Tsuku Tsuku Tei

Great place for lunch. They have a menu for $ 8 lunch specials plus if you see one of their workers outside you might be lucky enough to grab a free soft drink coupon. The workers here are nice and polite. The owner is always in the kitchen cooking food and will always greet customers coming in and going out. Unlike other places they don’t pre boil their noodles so it seems fresher and the broth isn’t too heavy or light it’s just right.
Btw parking is underneath the restaurant and they give you full validation so you don’t need to pay when exiting the lot.

Friendly service, fresh udon noodle, a variety of bowls, combinations, and set menu items all come together to make this place a great lunch or dinner option. Especially since they have an early bird special. If you’ve got a large party, call ahead for reservations as the restaurant is small. Free with validation parking structure is right below and within the building.
Opted for the curry and udon combo. Great value for the price you pay and if you like to customize your dinner, they offer a wide variety of choices and sides for reasonable prices.
4 stars for the menu and quality of food and service.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this place! I love Japanese food, especially udon and tempura. This restaurant offers fresh-​made udon noodles with various other dishes. I love Marukame Udon, but it can be inconvenient due to its location and lack of parking in Waikiki. I thought I found a great alternative to Marukame in Tsuku Tsuku Tei.
Granted, the prices are higher than Marukame Udon — my typical bill is usually about $ 15 to $ 20, depending on if I get dessert. My favorite dish of theirs is the zaru udon combo with the chicken karaage. I am normally not a fan of chicken karaage because it is too oily or too hard to chew (really tough, overly cooked chicken pieces), but their chicken karaage is super tasty — it is tender chicken, lightly fried and seasoned. It complements the udon well. Their udon also has a good chewiness and the sauce is perfect.
One of my favorite things about this restaurant is that they have the tempura flakes on the table, so you can add as much of it to your broth/​dipping sauce as you want. One secret — I usually let my husband add tempura flakes to his dish first so that I can use the rest of the tempura flakes up. I love the zaru udon dipping sauce with the tempura flakes.
The desserts there are also very good and unique. My favorite dessert there is the warabi mochi with vanilla ice cream. It is simple but oh-​so-​good. Warabi mochi is very soft, but doesn’t always have a lot of flavor. They add kinako flour to the mochi and the ice cream. First and only place I have seen so far to offer this type of mochi with ice cream. It is a nice and refreshing treat.
Their parking is underneath the shop and is kinda small, so it can be hard to get parking during the dinner rush. They also have a stamp card, so if when it gets filled, you get $ 5 off your next bill.
The service there varies. The first few times, we always had one guy serve us. He was always personable and welcoming. He would recognize us and joke with me on how much tempura flakes I would use. I like that he built a good rapport with us so quickly and he seemed genuinely happy to be working there. Other servers I have experienced were always nice, welcoming, and courteous.
Overall, I highly recommend this restaurant if you are a fan of udon and/​or tempura flakes. I know that is the reason why I come back for more.

LOVE!!! Tsuku Tsuku Tei, you are my comeback kid.
I’ve been putting off reviewing Tsuku Tsuku Tei for almost a year because the first time was extremely forgettable and I didn’t feel like being a biyatch after one try.
Flash forward to December 2012.
I came here for lunch with some girlfriends because the one visiting from out of town wanted good noodles… udon specifically. I didn’t want to deal with the parking for Marukame and I don’t care for Jimbo’s so I suggested Tsuku Tsuku Tei…
Cue church chorus now because hallelujah, they stepped up their game big time! They expanded their menu greatly and included lunch specials from $ 8. The special includes a regular size hot/​cold udon + mini something.
The udon is delicious! I love chewy noodles and Tsuku’s homemade udon has the perfect texture. Their broth for both hot and cold udon is very tasty. I could slurp them all day everyday! Their regular size is huge so unless you are starving or have as many stomachs as a cow, by all means, pay a little bit extra and go Large.
The mini side dish I’ve had so far was the pork bowl and curry rice. The pork bowl was good because it’s flavorful. This combo will leave you stuffed. The curry rice is all right, just curry with some carrots and rice. I would go for the pork bowl again.
Cold udon with mini pork bowl:
Other things I’ve «sampled» from others:
Chicken kaarage: fried to crispy perfection and seasoned with lots of salt and pepper. The chicken remains moist so this was good.
Shrimp tempura: the pieces are huge upon arrival but the batter is pretty thick. Hit or miss because once they were nomz and another day all I could taste was oil after my first bite.
Tempura ice cream ($ 4.90): I ALWAYS get fried ice cream when it’s on the menu because I’m on a quest to find the best. Well, unfortunately, it’s not fried. It’s fried udon pieces coated in cinnamon sugar and sesame seeds and the ice cream is rolled in it. Still very good and the sesame seeds gave it that extra hint of flavor and texture that’s unexpected. I love that they make this to order so that it remains crunchy unlike Torito’s that have faux fried ice cream pre-​made so it loses it’s crisp.
Service is great! The workers are quick with the tea and water refills which is much appreciated. Most of the workers and diners are legit, like straight from the motherland legit so I’m sure that’s a good sign!
I will be back! They have a loyalty card as well so now I just gotta remember to carry it with me.

