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Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
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. READ MORE: Mary Berry perfect Welsh cakes recipe that takes just six minutes to cook READ MORE: Family business named best kebab shop in Wales for 2025 "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.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The two amazing Welsh restaurants stunning TV stars and celebrity chefs
Two amazing Welsh restaurants have been making waves on primetime TV recently. Chefs from Matsudai Ramen and Asador 44, renowned eateries both based in Cardiff, have been receiving heaps of praises both on and off the screen. Asador 44, located on Quay Street in the city centre, has been a recognised establishment in the Welsh capital for nearly a decade. While Matsudai Rame, based on Clare Road in Grangetown, is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year. Both restaurants have built quite the reputation within those years, not only showcasing the best our Welsh chefs can offer, but the vibrancy of our culinary scene. We have taken a look at what makes these restaurants so special, who has been raving about them, and why you should go check them out. For the latest restaurant news and reviews, sign up to our food and drink newsletter here. READ MORE: I ate in one of Cardiff's best new restaurants — one dish was like nothing I've been served before READ MORE: These are officially the 43 best restaurants in Wales that you need to try in 2025 In 2001, the Morgan siblings - Tom, Owen and Natalie kicked off their hospitality journey in south Wales when they opened Bar 44. Since then, their business has grown with Bar 44 restaurants in Cardiff, Penarth and Clifton Village in Bristol, a cookbook as well as a handful of other products, and another restaurant called Asador 44, which was opened on Quay Street in Cardiff in 2017. The Spanish grill and wine house has its custom-built wood-fired grill, which creates all kinds of delicious dishes that can consist of the freshest fish and seafood, dry aged steaks, sucking pigs, whole legs of lamb and vegetables, which are all cooked over charcoal in an open kitchen. Situated only a stone throw away from the mighty Principality Stadium, and only a few yards away from its sister restaurant - Bar 44, it's hard to believe you are in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the city centre once you're inside Asador 44. You can sit back, relax and enjoy in this cosy yet classy and intimate restaurant. Housed in a historic, warm, red bricked building, you can see meat hanging in cool fridges, a partially open kitchen and the daily changing specials written on a chalkboard. Over recent years, Asador 44 has been highly praised by experts. In August 2024, renowned food critic Giles Coren sung the praises of the Cardiff restaurant, but one thing stood out for him. "There are all sorts of good signs when you walk into Asador 44 in central Cardiff, just across from the Arms Park', he wrote in his review for the Times. "And I don't just mean metaphorical ones, like the friendly welcome, confident design and shelves of battered cookbooks. I mean actual signs. "Really good signs. Like, for example, the one that says, 'Suckling Pig Shoulder w/ cider sauce — £90'. Excellent sign, that. An even better sign says, '1 KG Welsh Ex-Dairy Rib — £110'. You ask me what is the sign of a great restaurant? I say a sign like that." A year prior, in 2023, First Dates star Fred Sirieix and chef and Wahaca co-founder, Thomasina Miers, paid the restaurant a visit during their tour of south Wales in their More4 series - Remarkable Places to Eat. The duo were served with Asador's prawn croquetas, which Fred marveled: "Oh my God, the flavour, it's beautiful! As far as croquetas are concerned, these are amongst the best I've had, maybe the best. These guys are not even Spanish!" He added his disbelief at the high quality of Spanish cooking in the middle of the Welsh capital after their mains of Spanish rice with clams and pork belly. And it wasn't just Giles, Fred and Thomasina who loved Asador 44, in April 2023, The Telegraph's top restaurant reviewer William Sitwell called the place "magnificent" and "tremendous". The siblings have made quite the name for themselves on TV as well, with Owen Morgan often appearing on Saturday Morning Kitchen alongside friend and fellow chef Matt Tebbutt. Owen appeared on the BBC cooking show in December of last year. If