A famous local udon restaurant satisfying the appetite of young and old.

“Please try the curry udon – I have confidence.”

Koichi Shibayama – the owner of Tengu udon restaurant

“It is just an ordinary udon restaurant,” Koichi Shibayama – the owner of the restaurant – emphasizes.

Talk about “ordinary”. You will be surprised by how crowded the restaurant will be at lunch time. People quickly stuff the udon into their stomach, and offer the seat for the ones waiting.

In addition, our editorial staff E and S are a big fan of Tengu. They are often talking about how great yesterday’s curry udon was when they should be having discussions about editing.

The morning of Tengu starts at 4am. The first practice is to wash the chicken bones with boiling water and stew them to make chicken broth for the Chinese noodles. While making broth from kelp and dried bonito, the rice with red beans will begin to steam – this is the sign of 5am. In a while, you will see the regular customers peeking in from the half-opened shutter, waiting to purchase the Inari (sushi rice wrapped in fried tofu).

Koichi – the third generation owner – and his 32 year old son is the maestro of the kitchen.

“This is not a big deal. I’ve been taught that it was much busier 40 years ago when my father used to own the restaurant.”

The restaurant was founded in the Showa 20’s. The reason Koichi started working at the restaurant was because of staff shortage. There was no need to learn from the basics to advanced because he grew up eating the udon and the soup stock is already a part of his body – it must be a peculiar thing for family managed restaurants.

“Due to aging, my father began to close the restaurant after the lunch time. I was in my early 40’s when I decided to take over.”

Curry udon is the new signature dish I have spent my time on since my generation.

All is for curry udon.

“All is arranged and adjusted for the curry udon – the specially ordered soft noodles, the flavor and the thickness of the fried tofu, and the curry soup made based on the broth soup of the udon.”

Koichi normally is not a talkative person, but when it comes to the topic of curry udon, you can feel the strong passion from his words. He has already handed most of the work to his son, but he always does the taste checking for curry udon himself.

Excellent service supporting the flourishing restaurant

You cannot talk about the restaurant without mentioning Mieko, Koichi’s wife, who is in charge of serving. “Extra peppers for that Nabeyaki udon”, “Make this a large size”, “Don’t put the Japanese pepper in this one” – she remembers the preferences for almost 200 regular customers. She never forgets to serve on a first-come, first-served basis for customers coming in and out at a high turnover rate. We would like to call her the Shotoku Taishi of Tengu for her amazing memory, accuracy, and attentive service.

“I just try my best to thank the customers for coming,” says Mieko modestly.

Mieko and Koichi were classmates at the Oki high school. Because her parents were also running a family business, it was a natural thing to help Koichi’s business.

The curry udon has arrived just in time when I was about to finish the interview. The chopsticks slowly sinked ino the creamy curry soup with sliced pork, green onions, and fried tofu melting together. The soft noodles are coated with the creamy soup and it is well matched with the gentle harmony of curry and the broth soup. There is no doubt in the silent confidence of the owner.

“How delicious!” I must report to E and S immediately after returning to the office.

1 / The most popular menu of Tengu is curry udon, 520 yen. “2^nd popular is menu is either the Nabeyaki udon or the Chinese noodle – they have a close fight.” 2/ The restaurant does not stand out. It must be difficult to sniff out the existence of the splendid curry udon just by the appearance. 3/ The pricing is easy on the pocket. “I keep the affordable pricing from my view.”