Tsuku Tsuku Tei is my alternate to go to besides Marukame. It is quite typical of a Japanese Udon Shop and they greet you with a hearty «Irasshaimase!» upon entering. As soon as you are seated, they very promptly bring you your menu and a glass of water. They also have pictures of dinner sets and items on the walls for you to see and to help you make your decision. On this occasion, I ordered the udon /​shrimp and vegetable tempura combo with a side order of kakiage. My dinner companion had the dinner combo B which consisted of two California hand rolls, sashimi, cold udon and chicken karaage. The udon noodles are prepared expertly as not to be too doughy or soft. My tempura was delicately cooked and lacy and the kakiage, which looks sorta like a bird’s nest and consists of gobo, carrots, onions and deep fried in tempura batter till crispy was delicious! My companion’s meal was equally delicious and satisfying for her, although I ended up scoring some of that karaage and sashimi ! My only gripe is I wish they would give a little more tempura sauce and the mustard for the karaage.
I always enjoy my meals here, but one note to take into consideration. The tables are placed really close to each other and for me, I like to have a little privacy when I enjoy my meal. We had two diners who sat next to us, not by our choice, who were burning holes in our meals by just staring and making comments about our choices. Friendly conversation or not, maybe it’s just me, I didn’t appreciate that. Enough said. I will always go back for more delicious udon!
«Yelp’s 31’s» — #10/​31

Since everyone appears to be comparing this to Marukame, I needed to check this out. The udon itself here is actually of very good quality and comparable to Marukame. Chewy, thick, fresh, mmmmmmmmm!
I got the zaru udon + curry combo. The zaru udon was very refreshing, just what I needed on a hot summer day. I got the regular portion and it was way more than enough for me. The curry was whatevers. It was a bit watery and I could definitely make something similar if not better from those boxes of curry you buy from the market.
I tried my friend’s tempura combo and my other friend’s pork bowl combo. The tempura is good, nothing special, but you get a HUGE portion. The pork bowl is okay too, I thought it would be more of a minced pork bowl but it actually comes with pieces of marinated pork belly onto a bed of rice. Pretty good.
Whoever thought of putting a bowl of tempura flakes on the table for customers to self serve is genius. I kept piling mine on!!! IT GOES GREAT WITH THE DIPPING SAUCE. I guess I can’t attest to the broth served with the regular hot udon, but my friends and I liked the zaru udon enough.
All in all, Tsuku tsuku tei is a decent competitor. Plus it has free parking which is much more convenient than navigating the horrors of Waikiki. However, Marukame’s cafeteria style & price reign supreme. This place is a lot more similar to Jimbo’s, and actually the quality of the noodles may be a smidgen better, but I like Jimbo’s curry + udon combo better overall. I still wouldn’t mind coming to Tsuku Tsuku Tei if I wanted a more sit down restaurant experience though especially if I’m hungry since the portions were huge.
It looked like they also offered teishoku-​style dinner! Something to check out.

SLUUUURP … SLUUUUUUURP … SLUUUUUURP
That’s how you know you’re in a real Japanese restaurant. The Japanese nationals are sitting around you, sluuuuurping their noodles out loud. That’s how it’s done in Japan!
I still can’t get myself to sluuuuuurp out loud, and I wonder if sluuuurping out loud brings out more of the flavor of the food. But in any event, sluuuurping is not necessary for you to taste the goodness of their udon and broth.
While scanning the menu, you may be tempted to get a «large» instead of the regular, but believe me — the regular is a pretty sized portion for the average eater, and if you are ordering a combo, then you should really think twice before super sizing it. I do believe that these noodles expand in your tummy!
One of the many wonderful things about this restaurant is that they have a container of tanuki (tempura chips) on each table. Never before have I seen this at any other udon restaurant! Awesome awesome awesome!