you want to try out this restaurant yourself, you can find out more about booking here. This restaurant has a big following. In 2019, James Chant began the business as a pop-up, dishing out tasty ramen kits during the coronavirus pandemic before opening the restaurant on Clare Road in Grangetown in August 2022. Matsudai, which means "all generations" in Japanese, has drawn praise from the likes of Tom Parker-Bowles and Jay Rayner. The latter critic gave the restaurant a glowing review, not long after the restaurant opened in Cardiff in 2022, and described it as "inventive, geeky, and superb". Having tried the ramen through a kit during lockdown, trying the noodle dish at the restaurant was "so much more beautiful, so much more organised, having been plated by the man who knows what he is doing", according to the critic. Rayner went on to heap praise on the signature tonkotsu, saying it had an "almost Dulux gloss to it, speckled with jewels of molten fat" with "generous slices of pork belly". Following this stellar review, the restaurant enjoyed a surge in its popularity, with photos showing people queuing outside the Grangetown eatery to get a table. Matsudai Ramen is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year. Recently, the founder amazed guests with his flavours when he appeared on Channel 4's Sunday Brunch. While on the show, he brought three dishes along for hosts Tim Lovejoy and Simon Rimmer to try, who then shared the dishes with guests including Strictly professional dancers Karen Hauer and Gorka Marquez, and comedian Dave Gorman. One of the noodle dishes he brought along was Chippy Lane Mazesoba, which he based on Cardiff's infamous Caroline Street with its flavours of chicken, ginger and curry. Chant also brought lamb and leek wontons, a Welshified take on an oriental dumpling which are on the menu in the restaurant, and he also brought the classic ramen dish pork tonkotsu, which he said was one of their most popular home kits. Dancers Karen Hauer and Gorka Marquez were taken aback by how nice the dishes were. If you ever find yourself visiting this corner of Cardiff, Matusdai Ramen has got to be on your list. Try out their amazing karaage chicken, or alternatively their karaage mushroom, which is just as tender and delicious as their meaty counterpart. Take a sip out of their vibrant selection of sake and shochu drinks, before delving into their carefully curated ramens. To find out more about their bookings, head over to their website here.
Yahoo
16-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The man behind Cardiff's hit noodle place Matusdai Ramen was on C4 Sunday Brunch and they loved his food
The chef behind a cult ramen restaurant in Cardiff has been on Channel 4's Sunday Brunch and everyone raved about his food. Matsudai Ramen, which is based in Grangetown, has grown a huge following since being founded as a pop-up in 2019 and has drawn praise from the likes of Tom Parker Bowles and Jay Rayner, who gave it a glowing review. Matsudai founder James Chant brought three dishes along for hosts Tim Lovejoy and Simon Rimmer to try and they shared with guests including Strictly professional dancers Karen Hauer and Gorka Marquez, and comedian Dave Gorman. One of the noodle dishes he brought along was Chippy Lane Mazesoba, which he based on Cardiff's infamous Caroline Street with its flavours of chicken, ginger and curry. It led Tim Lovejoy to say how much he enjoyed nights out in Cardiff - and Swansea. READ MORE: Chef closes Cardiff restaurant claiming crime is 'out of control' READ MORE: One of the most talked-about burger restaurants in Wales is opening in Cardiff He also brought lamb and leek wontons, a Welshified take on an oriental dumpling which are on the menu in the restaurant, and he also brought the classic ramen dish pork tonkotsu, which he said was one of their most popular home kits. More about the home kits here. Karen Hauer and Gorka Marquez both raved about how nice the food was and Tim Lovejoy shared a picture of diners queuing around the block to get a table at the popular Grangetown restaurant. Located at Clare Road, the restaurant, which has just celebrated its fifth anniversary, enjoyed a surge in its popularity after top food critic Jay Rayner called its food a 'revelation' and full of 'deep care and thoughtfulness.' Matsudai started just before the Covid lockdown and thrived even during it due to its delivery of ramen kits. It has hosted pop-ups across the UK and now calls the old NatWest Bank building its home.
