Marugame Udon - Japanese Noodles & Tempura (Brent Cross) — Restaurant in London

Marugame is a great joint if you want a genuine taste of Japan's ever popular Udon bar. It's effectively a canteen-style, self serve (Ikea-esque), fast-food restaurant that serves a very focused menu. "Focused" would be my way of saying that their menu is limited in order to ensure a higher quality and consistency in the food they serve. You'll find a range of soup noodle dishes, with their signature Udon noodle being hand made and prepared in front of you. It makes for good entertainment when you're standing there deciding on what to eat, waiting in line to place your order, or if you're just bored walking around aimlessly with your toddler. Fortunately, they also offer rice dishes such as the classic Katsu Curry or Teriyaki (Chicken/Salmon) when you don't feel like having a soup base. Portions are generous and there's always the option of "going large" for those of us with larger appetites. No Udon bar would be complete without a complete array of Tempura to go with your main. If you haven't already tried Tempura, it's basically something that is carefully deep-fried with a very light batter - at a stretch, one could compare it to a fish and chip shop, if even their chips were battered and fried. Tempura batter, however, should never be compared with chippy batter. In order to keep this review clean, I'll just say the two are 'different'. Marugame's tempura will have vegetable, fish and meat options so there will be something for everyone.

When it comes to pricing, in this day and age, for a family of 3 to be generally well fed for lunch would cost us around £25-30 which when compared with the other neighbouring food choices on the SAME FLOOR, I'd say Marugame comes in on the lower end. Moreover, you're eating genuine Japanese/SE Asian food which is more than I can say for the 'other' place that shall not be named across the floor. You will also regularly see actual Japanese families eating there as they enjoy a taste of home away from home.

While this restaurant is no-doubt running a self-service model, the staff there are all willing to help if you approach them. They're normally very friendly and welcoming, and if you pay attention, you'll hear their synchronised calling-out whenever they need to announce the welcome of a fresh batch of Udon and Tempura. Quite fun, at least for the first two visits. Special mention to the manager for always welcoming our family with open arms and a warm smile. When it comes to cleanliness, you'll find the place well presented, neat and clean, save from the uncleared tables, but wait a couple of minutes and one of the team will swoop by, clear the table, wipe down and offer you a seat.

Being an avid fan of authentic Japanese cuisine, my family are so fortunate to have an Udon bar such as Marugame so close to home. We're so lucky to one in this area, though I have one next to where I work in Liverpool Street, but that'll be for...

First time visiting here, seen the queues for this place in Hawaii, they are ridiculously long so I wanted to see just how good the udons were!

Brent Cross, excellent location, free parking, can even go shopping afterwards.

Let's start with upon arrival, it was the second day of opening, no queues so I got it right on my timings. Nice greet, in fact they chant a welcome in Japanese then staff repeat this once, but almost each and every time. All I kept thinking about was staff shouting, spitting on the food each time, is this really necessary?

I went to claim my complimentary bowl of udon, went for the bowl of udon with richer soup broth, and added some tempura sides (pumpkin, egg, chikuwa, chicken karaage). Came to £7.50, the egg tasted the best and cost £1.95. Udon was ok, disappointed it was cold too so was the tempura, must have been sitting out for a bit.

Excellent condiment area, drinks machine and help yourselves to an abundance of sides with little dip containers.

Good clean layout of restaurant. Staff still seem unfamiliar with system, at till, it took a while, perhaps needed more training, or put a more experienced cashier on the opening weekend?

Worst thing was, their soup spoons were dirty and filthy, I picked up 5, all had bits on them, I commented to staff who well lost for words, one came and took the handful of dirty ones away from me, and told me to grab one from the end. No apology though. Please double check the cleanliness of your soup spoons!

Bottleneck at start of queue, customers looking up at menu, delaying others to order, needs improving.

Lots of teething problems. Young staff, likes to have a natter whilst tray cleaning, entering staff room. Open plan restaurant means, you're all exposed, need to mindful when there's customers around.

Nonetheless will visit one more time at a much later date to see if I have a better...

This was my first time eating here and also my first time trying Japanese cuisine. As someone allergic to fish (sushi) I never bothered trying Japanese food before, so I gave this a go and was pleasantly surprised. I'm not a foodie at all and rarely try new things but I'm happy I did as I really enjoyed stepping into what looks like a "mini Japan" style restaurant and the food was great. I was expecting some kind of pre-processed/manufactured food heated up with gallons of oil, but the food is actually all freshly cooked in front of you by Japanese chefs (at least in Brent Cross) and seeing several Japanese customers gave me confidence that the food must be pretty authentic as opposed to being augmented for the western palette.

The service was great too, everyone was very friendly and seemed enthusiastic about serving Japanese food, one staff member recommended the gyoto & pumpkin kombokku for vegetarians. She also complimented my face which made my day as I just re-patriated back to London after 13 years abroad, living in a country full of toxic negativity so I was feeling pretty rough as well as hungry until she paid me a compliment :) I ordered the curry udon noodles since there's no meat in it & was worried the small size would be a mini bowl, but was glad that it was a good size to fill me up.

I was so impressed that I sent a photo of my meal to my friend and said "we're eating here next time", I could tell he was salivating :D haha

Overall, very happy with my first Japanese experience at Marugame Brent Cross and will be eating there again, prices are quite reasonable considering how expensive restaurants in London have become in 13 years. I definitely recommend this restaurant...