Idaten Udon (Citylink)

Today we wanted to try some new kimbap place (House of Gimbap), apparently near Suntec City. However, we didn't manage to find it (turned out to be Millenia Walk instead) so after much deliberation, we settled for the Idaten Udon next to Sushi Express. Seems like it replaced the Asian Kitchen, hope it fares better than its predecessor.

Concept-wise, Idaten is more cafeteria style, where you start off by choosing your udon, then you grab a tray and slide it along the rails to the next counter and pick your sides. We had the Kake Udon (hot dashi broth) and the Kamatama Udon (with shoyu and onsen egg). Idaten allows you to choose what type of udon you want, having rather unique flavors such as matcha, yuzu and pumpkin. However we stuck to the plain old wheat noodles.

As for the sides, you get to pick from a wide variety of tempura, onigiri, karaage and even oden. We spotted deep fried squid, fried chicken & crab croquette as well. Although not freshly deep fried, most of the dishes are kept warm by the lamps. After paying for our meal, it's off to find seats and grab some of the sauces and garnishes from a nearby bar. Free flow of seaweed, spring onion, tempura flakes, chilli padi (the super spicy one) and the boiling hot tempura sauce! By the way, don't be deceived by the 'grated white raddish' as it tasted unmistakably like ginger to us. Sher was too greedy and took a whole bowl of her favorite 'white raddish' to garnish her udon and we ended up drinking ginger soup:/

As usual, we over-ordered on the sides, thinking two sides each would be just nice. We simply couldn't resist the tempura enoki mushrooms ($1.50), and the fried mixed vegetables which consisted of mostly onions and carrots. At merely $2, it was huge and could probably feed four.

S craved the pumpkin tempura ($1.30), so we took this lightly battered morsel off the tray. The fried chicken onigiri ($2.20), was surprisingly tasty despite being just a whole lot of carbs. 

The Kake Udon's broth was very qing dan and wholly satisfying. On the contrary, the Kamatama Udon was already very flavorful thanks to the shoyu. Mixing up the egg added yet another dimension of richness to the sauce.

There aren't many specialty udon places in Singapore, and Idaten seems pretty promising. This place caters to the budget conscious, and we would recommend this place if you are looking for a quick, fuss free meal.