Uzumakiya Udon Izakaya — Restaurant in Cupertino

Came here for dinner during their soft opening. Cash only as they're still working on getting a credit card machine. Their menu is very limited, which allows them to be efficient and have fast turn over. They have more drinks selections on their menu than food selections. The line was quite long before they opened.

When we went they only had 4 types of Udon. Three of their Udon's are all Oxtail broth based. One had just a slice of pork, one had a slice of beef and oxtail and the other was a dipping version. They had a cold shabu shabu dipping version with a tofu based sauce but that was not available at the time. There were only a handful of appetizers available. Their signature appetizer is the seared Saba Mackerel, spendy but worth the price. We ordered the Seared Saba Mackerel, Udon with Oxtail, Udon with beef chasu, and their chicken karrage.

Saba Mackerel: raw and torched at table side. Caramelized sugar crystals on top of the torched skin works well with this melt in your mouth fish. Spendy item but worth the price. Menu stated only 10 served per day. (10/10)

Oxtail Ramen: I typically do not like udon noodles as they tend to be chewy. They make their own noodles here, or at least it tastes homemade. Not chewy at all. Different from the typical udon noodles. I wanted more as their wasn't enough. The broth is somewhat oily, yet light. Didn't feel heavy or rich. Serving size was not enough. Only one slice of beef chasu. For $4 more you get one oxtail. Taste wise it's a 9/10 but overall value is 7/10.

Chicken karrage with a unique dipping sauce: Sauce is unique but I've had better chicken karrage. Batter is very light, not very crunchy. Over all lacked flavor to stand out on it's own without the dipping sauce. Not enough of the dipping sauce for the amount of chicken given. Not worth ordering. (5/10).

They only had two high chairs at the time we went. There were a lot of families with kids there. Good thing we got there early and managed to get one of their high chairs. Other parents had to hold their kids in their laps. There are a lot of singles in Cupertino but also there are a lot of families. They need to invest in more high chairs as the cost of doing business. It's so difficult to hold a child while eating a hot bowl of noodles.

A negative experience was that we went with our friends. Total party of 6 but two out of the 6 were under 2 years of age. They tacked on 18% tax to our table even though we had two kids under 2. That's a...

I’ve come to this place multiple times already, and I’ve had a great experience with their food! This place would earn a full five star if the place might have had more service quality. Most waiters would just take your order and go, and when your done eating, they would be like “Thank you!” I know that this place is always busy and stuff like that but at least add some emotion to serving, you know?

The food, in general, tasted like a 5 star restaurant, as a contrary. Some days the place would sell out of random items on the menu, often would be the oxtail, meaning the great oxtail udon would be unavailable, and some other appetizers. Besides having some items sold out of a short while of time, everything else is great! If you readers are planning to come here, make sure to have some luck on your side and hope nothing is sold out or taken down :D!

As a last thing to say, I went here one day to eat, and it was around 6:15 and a waiter told me: “Sorry, the soup is about to be sold out!”, and I was like “....... :(“. Having soup, the secondary main thing to this restaurant, sold out even before average dinner time (7pm) is pretty outrageous, and after the waiter announced it to everyone in line, the line basically demolished.

Me and my friends were basically the last to hit for the soup, and everyone else behind us were screwed. Having said this, this was probably one of those once-in-a-life-time things happening in this restaurant, which is why it still deserves a 4 star (see above for reason). Hopefully next time the restaurant would have less out-of-soup times for the eaters to enjoy.

We actually talked to the waiter, and they said that this day was the second time they had ran out of soup ;(. Oh well, thanks...

The Food When you take a second to look at it, there aren't many restaurants in the bay area that specializes in udon. Uzumakiya is an Udon Izakaya that recently open, and they specializes on the udon dish. My friend and I order a few dishes on their menu to try. Chicken Karaage Uzumakiya Udon Utsuke (Udon Tsukemen) Aburi OxTail Meats The Chicken Karaage was average...in the fact that is not bad, but could be more crispy in my opinion. The Uzumakiya Udon served Ox Tail Broth with Beef Chashu along with garnishes. The Utsuke Udon Tsukemen served with Beef & Dashi Dipping Sauce with Beef Chashu and Boc Choy. Both of the dishes were pretty good with flavorful broth and nice texture noodle. We also decided the order the Aburi OxTail Meat to try since it seem like most dishes seem to have an OxTail base. The meat was quite tender and tasty, and the dipping sauce was good also. Though I would get the OxTail Udon next time unless I am sharing with others.

The Miscellaneous The Uzumakiya restaurant is inside a decent sized plaza. The inside is not super big, but the table arrangement was well done to maximize seating. The service and staff was...not bad, with hit or miss moments. But the servers are very nice and sincere. The restaurant has a pretty simple and straightforward menu with a decent selection. Though the prices are on the higher end and noticed that some dishes have small portions for the price. I would still recommend to give this place to try for their unique...