Motonobu Udon

I had high expectation before eating at this udon restaurant, because I knew it was running by Japanese. I had udon in different cities in Japan, so my eating experience here would definitely be comparing with the ones that I had in Japan for sure.

We were trying to come here in the evening one night, but we didn't make reservation. The wait was pretty long, so we left. This time we came here before they opened at 11:30am. When the door was open, a server told us that he would take the ones who made reservation first. Then I realized that people called and reserved a table on phone! I went to Google and searched for this restaurant. They have no website except a phone number. I thought people could make reservation online. Anyhow, we came here early enough, so we could take a table right away. Thanks God!

Due to covid, all the tables are 2m apart, which was great. The restaurant opened a big window that fresh air could get into the restaurant. A couple of tables were outside the restaurant (i.e. they had outdoor seating).

I came here with my family. A couple of us ordered Niku Tofu udon (hot) and one ordered a TenWaka udon (hot). When the dishes arrived at our table, the look and presentation were very nice. The bowl was quite big and the portion of the udon was a lot. The broth was very clear and it was good that it was not too salty. It depended on what you ordered for your dish. They had beef brisket, seaweed, egg wash, prawn tempera, and tofu for the options. However, the core of the dish which was the udon itself was not good (at least to me). I felt like I was eating some flour dough in thick and long shape. The udon was not mushy, but I could not feel the chewy texture (i.e. it should have some firmness on the texture, but there was none). Literally it was just flour dough. I was very disappointed at the udon itself.

When I was in Japan, I had eaten some handmade udon. Wow, it was so good, but I did not find this "satisfaction" at this newly open udon restaurant in Vancouver. If a foreigner has never visited Japan and has never tried the local handmade udon, the udon at Motonobu Udon was good enough for him/her. However, if he/she has tried the real handmade udon in Japan, the udon at Motonobu Udon was NOT okay..... Sorry I am being so honest, but this is true...

Also, I understand that I was eating in Vancouver. Pricing should be higher; however, I only paid 460 yen-560 yen, which was about $5.66-$6 CAD. I could get a bowl of very delicious and hot udon with some tempera and other side dishes. Here I had to pay 3 times more - $18 CAD for a big bowl of udon (that I could get 3 bowls of udon combo in Japan).

I would probably not visit this restaurant again (at least myself) unless my friends or family really really really want to come here for a meal together as a gathering.

There is street parking, so don't worry about not finding a parking spot.

Udon is one of my favorites in Japanese cuisine, I went there even they hadn't had their restaurant sign ready... hahaha

The menu was simple when I went there, there should be more options now. We ordered one Goboten and one EbitenToji. The food came in 5 minutes and the portion was good enough.

The udon was so tender and definitely different from other udon places. They have their home-made udon in store and if you want more udon, you can ask them for free!

The only thing I don't really was that they put the tempera in the broth instead of having a small side dish with tempera , the tempera batter basically absorbed the broth and no longer crispy when it came. It kind of wasted the texture of tempera.

The broth was light flavored, not much MSG. I even finished the broth at the end.

The price might be a bit pricy for just a bowl of udon compared to other places, like the more toppings you want in the bowl, the more you pay, but this restaurant is dedicated to HOME- MADE fresh udon instead of using frozen udon. If you love udon, you will taste the difference for sure!

The service was awesome, staff members were really friendly and warm. I am looking forward in my next visit!

Let me tell you, u-don want to be missing out on this place. We need more places that focus on udon. Their menu is pretty basic, with variations of either having beef brisket (niku), tofu, prawn tempura (ten), toji egg or seaweed (waka). They have a few appetizers available and a mentai udon. I'm sure they'll be adding more to their specialty udon later on.

We attempted to try this place on Saturday, but the line was quite long even before they were open. So we tried again today and got there even earlier. We were there at 10:45 and were the first ones. Another group behind us probably came 10 minutes later and as it came closer to 11:30 there was a line of probably close to 10 groups of people. They handed out menus and was going to starting taking people's orders to expedite the process. But since we were the first ones, we were seated first and then our order was taken. I tried the ten waka udon and added tofu and a toji egg.

Our food came out pretty fast and the servers were really friendly and checked on us to make sure everything was ok and to fill our water. My friend had the cold udon, which came with a tempura egg. He was really happy with it. Crisp on the outside and a runny yolk on the inside. The sauce that went with it was tasty too. My bowl of udon was very satisfying. There was plenty of udon and had a good chew. The prawn tempura was crisp and the prawn was quite large. The toji egg is similar to a scrambled egg, but more flavourful. The broth was delicious and not too salty. Overall, I was very happy with my bowl of udon. It can seem a bit pricey for a bowl of noodles, but it is a very large portion and the quality makes up for it. If I'm ever craving a bowl of udon, I'd happily come back here.

Finally a place in town offering udon-focused dishes. I have been looking for these type of restaurants since visiting Japan. This place is relatively new so some of their menu items is still in development.

I love the modern yet spacious decor and it is situated in a beautiful neighbourhood. They mainly serve hot udon with dashi based broth. Their only cold udon at the moment is the ever popular mentaiko udon. They make their own noodles on site, which is glad to see so I had high hopes before even my first bite. Ordering is quite simple with playful names.

Overall, the noodles themselves are pleasant, with smooth gentle texture and ingredients are very fresh. However, the dashi broth is little bit off-balanced to my taste buds, which is the soul of the dish in my opinion. Let me know what you think if you have tried this place.

Their portions are extremely generous, it make sense at these prices so you will definitely get a filling meal. I think the major improvement they can make is the organization of their service as it sometimes was very difficult to get the attention of the server. I am curious to go back to see how much they improve in the future as I truly enjoy fresh udon dishes.

