Genroku Udon in Sinsa: Great Quality at a Low Price
As a noodle lover, I have my own personal ranking system for udon. At the very bottom is cup ramen, followed by highway rest stop udon. After passing through a few more tiers, you're left with the top-tier udon shops that serve the chewiest, most delicious noodles. The biggest downside to these top-tier places is that they are incredibly expensive. No matter how good it tastes, I'm a bit hesitant to eat a bowl of udon if it costs the same as 200g of pork belly. But right in Sinsa-dong (a trendy area in Seoul), there's a truly fantastic udon shop called "Genroku" where the taste is top-tier, the price is under 10,000 KRW, and you can even choose your own portion size.
The warm udon I had in the winter was really delicious, but the cold zaru soba (buckwheat noodles) and udon you eat in the summer are amazing too. It's not just the sauce or the aroma that's good; it's one of the few places where the noodles themselves are genuinely delicious. Today, I went with yubu chobap (fried tofu rice balls) and cold soba.
You can feel how bouncy the noodles are just from the photos. It's amazing how they manage to make them so well. Plus, I wonder why they give you so much food and if they even make a profit. The restaurant is located in Sinsa-dong, one of the most expensive neighborhoods right in the middle of Seoul, so offering this kind of portion at this price is just incredible. I recently went to a similar-level udon shop and saw a shocking price tag of 14,000 KRW, which made me think there was nowhere left to eat udon anymore. I'm so glad we still have places like Genroku.
Top-quality noodles and kind prices seem to be the only way to describe this place.
I looked it up and found that there are many places called Genroku Udon. I'm not sure if they just share the same name or if it's a franchise. Seeing that it's named the Sinsa Station branch, it seems like a franchise. Anyway, the one I really liked is the Sinsa Station branch, so I'll leave the map for this location.