U:Don Fresh Japanese Noodle Station Reviews

We had freshly made udon noodle when we were in Waikiki so was expecting a similar experience but was disappointed. When we arrived the noodle was made already and was soaking in water waiting to be reheated and served so it wasn't as al dente compared to freshly made ones. Their hot spring egg however was perfectly done but again it was soaking in cold water waiting to be served so it was only luke warm even after soaking in the hot broth. Price is great compared to the portion and flavour of the broth is good and hot. It will be a lot better if everything was just made fresh instead of sitting in a cold pot of water waiting to be assembled. Good price though.

I am disappointed. I am sooo disappointed that we don't have this restaurant here in Dallas. I was fairly surprised. A friend of mine brought me here when I was searching for some great udon noodles in Seattle. Not to mention that during this time, I was freezing. It was 50-60 degrees, so udon was sounding great. This place was so similar to a cafeteria. People stand in a line, take a tray, order their udon at the register, and pick up sides on on your way done the line. Almost like a buffet, except it's not. You get charged for the sides that you pick up. The food was great. I was so amazed how affordable this place. It was the best udon I have ever had. Which is the reason why I am disappointed that we don't have this restaurant in Dallas. I will definitely come back here when I'm in Seattle again. By the way, if you're wondering why I only gave it four stars instead of five because it was so good--Reason is because I wish that it was a restaurant with actual waiters/waitresses. That would have made the experience a lot better. The customer service could have been better. It was technically a self-serve restaurant.

I am not usually a big fan of Japanese food. But I was pleasantly surprised. They do need some better seating but the food was really delicious and the portions were huge. Plus my family who live in Seattle raves about this place

My daughter found this place while she was living in Seattle--perfect on a student budget (it is in the University District), but I found it surprisingly good. Simple concept similar to Chipotle, you go thru a line choosing the ingredients you'd like to add to your udon. Food tasted fresh, restaurant was clean, the place was packed! On street parking. Very reasonable pricing.

I really enjoyed this place. I have tasted udon in numerous places in Japan and this place is right up there with the best of them. You can see the noodles being made in the restaurant. The very long udon noodles are thick and chewy just as I want them. You can pick and choose what you want with/in the noodles. I took the medium bowl of udon noodles with soup and then added tempura veggies. It was delicious and it really filled me up. I will definitely return again.

Quite a new experience of udon bar for us, and it’s great. The idea is simple, you choose the size, flavor of the udon you want at the bar, and the guy pours it to you in 10 secs. Then you pick up any side dish you want and head to the pay station. The thick cut udon noodle turned out to be great. The texture is perfect, tender with a little chewy, just the way a good udon should be. The broth was excellent, full of flavor yet subtle and not too salty. My wife ordered their curry udon and the curry was very nice. Unlike the over sweetened Japanese curry sauce sold in super markets, this curry sauce got quite a kick, which comes just right for the udon noodle. The portion is pretty big. I hardly finished my medium bowl, and my 8-yo son could only finish half of his small bowl. It would be great if they can offer a kid-size. The udon noodle comes with the green onion, seaweed. Then there are other side dishes like various tempura, fried chicken to order. Though the udon noodle bowl itself is at great price, the side dish is a little overpriced.

Great udon; cheap prices; friendly service. This is a nice stop and the flavors and authenticity are spot on. They have a dozen or so standard udon choices, and several tempura offerings as well. Only place they could improve is the decor. Highly recommended for the food.

We picked the Niku and Tan Tan udon, one large and one small. The Niku was full of tender beef and onions; topped with seaweed, green onions, and ginger. The broth was quite good, very flavorful. The Tan Tan udon was very spicy, and we normally can handle the heat. Too bad you cannot get it toned down a notch, otherwise we would get this all the time. It is an "order and pick up food down the line" type of operation. The staff was very friendly and helpful. We went at 5 pm so the crowd was very thin; got our food quickly and on out of there to attend a football game. We will definitely return. Cheap eats for good quality food.

Very delicious. The noodle it self taste very good. I try the niku ume oroshi very 👍. No complain should try. They made the udon from scratch QQ.

We came to U:DON for dinner and it didn't disappoint me. There was 4-5 people in the queue but it just took us around 5mins to get our order. I ordered a medium Niku udon. Great portion, soup was nice, beef and onions goes really well together with the sauce - I could have a bowl of rice just with it! We picked many side dishes too, those were fresh and delicious! Overall, we enjoyed the meal in UDON. Very suitable for students. Will definitely come back if we visit Seattle again!

Fantastic udon noodles at a great price. Quick service and a friendly staff. We all had the Naku udon and really enjoyed it.

Delicious udon noodle bowl. Great tempura and other sides. Friendly staff. Cool atmosphere. Inexpensive food.