Yay! I’m a fan. Aside from Phở, I Love Love Love udon. My friend and I was strolling back to my car on Keeaumoku Street one late night after a few drinks, and there it was staring right back at us, Sanuki Tsuku Tsuku Tei. The very next day, I paid a visit.
«Iraishamase.» As we stepped foot in the restaurant, we were greeted by friendly faces. I always feel so welcomed when we’re acknowledged at a restaurant. It says that they care that we are here. The restaurant was fairly small and clean. There was probably about 12 – 15 tables. The menu included the main udon selections. Curry, fishcake, tempura, kakiage, and others. Decent prices. I ordered two regular udon bowls and it cost $ 17.
The house made udon was just the right texture. Slurpalicious good. I love the fact that they have the tempura crumbs for us to add to our udon bowl. The regular portion was just right for lunch, not too petite and not too «I’m not going to have dinner tonight» large. Awesome udon place.

We met for a leisurely girls night of catching up and enjoying each others’ company though we’re the type of women where food is never secondary. That being said, It’s probably not a good idea to come here if you’re in a bit of a rush unless you don’t mind being pushy about getting service. I think this will improve over time so…
I’ll be a bit generous to the new noodle guy in town based on the nicely chewy, thick and plentiful house-​made udon noodles I was served but note my rating with a grain (or a couple) of salt…
I think they’re just overly polite so when the waitress saw we were talking a mile a minute she did not stop by to take our order until about 20 minutes after we were seated in the almost-​empty restaurant (very clean and nicely done I’d like to note) after being flagged down. She was really nice though but I don’t like to have to ask for things when clearly they’re not that busy. Other than that, I think the main idea of serving great udon is done right.
I ordered the toritsuke udon — (regular size — it’s also offered in large size. My gf got the large of another cold dish and I honestly didn’t see too much of a difference in quantity for about a $ 2 more). After looking at other Unilocalers’ pics of the menu it appears they’ve recently changed it, all of the items are now listed in regular or large sizes, priced accordingly.
This was described as cold udon noodles with a dipping sauce with chicken. I asked what dish they served that did not have fried items as the side options (other than curry) and this was the only menu item that wasn’t tempura or karaage.
When my meal arrived, I searched high and low for the chicken… it was actually more like a flavoring for the broth, a couple teeny pieces were in my sauce cup. Oh the sauce, so delicious!
Taking into account all of this — still 4 stars because the NOODLES AND SAUCE were GREAT! I do wish for quicker service and a greater variety of sides but do keep doing what you’re good at!

So the most important question is whether or not Tsuku Tsuku Tei is better than Marukame — well, yes and no.
As for location, I prefer Tsuku Tsuku Tei. It’s conveniently located in town next to Panda Cuisine, there’s a parking lot below, the restaurant is new and clean (but the bathrooms are outside — nyeh), and it’s not in Waikiki.
As for taste, I really enjoy the taste and consistency of the udon noodles and the broth. I think Tsuku Tsuku Tei’s noodles are way better than the noodles at Marukame, and I thought the portions were quite generous. My kake udon was ridiculously huge and my friend’s kakiage pirikara zaru udon was pretty hefty as well. The kakiage tenpura was of the big softball variety and was just okay. I think Marukame has a much better selection/​variety of tenpura and garnishes, like soft boiled eggs!
The prices at Tsuku Tsuku Tei are reasonable, around $ 7-​$ 14, but not as extreme cheap as Marukame Udon. Overall, I like Tsuku Tsuku Tei. It’s not Marukame, but it’s a nice alternative to Jimbo.

Since i only had $ 20 on me (cash only), was limited in what I could order. I had the plain udon and wife had the karaage udon.
Of the three main contenders in honolulu, Jimbo, marukame and this place. To me the noodles and soup base at this place was the best. The wife’s fried veges were ok.
Although about $ 3 more than marukame, its a close call where i would go. The handmade noodles have the perfect texture and chewyness. I hate when they can be broken by your chopstix. They have a good location. Free parking (on sunday night anyway) and its not crowded (for now).
Inside is super clean, especially the kitchen. They need more exposure, as we were the only ones in there.

Probably the best Udon place I’ve been to on the island. My bf and I were first lured into this gem by a handsome udon cook standing on the sidewalk of Keeaumoku passing out coupons for free soft drinks with a lunch purchase. A short journey up some stairs revealed a great find.
The dining area is a decent size and we were greeted VERY warmly. Prices are amazing. $ 8 for udon (hot/​cold), karrage chicken, and seasoned rice *karrage lunch combo* and $ 14 for 2 HUGE shrimp tempura, pumpkin and string bean tempura, udon, and rice *tendon combo*. While you wait for your food you are given the opportunity to hone your origami skills (materials and instructions provided on every table). Upon its arrival, the food proved to be just as amazing as everything else. They even hold the door open for you when you leave!
They take cash and card here. Parking is available for free with validation in the parking lot located beneath the stairs. Be sure to get a frequent udon card which allows you the opportunity to discounts with loyalty.
Be sure to give this place a try for lunch or dinner next time you’re in the area. You will not be disappointed!