At Umai, udon noodles take on unexpected forms that will surprise you with tasty and mouthwatering combinations to tickle your palette.
Located at Guoco Midtown Market along Beach Road, the Umai restaurant only opened in mid-January 2024 but it is already drawing in a persistent crowd with the bold udon flavours on the menu.
Created by the same team behind the popular Omoté chirashi restaurant, Umai offers not-your-typical udon dishes.
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Umai Udon Restaurant: Delivering Big Flavours
If you think that udon is a bowl of thick noodles in clear broth, Umai will have you rethinking that notion.
Umai serves artisanal varieties of udon in different preperations.
Amongst the types of udon available are:
- hoto from the Yamanshi Prefecture;
- sanuki from the Kagawa Prefecture;
- himokawa, which originates from the Gunma Prefecture; and
- hippari from the Yamagata Prefecture.
We recently tried some dishes at Umai.
The first was the Miso Carbonara ($19).
The udon was lovingly coated with creme de parmesan and luscious aged pecorino romano cheese. Applewood smoked bacon and duck added to the dish’s rich flavour.
However, the star of the plate was the generous slab of 72-hour slow-cooked black pork that came on top of the udon.
The pork was flavourful and had a nice crispy sear on one side and a decadent fatty layer on the other.
The Yakibuta Tonkotsu ($18) was a hot bowl of noodles in tori-buta soup. It came with a gorgeous strip of black pork samgyeopsal or pork belly.
The broth had a nice deep flavour making it a hearty and satisfying meal.
Garlic Maze ($18) is a dry, stir-fried take on the udon noodle. It comes with prime beef, garlic bulgogi marinade and house yakiniku sauce along with the springy noodles.
As if that was not rich enough, a half-cooked egg tops it off and the runny yolk mixes in to create a creamy and rich plate.
For something more unusual, try the himokawa udon with niku shabu ($18).
Himokawa udon has a thick width that reminded us of kway teow or even kway chap.
The himokawa udon with niku shabu dish can be served either hot or cold. We tried the cold version and it came with a peanut dipping sauce.
We enjoyed the mix of textures in the noodles that included little bits of tempura batter that added a light crunch to each bite.
More Items on the Umai Menu
There are also a mix of small plates available too.
We had the crispy squid frites ($16) but found the squid to be too hard and the seasoning was quite saltish and overpowering. It was our only disappointment of the meal.
On the other hand, the Ebi Mayonnaise ($13), made with tiger prawns, had a satisfying crunch and a nice bite.
Other items on the menu at Umai include dons for those who wish to have a rice bowl.
There are also cocktails available if you wish to have a tipple to go with the udon dishes.
Umai = Delicious
In Japanese, umai is a phrase that can be simply translated as “delicious” and that is what you get at the Umai udon restaurant.
One tip that we have to arrive early because the seating area is limited and you may end up queuing outside waiting for a table.
Where: Guoco Midtown Market, 128 Beach Rd, #01-05, Singapore 189771
Opening Hours: Lunch – 11.30 am to 2 pm; Dinner – 5.30 pm to 8.30 pm, daily
Website
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