I walked into the restaurant on a weekday for lunch. There were no line ups and they only had one table. They didn't have a restaurant sign outside, so it was easy to drive pass them without knowing.

As soon as I got in I was greeted by the chefs in the kitchen (they've direct eye sight to the front door), and then the waitress sat me down.

I decided to go for the NikuTenTofuToji udon noodle (meat, prawn tempura and egg). You can choose between regular or small size. The waitress explained that the regular size comes with 300g of udon noodles whereas the small portion comes with 200g, one prawn and less meat.

The broth was really flavourful, it was heavy on the seaweed umami, but I really liked it, especially with the tenkasu bits. The udon is served in a really big bowl, so while the prawn may look small in comparison, it's actually a really big piece. I think my egg had exploded in the fryer though and soaked into the soup. Would be better if the egg retained itself so I can enjoy the clear taste of the soup more. The meat was tender, but a little bit dry. The udon was nice, but could be a bit chewier. Overall I enjoyed my dish. The flavours were very good.

Service was excellent. The waitress working that day was speedy, attentive and friendly, despite being the only server there. She always held the door open for every customer leaving the restaurant, even when they just come in to pick up their take out.

All in all, I think it's a good restaurant and I'll definitely go back to try their other udons.

I read some reviews that indicated that prices are too high, but the strengths and the key ingredients at this place are the soup, Dashi. They don't use MSG, and to bring this deep, delicious broth, it takes a lot of labour and money. Considering that factor, 18 bucks for certain dishes is not expensive at all. That is probably why they gained the Michellen recognition recently. Please keep up with genuine Dashi making for your store, Motonobu-san!

We came on a weekend evening and after reading some Google Reviews - some of the reviews are right. We called twice and no one picked up the food. We came by to a short line, but was not acknowledged. After waiting some time, we asked the server how long the wait was and was told around 30 minutes for 2 people. We put our names and phone number down and waited around because they don't call your name from the door nor give you a call. After around 15 minutes, we saw some empty tables inside so asked the server - we were able to get seated faster. It just didn't make sense that they don't call you or phone you and customers have to check in.

We ordered the Ebiten and Niku udons (they accidentally gave us NikuEbi, but didn't charge us). The prices are quite steep ranging from $10 for vegetable udons to $25. The udons are made in house. We went to a Michelin star udon restaurant in Japan. Maybe our standards were high, but we were quite disappointed. Upon first taste, I found the broth very fishy, but adding shichimi and soaking the green onions, the fishiness faded. The texture of the udon was disappointing. It has slightly on the harder side, but lack no chew. As harsh as it sounds, it taste like frozen store bought udon. The toppings were great. The ebi was crunchy and meat tender. I just wished the ebi was played separately because it got soggy fast.

After getting seated the service improved a little. There were 2 servers with around 7 tables, but the servers seemed very busy. Some things were perplexing like how servers would have to bring dishes all the way to the dishwasher in the kitchen and the dishwasher would bring out 3 cups or 4 spoons each time after washing. Servers were walking back and forth up the ramp so much that the extra time would be saved with a more efficient arrangement - maybe give them time to pick up the phone. What bothered me was also 4 of the 6 staff in the kitchen were not wearing masks or any sort of face or mouth covering.

Overall, this is a restaurant worthy trying, but we won't return.

This Udon restaurant is a change from all the ramen places, as for some reason there are very few Udon restaurants. It has only been open for a week and my review aims to be as helpful as possible.

The first was that the wait was excruciatingly long. Evening hours were stated as 530-830 and we arrived just before 6. There was a lineup of about 10 groups ahead of us so we expect a wait. Little did we know that we would end up being the second to last customers.

The lineup was very confusing. It seemed logical that people were lining up to go in as people came out. I later discovered that it was a lineup to have your name put into the queue. That was weird. Just past 6 the hostess (who was a very nice lady but still) came out and got the name and number of three or four groups of people then we didn't see her again until past 7. She never came out to explain what was happening. My thought is she wasn't sure if we would be able to have a table before closing. Otherwise there is no logical reason why she would not take the numbers down for the groups waiting. As it was we got our table at about 810pm, almost 2.5 hours from when we were first there.

The food itself was ok. The servings are big but nevertheless my dish was $25 while my wife's was $20.

The menu is basically Udon with 1-5 toppings. I found the broth rather tasty and the noodles good, but my wife prefers the more chewy kind.

The hostess was very kind as I said before but more communication to people waiting would have been appreciated.

2 in 1 here...
Rich Homie Wan and I have been here. I will share our experiences.

RHW: 'trash'... 'never order here again'... his exact words. Rude eh?
However, looking at the photo he sent me... ya I can see his frustration. How's the seaweed bigger than my bedsheet? What's going on here?
Something else he griped about was the beef: too lean and big. I hope he was talking about the beef (pause).
In motonobu's defense, any soup noodle don't travel well. Order takeout at your own risk.
1 star.

My POV: I won't be as rude to declare this place trash. However, it is overpriced -- udon shouldn't be $18+. I get that it is handmade; thus, classified as artisanal. If so, then the broth should be equally handcrafted. The dashi should be the star but it is nowhere to be discovered.
Side note, don't add brisket to your udon; it's a weird flex. Just stick to the basic and know that you could have ordered something similar at Sushi Garden.
3 star.

Ending on a positive note: the inside is very clean and covid safe. It's one of those places where you go and meet a friend who isn't really a friend but you just wanna meet up over something expensive cause you wanna show face. You know that kind of place.

A nice change of pace from the typical sushi and ramen spots in Van. Motonobu Udon is the only place I know that makes their udon fresh! Love their simple dashi broth and chewy thick noodles. You can customize to have tempura and other toppings. The portions are quite big as well.