Idaten Udon

This place is modeled after Japanese udon bars — you walk in and add stuff to your udon (instead of ordering your udon with pre-​determined combinations of toppings).
The udon here is not very fresh, though the soup is okay. They have a free flow of condiments (like tempura crumbs!) though, and the pork udon’s portion of pork was quite generous though. The tempura crumbs were good — I expected them to be greasy but they were not.
I like how you can customise your udon by adding various things to it. Sadly the toppings did not live up to the promise of the tempura crumbs.
The pork was a bit dry, the pumpkin was not sweet and a bit dry too. The enoki mushroom tempura was a bit dry too. In general the toppings were not fresh (I’m told the Serangoon outlet does better, probably due to turnover.).
Oh, and how could I forget my $ 2 «crab meat fry»? Of course, it was crab stick. I’d hoped for the best, but Singapore really needs consumer protection laws.
The base udon price is cheap but the addons cost a bit more. So it’s like the Gillette razor blade model. Prices here are nett price so the value is pretty good — though the quality is lacking.
This place might be alright for a quick and reasonably priced meal, but don’t look to indulge your taste buds here.

Love, love, love this concept of personalized-​udon. Customers have a choice a three types of noodles: original, matcha (green tea), and Yuzu (citrus). Wow! I usually go for the original because I’m a traditional type of guy.
You then have a choice of five types of udon: make udon (plain udon — boring, if you ask me), zany udon (chilled dipping sauce), kitsune udon (with fried bean curd), kamamata udon (with half boiled egg), chicken udon, beef udon, or pork udon.
Seriously wow, but I’m just getting started. The best part of idaten is not the udon, but the Tempura Bar!!! The shrimp tempura is huge, 10 inches long or so, no pun intended. They even have my favourite squid tempura balls. Looking at the tempura bar spread, it’s like ur a kid in a candy store.
Great concept, great everything, highly recommended for lunch.