01-03-2025
I tried Cardiff's tiny, unnoticable restaurant serving up authentic Japanese noodles and one thing was absolutely divine
Tucked on a corner on Penarth Road, you'll find Hatsu Udon. Amid the hustle and bustle of Grangetown, you could easily walk past this tiny, unassuming place, but this restaurant is not one to be missed. The authentic Japanese restaurant opened in July last year.
Although a quiet start for this restaurant, in recent weeks, Instagrammers and TikTokers alike have been flocking to its doors. Its owners, Joseph and Carmen Chung, moved from Hong Kong to the Welsh capital four years ago. For the latest restaurant news and reviews, sign up to our food and drink newsletter here.
While Hong Kong had an abundance of authentic Japanese food, Joseph found that something was missing from Cardiff's culinary scene. "I love to cook," he told me, the day after I visited for dinner. "And I love Japanese food. I was thinking that the people in Cardiff deserved to eat better. I could see there were quite a lot of Japanese restaurants, but I thought that most of them were not authentic.
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"Most Japanese restaurants only focus on one thing, like ramen, udon or sushi. Matsudai Ramen, for example, does a brilliant job of focusing on one thing and doing it well. But I found that other restaurants or cafes try and focus on more than one thing." He continued: "And that's when I started thinking it would be good to create my own business for the people to try. I wanted to bring something new to the local people."
Joseph decided to focus on udon, which is a thick noodle widely used in Japanese cuisine. But before he could even start thinking about launching his own business, he decided to teach himself how to create the perfect udon himself.
"Two years ago, I found that I had no work and I needed to take care of our son - he had to go to nursery and I was the only driver at home," Joseph explained. "But during this time, I used my time to try to make udon. I love to eat udon, but I didn't know how to make udon before then. I tried to make it at home and do my research. I tried to make udon nearly every day.
"First, I had to try and find the right flour and the right ingredients to make the kind of texture that udon has because it is very special. If I used another flour, it just wouldn't work, it would be totally different. I tried to improve my noodles as much as I could, create something that could be sold and that people could enjoy. I wanted to create an udon that you could eat in Japan."
According to Joseph, it took him nearly a year to get the perfect udon, but added that he still practises to ensure he is always serving the best. To begin with, the business owner created the noodles by hand, but by now, he uses a big silver machine, which now sits in the restaurant's open kitchen.
In April 2024, Joseph found out that a site just around the corner from his home was up for lease, and a few months later, Hatsu Udon restaurant was born. Business began slowly, according to Joseph, but gradually, things started to pick up thanks to the power of social media.
"Generally, it was quite quiet in December," he said. "We then started doing advertisements and then some foodies of Cardiff came and then they shared their posts to people and then people came. After December, we've been quite busy."
Both Joseph and Carmen work at the restaurant, alongside two-part time staff. The couple hope to hire more staff in the future. "My main goal is to show people what is udon," he said. "Running a business is quite challenging, but I love what I'm doing right now. Hopefully, more and more people will come and try our food."
On a cold February night, I decided to head over to Hatsu Udon after hearing good things from friends and spotting it on my TikTok feed. As we walked through the door, the staff greeted us and took us straight to our table with the menus.
The menu was extensive, but primarily consisted of udon dishes. You could get soups, curries or stir fries, but if you were looking for an alternative you could also get rice bowls. We decided to order the stir-fried beef udon (£15), gyudon rice bowl (£14.50) and chicken karaage (£7.50) for our starters.
And for drinks, we had a can of Coke and a drink called Ramune (£4). As explained by Carmen, who came to serve us, Ramune is a Japanese carbonated soft drink. I decided to go for the lychee flavour, but you could also get it in pineapple, melon, strawberry or the original flavour, which as I later found out, was a lime-lemon flavour.
The drink comes in a unique Codd-neck design, which has a round, clear marble instead of a cap to conceal the mouth of the bottle. Rather embarrassingly, I had no idea how to open the drink and Carmen was kind enough to show me how to do it. The fizzy drink was amazing, crisp and fruity, sweet but not sickly.
Then, our starter to share came to our table. The chicken karaage had a crunchy, crispy shell and tender, marinated chicken inside, which tasted even better with a squeeze of lemon and a generous amount of creamy mayonnaise on the side. We devoured the chicken in a matter of seconds.
Our mains came soon afterwards. We decided to share the stir-fried beef udon and the gyudon between the two of us. The beef dish came with tender and melt-in-the mouth Japanese beef chuck eye, udon noodles that were thick and had a beautiful chewy texture to them, chunky carrots and onions that had the right amount of crunch, sesame seeds and bonito flakes, which added a hint of smokiness to the dish.
All the ingredients were drizzled with mayonnaise, which made the dish creamy and slightly sweet, which was a good contrast to the salty, umami flavours of the beef. Our gyudon was a dish that came with thinly sliced beef, thinly sliced spring onions spooned over steamed rice and savoury-sweet sauce that I poured all over the dish. It was a simple dish, but it was a hearty, comforting and satisfying meal.
Even though we were full after our mains, there was always room for dessert. I am a huge fan of Mochi Little Moons, but only ever tried them from the supermarket freezer section. I wanted to find out what they tasted like in a restaurant. I chose the mango cheesecake flavour and they were £3.50).
These were absolutely divine, with their chewy shell and soft centre - the mango tasted juicy and tropical and blended well with the creaminess of the cream cheese. I could have easily eaten 10 of those. Overall, our experience at Hatsu Udon was really good, the staff are really kind, attentive and friendly, the food was tasty and comforting. This was my first time trying udon noodles, but it certainly won't be the last.
As Joseph explained, the word 'hatsu' in Japanese means "first time", which is a very apt word for the business owner and his restaurant. "This is our first restaurant in our first home in the UK. But hopefully, this will be a place where people can try udon for the first time."
Find Hatsu Udon at 146 Penarth Road, Cardiff, CF11 6NJ.
