Marugame Udon

A bowl of kamaage, noodles straight out of the pot with a fish dashi to dip them in, started at 3.45 pounds when the first European site opened at Liverpool Street, and the noodles are made in an open kitchen you walk past on the way to the tray stack (Restaurant).

Why go

The style is Sanuki udon, from Kagawa prefecture, which is the dominant udon style in Japan and the thick, chewy end of the noodle spectrum (Restaurant). You take a tray, move past the noodle counter where the bowls are built, help yourself along a tempura rack, and finish at a condiment station where ginger, chili, spring onion, toasted sesame and tempura scraps are free. Time Out's Ella Doyle rated the Argyll Street branch three out of five and made the comparison that settles the place: "the bowl's precision doesn't compare with the likes of Koya ... But for value for money, there's no comparison" (Time Out). Know who you are dealing with. This is Toridoll Holdings, a Japanese group with more than 800 restaurants at home and 250 across Asia, the US and Russia, in joint venture with Capdesia, with a Gourmet Burger Kitchen veteran running the European rollout. It buys scale, consistency and low prices, and it does not buy invention.

Order this / avoid

• Order: a small kake, udon in hot fish dashi, which is the cheapest bowl that shows you the noodle. Add the onsen egg, which Doyle calls "a must-order, soft poached in its shell and strangely rich" (Time Out). Prawn tempura, taken hot, was "near perfect (and huge)". Then load the bowl at the condiment station, since none of it costs anything.
• Avoid: the fishcake tempura, which "ended up tasting of nothing", and any tempura that has been sitting out. The vegan kimchi udon arrived "a little cold, such is the risk of serving up noodles on-site with no broth" (Time Out).

What locals & experts say

• Ella Doyle, Time Out London, 6 April 2023, three stars and Recommended, on the Argyll Street branch: "the stars of the show are the udon, which are perfectly chewy, doughy and slurpable." On where it sits against the specialist: "the bowl's precision doesn't compare with the likes of Koya, the very grown up udon bar in Soho and Hackney", and "for value for money, there's no comparison." Her closing line: "Cheap, quick and incredibly vegan friendly, Marugame Udon is doing something other fast food chains aren't." ref
• Joe Lutrario, Restaurant, 5 August 2021, reporting the Liverpool Street opening and naming the risk: udon is "a somewhat austere and not immediately accessible branch of Japanese cooking that could become lost in translation if the messaging isn't spot on". He also records what the room is for: "Diners are greeted by an open kitchen in which the noodles can be seen being prepared and cooked, a very specific and visually engaging process." ref
• The brand's own claim, which is a claim and not a fact: "it's fast craft not fast food" (Marugame). The noodle-making is real and visible; the phrase is marketing.

Good to know

• Sites: eight in London, plus Reading. Liverpool Street at 1-3 Widegate Street E1 7HP, Oxford Circus at 1-4 Argyll Street W1F 7TB, The Strand at 449 Strand, High Street Kensington at 123B, Waterloo on the station balcony, The O2, Canary Wharf at Cabot Place, and Brent Cross. This row is brand-level: the saved pin has not been resolved to one address, so nothing here is asserted about a specific site beyond what is labelled.
• The review is Argyll Street's. Time Out visited the two-floor Oxford Circus branch that opened in late 2022 in the old Garfunkels. It is not evidence about the other seven.
• Booking: none. Walk in, take a tray, pay at the end of the run.
• Money: bowls started at 3.45 pounds in 2021 and small bowls were around 4.95 by 2023; the most expensive thing on the menu was a large pork tonkotsu at 12.45. Soft serve and soda are bottomless for 3.45.
• Dietary: vegan options run across the menu, including a fish-sauce-free kake at the same price as the standard one. The noodles are wheat, and no cross-contamination statement is published.
• Hygiene: the register holds a separate record for every site. Seven London branches rate 5, inspected between April 2025 and July 2026; The O2 rates 4, inspected 5 January 2026. A rating attaches to its own premises and to no other. ref

Jeff's take (his words)

Jeff has no note on this row. His raw saved-places export carries an empty Note against Marugame Udon, and the title he saved is the bare brand name with no branch, which is why this entry stays brand-level rather than guessing at a site.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

could-visit — Cheap, fast, competent, and the noodles are made in the shop where you can watch it happen. A small kake runs under a fiver, the onsen egg is a pound and a half, the ginger and chili and tempura scraps at the condiment station cost nothing, and the soft serve is bottomless. Time Out gave it three stars and drew the line exactly where it belongs: the bowl's precision does not compare with Koya, and for value for money there is no comparison. That is the whole ruling. Go when you are on Oxford Street or changing at Liverpool Street and want a hot bowl for a tenner, take the small kake and a prawn tempura straight off the rack, and skip the fishcake. When udon itself is the point of the evening, the send is Koya. This is an eight-site London operation run by a Japanese group with more than a thousand restaurants, so nothing here is edgy and nothing needs to be.