Visiting an udon restaurant named "Shin", in Shinjuku.

Standing along a narrow street in south Shinjuku, the handmade Udon restaurant Shin (うどん 慎 in Japanese) is one of the best wheat noodle shops in this district. I visited there a few weeks ago, and found a wonderful food :) Let me show what it was like.

 Like many other popular yet budget-friendly (you can be full around $10) restaurant in Tokyo, you can see people queued in front of it. I was lucky I found only two people waited inside it, and took only a few minutes to sit a counter to eat. While waiting for clerks to take my order, I took a glance at a menu they passed. There are hot and cold Udon, as well as set menu come along with tempura and so forth. The price range is fairly good: the price of the normal Udon started from 650yen, around $7, and you can ask the bigger amount of Udon for free. I ordered a Udon with chicken tempure called "kashiwa-ten", a popular one in this restaurant (It was 950yen, about $10 for the record)
 Looking into the kitchen, a young man making Udon with his hands and a long wooden stick. Next to him, another man cooking tempura in a pot filled with oil. I noticed almost a half of customers are foreign people: someone from Taiwan and Asian countries, others from Europe and The U.S.  One of clerk explained about reasonings and the ingredients they use in English. "Wow, what a wonderful place to enjoy meals" I thought.

Because my Udon is cold one, they served a set of  black cups of soup. Once I remove the upper, which we pour the soup to dip Udon, nice flavor of dashi and soy sauce breathe around me. It looked I could expect a quality lunch.

 About 5 minutes later, it came in front of me. Everytime I eat Udon, I carefully sense its texture as well as the taste itself. Does it have a texture? If so, isn't it too soft? These questions always make me feel happy, and sometimes I take a memo to remember the details of what I eat. I felt satisfied when I finished eating it. The soup and the texture of the noodle is indeed well-balanced. I'm sure I'll be back soon :)


Restaurant Information
Udon Shin (うどん慎)

http://www.udonshin.com/
Phone: 03-6276-7816

〒151-0053 Tokyo, Shibuya
Yoyogi, 2-20-16

Sunday-Thursday: 11:00-23:00 (L.O.22:00)
Friday-Saturday:11:00-24:00 (L.O.23:00)

Although the nearest station is Minami-Shinjuku, I recommend you to drop off at Shinjuku Station when you visit by train. It's more convenient, and only 5-10 minutes walk :)