Motonobu Udon

I found this amazing restaurant around my place. After reading reviews and their website, I gave a try and this surprised me.

All their udon is hand made and their dishes have an amazing flavour. I ordered the NikuGoboten, Udon with Beef Brisket and Burdock Tempura! It was divine!!! My partner ordered the Spicy Tantan Udon, which it is Braised Pork Belly, Shanghai Bok Choy, Green Onion,
Cilantro, Chili Oil served with Chicken and Dashi Broth. It was sooooo good!! Anyway, loved the experience here, busy restaurant with an amazing customer service.

Hopefully you will enjoy your experience here!!! Cheers

I have been eager to try this popular little spot for quite a while and so when the opportunity arose, expectations were high. Needless to say, they were overall met! Motonobu is a clean and quaint little restaurant with an open kitchen concept and minimal seating. Luckily, I came in a Tuesday so there was no waiting required. Service was prompt and the food came out lightning fast which I never consider to be a bad thing.

Mazementai (mentaiko udon) - This one is a soupless style udon with a pollock roe sauce and it was quite delicious! After mixing all the aspects of the bowl together, I found there was a generous portion of sauce to coat the chewy and springy udon noodles and many other sides to complement the mix of flavours and textures in your mouth. I found the flavour to be perfect but it was a bit overwhelming (saltier side of things). However, be warned there is one piece of pickled plum in there that I mindlessly picked up and tossed in my mouth....was not fun for my taste buds lol. If you are scatter brained when eating like me, watch out for that!!

Nikutoji (egg swirl soup and beef belly udon) - Minor mistake in eating the strong flavoured udon before the nice clean soup based one but oh well.... This soup was very light and clean but with lovely added texture of the egg swirl. I think I would've enjoyed this one more if I ate it before the other udon. The beef belly is tender and not too salty. Udon was once again cooked to perfection! This dish is surely great for those who want something light and don't enjoy too much salt.

Salmon aburi - No particular thoughts towards this one. If you like extra sear and more structure and solidity to your oshi, I'd recommend ordering this at other places.

Overall, I am not completely certain if I would go out of my way from Richmond to return. Nonetheless, I quite enjoyed the experience and if in the area, would like to return again to try other items on the menu!

There are very few udon specialty restaurants in metro van. So we came over despite the 30 min drive.

I picked a less busy time to come on the weekend, 2pm ish and it was great. Parking in the street was convenient, and we got seated right away. One thing I didn't like though, was that there were multiple doors that were partly open the entire time, and that made both us and the food cold.

She shop was medium sized end the servers were friendly. The menu has a decent variety of both soup and dry udon along with a few unique aburi sushi opens.

We tried one of the popular items in each of these categories and was generally impressed.

I particularly enjoyed the dry mixed udon (forgot the actual name). But it was flavorful and wholesome.

Very likely to be back again. Whenever we crave udon.

Food 9, Service 7, Ambiance 7, Value 8

A very downtown feel. Intrigued by all the chatter and wanted to check for ourselves. Storefront is very unassuming. Inside is modern and minimalist. We had the Niku Toji and Tenwaka. Good presentation and taste. Was good, but didn't really blow me away. It's good to have a different type of udon restaurant.
On a side note, we wanted an order to go. Asked the server questions regarding the items on the menu, and to be honest, her English was very poor.

Walked in with a group of four on a Saturday for lunch and were seated right away, we might have lucked out because every seat in the restaurant was full. We came at the recommendation of the Vancouver bib gourmand list and were not disappointed.

The udon here is deliciously fresh, cooked to perfection, and paired well within each preparation. Aside from the udon, I was pleasantly surprised by how delicious the brisket was - incredibly tender and succulent with a hint of sweetness. I highly recommend this place for its high quality food for great value.

Very typical Japanese = less for more.

Minimalist crammed space underdecorated and minimal signage. Wait is okay.

Had the udon with beef brisket and tofu and lay off the sushi since it was a friend's treat.

Wouldn't say this soup base was extraordinary as I have had similar or better in town. The food was served in these giant wares, which I imagine are not preheated as the food got cooled rather very quickly.

You pay a premium for the award winning joint and a bowl of msg flavoured soup udon.

Curious about the rest of the menu though.

May come back, may not.

Came here on a whim and 30 minutes til closing. They were very nice about it and seated us right away. We were served almost instantly and by the time we were getting ready to leave, patrons were still chatting and eating. It didn't seem like they were getting rushed either.

The mentai was absolutely delicious, but a bit overly salted. The pollock roe was likely already very salty, so just be wary when ordering this. I'm still dreaming about this dish now that we've return back to NYC. Everything about this well done. The udon noodles were springy and fresh. The shiso and nori was a fun addition. I totally recommend it.

My partner said the mazementai was also a bit salty for him, but the overall balance of the ingredients were good.

Came here with my partner for a little dinner date! We were coming in expecting a long wait, but actually it was pretty empty on a Wednesday night! We were seated right away and there were still a lot of tables open.

I ordered the niku udon (beef brisket) with ebiten (two shrimp tempura) as an add-on. Also got shiitake tempura on the side.

The highlight of the night was the brisket! So tender for my soft mouth. And they gave two large pieces, which I'm thankful for! The udon noodles were also really good--I usually don't like them but they cooked them almost al dente, which I enjoyed a lot! The broth was just okay, not my favourite. The tempura bits felt like unnecessary calories as they just became soggy immediately and blended into the broth.

I didn't like that they put my prawn tempura in the soup--I thought it would be served on a separate plate. Next time I would ask for that. It defeats the purpose of being deep fried as they got soggy. The tempura is also not worth the price--it was mediocre. The batter isn't as crispy or flakey as I would expect.

The shiitake tempura was also only okay. The batter was the same as the prawn tempura and it was too meaty as they serve the entire mushroom. Smaller pieces/slices would've been better. Also a few of the mushrooms were on top of mayonnaise, which made them nearly slathered in it. Mayonnaise should've been provided in a separate dish?? I also didn't even like the mayonnaise and preferred the tempura sauce.

Service was amazing and it's a nice quaint restaurant.

Fancy Asian udon place near PNE.

Parking is available on the side streets.

The inside is upscale but a bit plain. Not too much artwork. However, there is a nice large kitchen which naturally draws one's eyes in. Guess the kitchen is the decor.

Staff are friendly and cheerful.

The udon here is a bit pricier, but it's honestly some of the springiest noodles I've had in town. Pick a bowl, then load up on options. Options are honestly quite overpriced. But if one wants to splurge, the quality is there.

Best inarizushi I've ever had! Pleasantly surprised by both of the specialty sushi options here (inari and aburi), visually appealing and very tasty. Would come again just for the inarizushi.

Everything else we tried wasn't as memorable but was overall a very solid, high-quality and and satisfying meal, would recommend. As noted by others, the service and ambiance is typical for a smaller-size Japanese restaurant - no complaints.