Marugame Monzo, Los Angeles CA

Trying to pick a single restaurant for noodles in Little Tokyo seemed like an impossible feat, but we definitely picked the right one coming here. I'm a huge fan of udon, ramen, and pho and this place gave me a whole new appreciation. First, the homemade udon is phenomenal. We ordered the beef udon and the sea urchin cream udon so we could try something fusion and something traditional. We loved both. If you're a bit unsure about the sea urchin, I would encourage you to take the risk. It's almost like if seafood alfredo and classic udon had a baby. The taste is new and exciting without feeling extreme or alienating.

We went during COVID (March 2021) and had seating outside. It all felt very safe, clean, and we'll organized. I was a little sad we couldn't actually see the udon being pulled, but you can absolutely taste the difference - there's nothing like it.

Tempura shrimp and scallops bowl - best dishes over tried here. The sauce wasn sweet and spicy. Very flavorful.

Uni udon - because it's a cream soup, I felt it's very blend, can't taste the uni. Kind of disappointed.

Gratin udon - my son said it's delicious. I think it's better than the cream soup udon.

Mental seafood cream udon - also very blend, shrimp tasted boring, scallops are tiny one and the creamy soup are to rich and again seems like everything with cream soup is heavy and flavor blend.

All in all, it's ok.

My favorite place ever! The food is delicious! The stuff is amazing friendly and will always figure out something to sit you down even without a reservation. I go very often there and I never had a bad experience! Bravo to everyone!

The food is amazing and delicious! Fresh Udon from scatch always hits the spot and warms the soul. I definitely recommend this place

The noodles where amazingly soft and just the right amount of chewiness. And the broth was great, with a full favor and not too over the top. Overall really great.

Delicious! We got take out and it was still delicious! They pack the noodles separately and both dishes were still extremely hot after a 15min drive home. I was recommended to this place by a family friend and I am so glad that he did. This place worth the shot.

Price: For the Sea Urchin Cream Udon it was $17.95 and for the Mushroom Cream Udon it was $13.75. The prices, in my opinion, are very reasonable for what you get in terms of quality and quantity. The rice bowls on the other hand are honestly a steal! So delicious!

Service: Great! We were kind of intimidated by the long list of names that were yet to be called out before us roughly 20-25 groups ahead. But a lot of them were no shows so it only took about 15 minutes before we signed up and sat down! Quick to order and get our food as well!

Food: Only recently have I started to like regular udon. But after trying out Marugame Monzo's creamy sea urchin udon, I can officially say I AM HOOKED! Everything about their Creamy Uni Udon was perfect. I love the taste and consistency of the broth/sauce, the texture of the Udon, and the saltiness of the Ikura and Uni pieces really complimented the overall dish! 10/10 would recommend this dish for Uni lovers. My SO got their creamy mushroom udon, which he said was also top tier!

Marugame Monzo gives a combo for a donburi (Rice bowl) to go with your Udon for an extra $3/$4 depending which rice bowl you choose! I really love Ikura so I got the Ikura Rice Bowl for $4. It was simple and delicious! The negitoro udon had more ingredients, such as japanese mayo and eel sauce! Also very yummy!

Just amazing. Reminds me of udon from when I was living in Miyazaki, from both the toppings and the こし of the udon.