We recently spent 10 days in Japan: a week in Tokyo and then three days in Kyoto. This was our first time in Japan. As you might expect, we ate out a lot in both cities. We were staying in places with small kitchens but only ever cooked breakfast. This means I have a lot of meal reports for you from both cities. (We did more than just eat in both cities but I’ll spare you reports on our visits to museums, temples etc..) The eating began almost on arrival. Our flight from Minneapolis to Haneda airport arrived (early) at about 12.30. By the time we had got off the plane, cleared immigration, picked up our luggage and sorted out our Tokyo metro cards (and our Shinkansen tickets to Kyoto the following week), it was almost 2 pm. In other words, time for a late lunch. A number of well-regarded restaurants have branches in the airport and we were aimed at one of these in particular: Hanayama Udon.
Hanayama Udon’s main branch in Tokyo is in Ginza. They also have a location in Nihonbashi and two more outside Tokyo in Gunma prefecture. The Tokyo locations apparently feature long lines and so stopping in at the airport branch seemed like a good way to eat their udon without enduring too much of a wait. The restaurant is located in the airport’s Haneda Garden area, which is home to a number of restaurants. Of course, when we got there, none of the restaurants had any English signage. There was, however, a directory/map and between that and Google Lens we were able to figure out which one it was. We found the restaurant quite busy. We had to wait outside for a few minutes before we were called to a table. (We were directed to leave our large luggage outside the restaurant but some other diners rolled theirs in to the front of the restaurant.) I imagine that at peak arrival hours at the airport there are probably lines here as well.
The restaurant is bright and attractive. We were handed physical menus but directed to use a table-specific qr code to place our order. The menu is compact. They are udon specialists and that is basically what they serve. You can get cold or hot udon; in either iteration you can get either a simple order of udon or add on things like a soft-boiled egg, grated radish, pork cooked with barley etc., or you can get a set/combo of udon and tempura. I think you can also order just tempura—I didn’t pay close attention to this as we were there for the udon, which is a very good, nourishing thing to eat after a long flight over the ocean.
What did we get?
The older boy and I opted for zaru or cold udon with a soy dipping sauce. I got mine straight up with regulation udon noodles plus a soft-boiled egg and barley pork. He got his with their signature oni-himokawa wide noodles and tempura. The missus and the younger boy both got kake or hot udon. She got hers straight up as well with a soft-boiled egg and grated radish. He got a tempura set as well and also added a soft-boiled egg to his udon. I had been interested in a seasonal special udon they had on a special menu but they were already sold out.
How was it all? Well, I am no udon expert but it was all quite excellent. The texture of the noodles was excellent and the dipping sauce for the cold udon and the broth the noodles were in for the hot udon were both great as well. The boys’ eyes were larger than their appetites at that point and so we ended up helping them finish their tempura, which was all great as well—predictably, they ate the shrimp in their tempura plate and left the veg to us. I particularly enjoyed the maitake mushroom and the shiso leaf tempura.
For a look at everything we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much it all cost and to see what’s coming next from Tokyo.
Alright, up next, a report on our first dinner. The plan had been to eat yakitori but we ended up eating at our neighbourhood sushi joint instead. More on that in a couple of days.