowing power may need to be a little careful.

Other menu items at Takeuchi Udon Restaurant (prices include tax)

• Bukkake with grated meat 1100 yen
• Blooper and maitake tempura bukkake ¥1,000
• On-tama wakame bukkake 950 yen
• Oroshi bukkake 750 yen
• Toriten Udon with fresh soy sauce 950 yen
• Wakame udon 900 yen
• Kake udon: 750 yen

Lunch sets are also available… To get to Takeuchi Udon Restaurant, a 5-minute walk from the nearest station, Nakatsu Station on the Hankyu Railway Takarazuka Line.

Takeuchi Udon Restaurant offers a special lunchtime lunch set…

There are a total of three sets to choose from: a Toriten Bukkake set (the restaurant’s specialty), a tuna bowl set, and a handmade Nishikishoubai rice set. All of them are reasonably priced at around 1,000 yen. Moreover, the restaurant’s udon has 500 grams of noodles even in a single serving, so a bowl of rice will surely make you feel full. Why don’t you try these set menus when you seem to have enough room in your stomach?

Now, here are the details of the restaurant…

It is a 12-minute walk from Osaka Umeda Station on the Hankyu Railway.

P.S. If you are looking for good udon in Osaka, please stop by this article below…