tsurutontan

My friend Justin A. had recommended Tsurutontan to me after his Japan trip, so I had it bookmarked! After a quick walk around the vibrant Shinjuku neighborhood, we found it hidden right next to Little Sheep Hot Pot (on the right down the stairs). Although the front of the restaurant looked small (but super classy), they have a whole back area with lots of tables and dividers.
Curry udon with katsu in the biggest bowl I’ve ever seen in my life! With such a huge bowl, you’d think there would be an endless amount of udon. But sadness swept over me when I reached the last noodle. :(You can get extra orders of udon though!
Pro tip: if you want your katsu to stay crispy, you can ask for it on the side. :)
If you’re ever on a quest to find happiness in a bowl, look no further! And if you see a line, know the wait is well worth it!

There is amazing food to be found in Japan. In my mind it’s literally the best cuisine in the world. The flavour combinations are amazing and the ingredients are second to none. Via Unilocal I found this place not to far from our hotel and since it Involved no public transport we decided to give it a try and we were hoping for another great Japanese good experience, Sadly we came away with a very average «meh» feel about our meal.
It seems popular with the locals and we had to queue which is not unusual at all in Japan. Once in the décor was a bit like a night club I thought, but in a nice way. It was dark, but quite fancy and we were happy we had found a nice place to eat. We ordered curry udon with beef and it came out in the biggest bowls you can imagine and we got stuck in. I am afraid that’s when the «meh» feeling started. It was very plain and lacked any kick. Having had it in several other places it just felt like it was a very average meal. Looking about at other diners food we may have made a bad selection, but I can only grade on what I had and that means it’s an average 3 stars, for a less than tasty meal.
Nice place, very popular, if you do go don’t pick curry udon.

Excellent Udon. I had the Bouillabaisse Udon, and where the amount of seafood was not as plentiful as the picture, it was really good and satisfying. The noodles were perfectly cooked and the huge bowl is a good novelty piece. I really enjoyed my meal and didn’t mind waiting on line.

Udon tsunami! This restaurant totally exceeded my expectations. The udon came in comically large bowls with ladles for spoons, which made it super fun to eat. The udon was thick and chewy and perfect! This restaurant has a really cool rule where you can get up to 3 servings for the price of one. Not expensive at all so if you only want one serving it is still worth it! I ordered two servings and finished all the noodles. Both the cold and hot udon were fabulous. If you don’t read Japanese, there is an English menu you can ask for. Great food, great service, great prices!

If you’re as navigationally challenged like me, look for the little sheep logo and Tsurutontan is kicAted right downstairs. It’s at the very end of the really
Loud shinjuku street so no need to look around.
We can on a Saturday night at 8pm. Rookie mistake as the line snaked up the stairs and out the front. We came a second time at 4:30pm on a Sunday and there was no line. There was around 20 people in line at about 5:45pm. The portions are no joke here. They even offer up to triple portions of udon for free for those bigger eaters.
We al ordered the curry udon so can’t comment on the rest but it was really good. The regular curry udon is just beef and really dry so I wouldn’t recommend ordering that. The menu calls this the Special Recipe Curry Udon. This place is definitely a place to check out of you’re in Tokyo and craving curry udon. We failed by going to one of those random restaurant spots and was not satisfied.

The place is located in the basement of a back street in Shinjuku, however its not hard to locate. The ambiance isnt too shabby either.
Definitely opt for the Chicken Katsu Curry. I hope you are hungry, the bowls are freaking huge. The curry isnt the usual run of the mill Japanese curry, this place has a noticable addition of dashi, I found it to be really delightful. I believe the udon noodles are house made, they were really chewy and fresh. The chicken were juicy and perfectly crunchy on the outside, I would ask for my katsu on the side next time to avoid the curry from moistening the crunchy crust.
I asked for extra noodles upon ordering and there wasnt an extra charge for it on my bill. Im not sure if that is a free service or they comped me because of stunning boy-​ish good looks.
Will def be back!

If you are an udon fan definitely make your way over here to tsurutontan (^-^)
First of all the bowls here are HUGE! Be prepared. Second, the noodles here are delicious. I’m pretty sure you can order anything and it would be tasty. However, I really enjoyed the plain udon in the regular broth, and one time I ordered a special udon which had a bunch of veggies and meat in it (which was more expensive than usual but super filling and yummy). I’ve also had the curry udon which was okay, but I would recommend ordering something with vegetables and/​or meat before going for the curry options.
The food is great but this restaurant is popular so be careful if you try to go during prime eating times, especially dinner. Also don’t try to bring any dessert in with you; my friend and I attempted to bring a cake for our friend’s birthday and they weren’t too pleased with that.