The udon is delicious without a doubt. The only problem I have is that I always get a large size because, frankly it's just one dollar to upgrade from small to large, and I can never finish it. We have tried Curry Udon, Goma Zaru Udon, Tan Tan Udon, and Ume Niku Oroshi. They all taste fantastic plus each of them has a very unique flavor. It is pretty fun to discover some new tastes each time we visit, and they rarely let us down.

My son and I are vegetarians so it can be difficult finding a good restaurant. A few weeks ago we were walking by U:Don and decided to try it. It was surprisingly inexpensive. Just $7.75 for a very large bowl. The vegetarian broth was excellent. The atsu-age was savory and the noodles were very satisfying. We will definitely return!

Looking for an adventure in noodles and wanting Japaneses, we sampled this cafetetia style noodle bar in the University of Washington District for cheap eats. The ambiance definitely gave a Japanese campus vibe, ordering was easy with the pictures and descriptions. Get a booth when you can. We all ordered medium bowls which was generous and if you weren't going to order sides you could probably finish the medium...we all said we'd order small next time, since we love side dishes! Medium good for sharing with little ones. The Kaki-fry is a vegetable ball of goodness, a must! if you get it fresh even better. The chicken karaage pieces were good size and tasty. But be adventurous and try the takoyaki, kind of like a hushpuppy with tender octopus bits inside. Yum. My On-tama Udon came w/ "hot spring egg" green onions and ginger. Good broth. Hubby had the special tonkatsu udon - a pork based soup - he called good. Son had the basic soup broth that he loved. The tempura side is of course always better if fresh. Skip the packaged dessert unless you really want to try it.

the price is cheap, and you can eat quickly. the taste of the sauce is not the best one. but, noodle is ok. considering the speed and price, it is recommendable. 한국인들이 먹기에는 국물이 있는 'soup udon'이 입맛에 맞을 것 같아요. 튀김 종류는 그닥 추천할만하지 않아요. 바쁠때 저렴한 가격에 한끼 해결하기는 괜찮아요.

This the the best fresh udon noodle restaurant in Seattle. Noodles are made fresh daily and with pride. You can taste the difference because the udon is thick but not too chewy...just perfection. Order the soup udon then select from the many different tempura toppings!! Wonderful food at wonderful prices.

Specialization is a good thing when it comes to U:Don. They serve some of the best udon noodles that I have ever tasted! Their menu is simple; choose a size, select a style (hot or cold), choose any extra toppings you'd like and that's it! There it is all about the noodle, which is made fresh all-day long right before you. Once you have your bowl of delicious noodle, slide down their self-serve tempura bar then pay. Done! Seating is fairly abundant and looked like they could accommodate groups. The atmosphere is casual, modern, simple and clean. This is really a no frills place. I tried the special, Ume Niku Oroshi (noodles with sukiyaki braised beef, grated diakon radish, seaweed, umeboshi [japanese pickled plum], dashi shoyu sauce, green onion and ginger - ~$6.50/medium) served hot with a side of tempura octopus balls (~$1.50/stick). The udon was perfectly cooked, springy with bit of chew, while the beef was tender and flavorful. All the ingredients were fresh and high quality. The octopus balls were hot with a crisp outside, custardy inside and plenty of tasty octopus drizzled with a spicy mayo. Overall, I wish there was one of these places in every town, because I could eat there everyday and be happy. It is too good to pass up.

U :Don is a cute name because it looks like an emoticon :D. This place is a quick noodle shop. You can pick soup or sauce style and then you pick your meat. They also offer various toppings you can add on for a bit extra plus side items. I had the beef soup style udon w/ an egg. It was really good, the beef especially was very well flavored. This place is a little kitchy, they greet you and say goodbye in Japanese. So the theme is a bit heavy handed in my opinion, but the food is good.

Driving through Seattle on way home and decided to eat before crossing border. Where else to drive to but the U District just off I-5; home of great food at reasonable prices. Spent several years living in Japan and the homemade noodles at U:Don are as good as they get. The broth was excellent. We all tried different base noodle dishes and then added in some tempura. The karaage was excellent. Only wish that the tempura was not under a heat lamp as it did take away from the hot. fresh, super crispy texture that I love about tempura. The portion sizes are large and one should, in our opinion, under a size smaller than you think you normally would. Our perpetually starving 16 year old could not finish a large portion. Great concept and wish there were others. Look forward to our next stop on our way through Seattle.

This is a no frills place providing good food. We went there for a quick dinner and left satisfied. It's not something to blow you away, but does the job of satisfying your appetite. You have plenty of choices to choose from ranging from the very simple soup udon to more exotic ones.

