Inaka Udon is found in the boutique Eslite Spectrum mall in the basement floor. They often feature a chef out front that makes the noodles by hand for all to see, but I visited on an early Tuesday evening so didn’t have to deal with the long lines.
There is no english at all on the menu, but you can pretty much tell from the pictures which one you want. If you’re really hungry, you can ring the bell out front and the chefs will come to life and welcome you inside. But the sign says if you enjoyed your meal, or found it delicious, you can ring the bell on your way out.
Before you choose the main Udon dish, you get to choose a drink, some cold appetizers, then hot appetizers. They ranged from about $1 USD to $2 USD each, and they had a special on the tempura shrimp that night but we didn’t get that.
The appetizers we chose were the tomato (delicious!), kimchi (sticky but decent), and fried sweet potato tower (crispy and yummy). Of the three appetizers, I’d say the tomato marinated in meizi plum was my favorite closely followed by the fried sweet potato.
I went with the garlic beef Udon on my particular visit, it was $165 NTD at the time but with the add-ons of the beancurd, seaweed, egg brought the price up to just over $200 TWD a bowl.
The udon itself was decent, I found the amount of beef in my udon to be disappointing but the broth flavor was light and well done. I’d say I’m more impressed by the appetizers than the Udon, but I have had some pretty good Udon in LA and SF bay area as well.
