This is hands down my wife's and my favorite udon spot in the Chicagoland area. Even when we visit on a Saturday, we're always pleasantly surprised by the low wait times to order. The staff is consistently friendly and efficient. We love the variety of tempura offerings, and they are incredibly generous with the tempura bits and green onion toppings. Pro Tip: Finding a seat in the food court can be a bit of a challenge, so I'd recommend having someone in your party scout for a table while you're in line! read more

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I've been to the food court many times, passed by Mugimaru and others because every time I visited, the place was packed. Finally had time to visit on a Monday after lunch rush. I got the #2, large, then grabbed 2 shrimp tempura, karaage and lotus tempura. Tempura was decent, lost some of the crunchiness but it was still good. Now, the Udon. The broth was lukewarm, which failed the whole dish. If they had brought the broth to a hot temp before it was served, that might have made the experience a lot different, but walked away beyond disappointed with their udon. read more

Mugimaru - #2 - large - Japanese Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

I've been coming to Mitsuwa for over 30 years and I'm surprised that I have not ever written a review for the udon place. Wow, this place was great when they first opened and reminds me of my favorite udon place in Honolulu. It has been consistently bad over the last two years. I'm not sure what's going on however no matter what I order the broth itself is barely lukewarm. I want broth that is burnable. Super piping hot and fresh is what I want for broth. And when you go there, you realize that the noodles are cooked separately than the specific broth is placed into the bowl, which is all correct and makes complete sense however, that broth is never hot. I do appreciate that they have tempura selection and over the years. They have really expanded that temporary selection as well. Over the years, the price has gone up quite a bit. But that is also to be expected. If you come during peak times expect a line as well, which is a pretty common place thing with all of the food kiosks at the food court. read more

Mugimaru - Japanese Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

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The vegetables were cut a bit bigger and didn't carry much flavor. There were sauces so that helped. They offer many different vegetables from sweet potatoes, onions, green beans, pumpkin... even eggs. Staff was nice and dining in is a food court type of seating. It was something to try while we were in the area. read more

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We went to Mugumaru in Mitsuwa's market last weekend and we came early before opening. About 10 minutes before opening and there were already quite a few people waiting in line. Their food since they just opened were nice and fresh! I love their tempura items. We got to try their grilled eel which we never see except this time around. I love their hot udon bowls with a soft boil egg. It is in a food court so a very casual spot to go to for food! Perfect for a relaxing date. read more

Mugimaru - Ontama Udon, tempura string beans, tempura egg, tempura vegetable patty - Japanese Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

First visit to Mitsuwa market and decided to start at the food court. The place was packed. Not a single available table but luckily only had to hover a few minutes until someone left. The food court has many options - all Japanese themed - but this Udon noodle themed restaurant seemed the most appetizing. Price of the basic udon bowl is great. Regular size bowl was huge. More than enough for a single meal. And they have many options including beef, egg, etc. Then there's a "buffet" style tempura addon section where you add whatever you want on top. I got the beef udon. Very tasty. And I added the egg tempura (a hard boiled egg deep fried in the tempura batter) and a thick slab of sweet potato. My date got the spicy udon and added a veggie and a mackerel tempura. Total price was $25. Very reasonable. The biggest issue was they did not offer a beverage option. I had to go to another counter and just buy two cans of coke. So another $5. Would definitely go back but just be aware it's loud, at least when it's busy. And because of the rarity of tables they didn't seem to get cleaned. We sat down the minute the people vacated the table and another couple were hovering next to us an sat the minute we stood up. read more

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Stopped by the grocery store and decided to visit the food court to get some food. Tried a few things and one of the things that peaked our interest was the udon bowl at Mugimaru. It also had the longest line of any of the other shops so we ordered ourselves a bowl of udon with beef. Its a food court but I expected it to be a good bowl of udon. I was disappointed. the noodles were fresh but the broth didn't have a lot of flavor and was lukewarm. I expected it to be hot so was surprised when I didn't have to cool it at all and fou8nd it just a tad over room temperature. To help eat this, I went to get some spiced sauce which cost me extra but at least helped the flavor. Overall a disappointing experince and I was really hoping for better bowl of udon. read more

Mugimaru - Beef Udon - Japanese Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

If you're seeing this review twice... it's bc it's in 2 places since I'm not sure which page gets looked at more. This quick food stop is located in the food court of mitsuwa. There are a few udon options to pick which protein you'd like and also if you'd like your soup hot or cold. There are also tempura sides you are able to grab (additional price) on your own. The udon noodles are fresh and taste deliciously homemade. This is reasonably priced but can get expensive if you decide to add multiple tempura sides. read more

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We love visiting the Asian market, it's such a different cultural experience than a regular grocery store, but the main reason we go is for the restaurant area. There are multiple places to get food. You order at the restaurant and grab a seat at an open table. It's not the most beautiful sitting area, but the food is totally worth going. We try new dishes whenever we can, but our favorite broth is by far the Tonkotsu Udon from Mugumaru. We get spice on the side and add to our taste, but the broth is just amazing! read more

Mugimaru - Tonkotus Udon - Japanese Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