We come here pretty often because we have 1 son at UW. It is especially great when the weather is cold and wet to have a bowl of udon. The prices are reasonable and there are so many choices and sizes to fit everyone's appetite. Our family usually sticks with the small and medium udon since we love the other tempura items and the salmon onigiri. Try it and you won't be disappointed!

lucky for me, this place opened only recently, in time for my visit to capitol hill. i had niko - the beef teriyaki soup and the stock transported me back to tokyo! the udon noodles were fat and slightly sticky as they should be, perfect texture. there were many side dishes to compliment your choice with several vegetable tempura as well as salads. a number of draft beer is available on tap as well as 3 different sakes which i found a little pricey - maybe they are of a very good quality, i don't know enough to be able to make an intelligent comment on this. nice, open, basic but attractive fit out with big accordion doors that open out on a warm day, well done u:Don!

After touring UW, our tour guide highly recommended eating at this restaurant. Not only was the food cheap but also delicious. You could have about a full meal there for about 7 dollars. They have both a selection of udon with different broths and a tempura bar with an assortment of different meats and vegetables. The udon noodles are made fresh and have a beautiful thick texture -- the tempura was also fantastic. Would definitely stop by if in the area touring around. It's about an 8 minute walk from the main university campus.

Went to U;Don, the new Japanese udon place on the Ave today. We were there around 4 pm, and all the customers (maybe a half dozen people) were Japanese or Japanese American. The concept is Japanese modern fast food in a cafeteria line. But don't let that put you off. Choose amongst 6 different types of udon (more if you count whether you want it hot or cold), and whether you want small, medium or large. If you choose hot, they warm the bowl for you. If you want, you get chopped green onion and grated ginger for free. A hot spring egg (coddled) is extra for $0.99 unless you pick the udon that includes it in the first place. Then you pick your toppings: various types of tempura--you get charged by the amount you pick--kaki-age (mixed veggies bound together with tempura batter and deep fried), kara-age (Japanese fried chicken), or onigiri--and a beverage. I got soup udon, my husband got on-tama udon, which comes with the hot spring egg. I got the dashi broth; he picked a heavier fish sauce. Since this was just a snack, we both got medium, plus he picked out a large piece of eggplant tempura; I had a few pieces of veggie tempura( broccoli, potato, asparagus). The tempura can be put on dishes separate from the udon. The tables come with soy sauce and shichimi pepper. We were both very pleased with our meals. The dashi was quite good (not as good as the excellent dashi at Tsukushinbo). The fresh noodles were plentiful and nice and thick and chewy. The tempura, which had been sitting under a heat lamp for a while, was still good, if not quite as crisp as it likely was when it came out of the hot oil. But then most places that serve tempura udon put the tempura on top of the udon and then pour the dashi on top of that, so any crispness is long gone anyway. (If you want really crisp tempura udon, go to Tsukushinbo, where the tempura comes on the side) Total bill (with a bottle of cold green tea for me) was under $18. There really is no good place for udon that I know of north of the Ship Canal. I'll be going back to U:Don to make my way through the menu. http://freshudon.com/

This is an experience one should have at least once. The noodle is very chewy (very good), and everything is quick, cheap and lots of choices to add on (if you are willing to pay for it). The broth, however is a bit salty.

I ate the tan tan sauce udon and various vegetable tempura for takeout. Order was ready in 10 minutes. Tempura traveled well, was still crisp when I ate it 20 minutes later. Noodles are thick and chewy. Sauce had great flavors

We went here on a recommendation of a friend. I am not a huge fan of noodles, but boy was this great! I had no idea that you could make udon taste so good or come in so many different varieties. I had the Curry and it was the perfect flavor and spice. Once you have your bowl, you move down the line and you you get choose the side items that you want. There were so many to choose from and they were all delicious!

If this place were in any other city the line would be around the block. Delicious handmade udon with tempura and desserts. We went to a place in Waikiki with udon just as good and it was crazy busy. This is an underappreciated gem in the University District.

The best udon I had so far. The curry beef udon was amazing. I had various tempura on the side that you pick out from the tempura bar. My husband has curry katsu, scratch made katsu, he claimed. Must go back soon. Oh yeah, and it was quick. So eating happened sooner than expected...

If you are looking for affordable, tasty food in the University District, U:DON is a good option. Try the Kara-Age Chicken and Chicken Wings. Highly recommend!

U:DON has delicious Udon and tempura vegetables. My favorite meal is a small Niku Udon with a small plate of tempura, which you serve yourself. This place almost always has a line, and it can be hard to find a place to sit. All signs of great food!

their posted closing time is 930 pm during the week. we were visiting from out of town and drove from tukwila all the way to their capitol hill location to try their udon noodles. we arrived at 9:10 pm only to see that they had closed. the place was completely empty and we were told they shut down early because there was no business. so much for rushing here only to be refused service. so disappointing. we ended up having ramen danbo around the corner which was complete packed.