Outstanding Udon Near Mt. Tsukuba

I never thought I would be writing about udon. I don't dislike udon, but udon has never blown my mind. I've always had it if I was rushing during lunch, or my wife would make it if I was feeling sick to give me energy. I had never heard of an amazing udon place around Ibaraki until a friend of mine told me that I had to check out a certain udon place that is quite well known in its small town. On weekends, it sometimes has a line outside the entrance. Today, I am going to be talking about Hojo Town's own Kamaage Udon Restaurant Aoyama.

Kamaage Udon Restaurant Aoyama

Udon Restaurant Aoyama is located in Tsukuba's Hojo Town on the main street area. It is right next to a cafe called Cafe Post Ten (Post Ten's post is coming soon). It is run by a couple who used to live in Tokyo but brought their udon-making skills to Ibaraki.
My wife and I were driving around Tsukuba one sunny Tuesday when I reminded her of an udon restaurant I had heard about called Aoyama and that we should stop there for lunch. My wife agreed and we made our way to Hojo. When we found Aoyama, we weren't sure if the restaurant had parking. Luckily it does. It is across from Cafe Post Ten. The small parking area has post office signs for Cafe Post Ten and signs in hiragana that say "Aoyama" for the udon restaurant. We parked in one of Aoyama's spots and headed inside the restaurant.

Inside

It was around 11:00 am when my wife and I entered the restaurant. The restaurant was completely empty since the lunch rush hadn't started yet. We had the place all to ourselves. I looked around and took the restaurant in. I knew from the outside that the inside was going to have traditional Japanese décor, but I wasn't expecting it to be super Japanese. The restaurant is also very spacious. There is a counter area and a few tables around the hard concrete floor. There is also a small shop inside the restaurant that sells frozen udon noodles and udon dipping soup.
My wife and I grabbed a table and looked up at the menu. That's right, looked up.

The Menu and Sizes

Unlike most traditional Japanese restaurants, the menu is not on the table but above the counter area. Sorry, my non-Japanese readers, the menu is only in Japanese. I will help try to translate some of it.
Kamaage Udon which is a hot udon dish. The sizes are small, big, huge, and big enough to feed up to 5 people.
Zaru Udon which is a cold udon dish. The sizes are big, and huge.
Onigiri (rice ball)
Bowl of white rice
I was feeling hot that day so I went with the Zaru Udon. My wife wanted something hot so she went with the Kamaage Udon.

Grind Your Own Ginger

After we ordered our udon, the owner brought us a big cup full of negi to put in our udon soup and a few pieces of ginger. He also gave us a plate to grind our ginger so we could sprinkle what we ground into our udon dipping soup. It was a lot of fun grinding that ginger. We were also given some fresh seaweed to try while we waited for our udon to be made. When I wrote, that we were waiting for our udon to be made, I meant that the owner started making our noodles after we ordered them. They were not premade or anything. The owner went into his small udon room and started pounding and kneading the flour. Sure, it takes a while longer for our udon to come, but we knew that our udon noodles were going to be super fresh and it was awesome watching a master do his work. There is a small window in the noodle room so people walking around town can peer inside and see the master at work.

Zaru Udon

My zaru udon came to our table first and it looked appetizing. Look at how those noodles glisten. Everything looked perfect. I grabbed some noodles with my chopsticks and dipped them in the salty udon soup. I wanted to try everything without the negi and ginger first. I slurped some noodles and was in an udon-induced state of bliss. The noodles tasted so fresh and they were satisfyingly chewy. I thought the soup was going to be very salty as some udon dipping noodle soups are, but this one had just the right level of saltiness. It was a joy to eat these noodles. After trying just the soup and noodles, I put in some ginger, negi, and tempura flakes and that is when this dish went from good to great. Everything was made so well that I couldn't stop eating and admiring it. My wife slurped up some of my noodles and admitted that this udon place might be one of the best she has ever had. I loved every part of this expertly made udon dish and I hope to have it again soon.

Kamaage Udon

After a few minutes, my wife's udon made it to our table. As you can see from the picture above, my wife's udon is different from mine. The udon is in hot water and the sauce is also warm. My wife grabbed some noodles with her chopsticks, gave them a good blow to cool them down, dipped them, and slurped them. After chewing her noodles she gave me her "I'm impressed" face. She liked her udon noodles, a lot. She would usually say "oishi" but she couldn't stop eating her noodles long enough to say it.
I grabbed some of the kamaage udon with my chopsticks and gave it a try. Even though my noodles were delicious and cooled me down, I feel like the kamaage udon had way more flavor to it. Something about the temperature of the noodles just brought out an array of different flavors to my taste buds. The noodles were less chewy than my zaru udon, but still chewy none the less. I love both of these udon dishes. In fact, I am craving them while I write this post.

Thank you for the amazing udon!

Aoyama, thank you for the amazing udon. I was not aware that udon could taste so good. You have given me a new perspective on udon and I will respect this dish more in the future. The problem is, I am not sure I will find another udon place in Ibaraki that can match your level of udon-making skill and deliciousness. For now, expect the Ibaraki Eats Duo again for another bowl of your delicious udon.

So if you are in the mood for some good old-fashioned Japanese udon and are around Mt. Tsukuba, why not give Kamaage Udon Restaurant Aoyama a chance? Who knows, you might see us there, slurping up some fantastic udon noodles while grinding ginger.
Enjoy!

For more information on Kamaage Udon Restaurant Aoyama, check out their X page:
https://x.com/aoyama_udon

A special thank you to Chris Bathke for the recommendation. This place was everything you said and more.