When in Oahu: Marukame UDON Waikiki
On our first day in Honolulu, Jared and I walked from our downtown hotel over to Diamond Head — we figured, since the volcano itself was a short and fairly easy hike, we’d get some extra urban hiking miles in beforehand and see a little of the city on our way. Now, it wasn’t that we had to go all that far, but it turns out that it’s not just the climb up Diamond Head that’s an uphill journey — it’s the entire trip from the beach to the base, too.
So, by the time we’d reached the monument, climbed to the top, and gotten back to the base, we decided we’d hiked enough for the day and grabbed a bus back to our hotel. And it was a good thing we did, because we discovered a local gem on the ride: Marukame UDON.
Wondering how we discovered it from our air-conditioned bus seats? Fair question. We noticed it because, although it was probably 4:30 p.m. (not quite dinner time, but later than lunch), there was a line waaaay out the door. Jared quickly Yelped it and, sure enough, it had an enviable 4.5 stars after more than 2,300 reviews. For those of you who don’t speak Yelp, that is a big freaking deal, and there was no way we were going to miss out. (The fact that most reviewers commented on how reasonable the prices were didn’t hurt, either.)
The next day we popped over for a late lunch having little clue as to what to expect, other than a long line (which there was). We waited 20 minutes or so just to get in the door, but that was okay, because there were serious choices to be made.
After much deliberation, I opted for the Kamaage Udon, which doesn’t go through the standard cooling process and leaves the noodles a bit more textured, and Jared went with the Niku Udon, which came in a broth and was topped with beef and onions.
But the choices didn’t end there — after selecting your noodles, you still have to choose your tempura! Knowing we wouldn’t have a chance to eat there again since we were flying home the following day, we (fine, I) might’ve gone a little overboard with the tempura choices, but I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want to miss out on trying something spectacular, you know? So I sampled some pumpkin, some purple sweet potato, a hard-boiled egg and a shrimp.
Why are these noodles so special (and so delicious)? Now, I don’t know much about Udon in general, but according to Marukame UDON’s site, they specialize in Sanuki-style Udon, which is seriously labor-intensive (no, really — read about it) and requires a experienced eye to reach perfection.
I would love to tell you that we cleaned our plates (erm, bowls), but, nope. Not even close. Although this might’ve been our least expensive meal of the trip, there was just so much food — I’m not even sure I hit the halfway mark, and that is not normally how I roll.
I had some restaurants I knew would knock my flip flops off planned for our vacation, but I never would have expected a cafeteria-style Japanese restaurant from our second-to-last day in Hawaii would’ve been such a standout meal. Maybe that’s part of what made it so damn cool.
Have you ever been blown away by a random restaurant find while traveling? —Kristen