Love this place inside the Mitsuwa Shopping Center. The prices are reasonable, the veggies and meats and seafood taste fresh, and they aren't very greasy...you start out by choosing your base: broth or noodles, etc. Then you select any of the tempura you want. I had Shrimp, Green Beans, Pumpkin, Lotus Root, Chicken Karaage, Pork, Sweet Potato and Vegetable croquette. My favorites are the Pumpkin and Sweet Potato. The Shrimp is third. Prices range from $1.20 each piece to $1.85 for the chicken karaage. The Pork Katsu is $4.30 (for two pieces) and it's VERY good. read more

Mugimaru - Mostly Tempura - Japanese Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

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A solid udon spot inside mitsuwa. There is hot udon and lots of tempura to choose from. The noodles were nice and chewy and the broth was flavorful. read more

The tonkotsu udon is the most perfect dish I've ever had. The broth is rich and creamy, and the pork is thick and always good. I'm unsure about the rest of their udon, but my boyfriend loved the beef udon. The noodles are thick and chewy in the best way. The staff are quick and polite. The food court seating is a nightmare during the weekend but the food makes up for it. Weekdays are the best. read more

Mugimaru - Japanese Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

I'm honestly stunned why Mugimaru doesn't have higher reviews. I had really low expectations since it currently only has 3.5 stars. Hubby and I both ordered the tonkotsu udon and croquettes. The broth was flavorful and creamy while the tonkotsu was rich and tender. I even saved the broth and cooked spaghetti noodles with soft boiled eggs the next day. My one complaint is that the udon noodles seemed to be on the starchy side. However, I have a tendency to prefer thin noodles. In addition, the croquettes were still crunchy despite having traveled a 30 minute car ride home. read more

So fun to customize your own tempura udon. I'm usually a kitsune girl but today I tried the spicy which was really perfect on a cold day! Love every single tempura option that they have out, but the fish cakes are especially good. They all need salt though so dip them in the broth or get dipping sauce at the end of the line (though risk holding up the line to do so - would be great if the sauces were prepackaged for easy grabbing). Friendly service as well. read more

They were out of toppings and the service bordered on rude but the upon with tofu was delicious. Yummy broth, sweet crispy tofu. So good read more

Mugimaru - Tofu - Japanese Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

One of the restaurants inside Mitsuwa market place, Mugimaru is seemingly famous for tempura and udon noodles. ATMOSPHERE/ARCHITECTURE: 7/10 Average as seen out of all of the restaurants available in Mitsuwa, though I do appreciate how their tempura is front and center to entice you to stop bey and grab a few things here and there. SERVICE : 8/10 Cashier was fast and courteous. FOOD: 8/10 Seeing as udon and tempura are the selling points here, those are the options we ended up deciding upon. Kitsune Udon - Staple udon with sweet fried tofu as the centerpiece. I found the udon noodles to nice and chewy but the best part was that tofu. It has such a good flavor. The broth was also not watery but had a strong stock behind it too which I appreciated. Vegetable Croquette - I've seen this all the time in anime so I really wanted to try it. It was kind of like a potato-veggie mix that was crunchy outside and soft inside. I really liked it. Definite must try. Aji Tempura - This was really good. Fried fish is usually pretty delicious, and this was no exception. It wasn't very fishy in flavor and I enjoyed it a lot. I think this is worth a try. Lotus Root Tempura - I've had bad experiences with lotus root before but I was persuaded to try it again and I was very pleasantly surprised with this item. I really like it a lot. The lotus root had a nice robust texture to it and it was very well flavored. Sweet Potato Tempura - I knew this was going to be good. And it was. Think sweet potato fried but better. That's what you have here. PROBABILITY OF RETURN: 8/10 I'd want to come back here to try more of the different tempura options. TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT: I think the udon was average, but I really enjoyed the tempura. Go and try it if you find yourself in Mitsuwa! OVERALL: 8/10 read more

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Several restaurants at the Mitsuwa Food Court have been converted (read as replaced) and Mugimaru is one of the new replacements. We hadn't tried it before partly because we are creatures of habit and we keep going back to the ones we know and like. Also, when we initially checked out their menu, it seemed that the different varieties of Udon were reasonably priced but adding individually-priced pieces of Tempura could add up quickly. Then there was a Tempura restaurant two booths away. We finally decided to give it a try. We figured out that it is set up with lots of flexibility because you can just order one of the Udon dishes; you can add one or more pieces of Tempura to make Tempura Udon; or enjoy extra pieces of Tempura by themselves. They also have Aji Fry (Mackerel) and Veggie Croquettes to eat with Tonkatsu Sauce and Japanese Curry Rice as well. We decided to order Ontama Udon. On the side, we picked one slice of Onion Tempura, two Shrimp Tempura, two Sweet Potato Tempura. Two Aji Fry and two Veggie Croquettes were also added. We added one Shrimp and one Sweet Potato into the Udon and the remaining Tempura pieces were eaten as Tempura to dip in Tempura sauce that came with Daikon Oroshi. The Aji Fry and Croquettes were dipped in Tonkatsu Sauce and eaten like that! In the end, we had several meals in one and everything was delicious. One concern I initially had was picking a la carte pieces of Tempura and other fried items that were sitting under a heat lamp. We were there just as they opened so everything was hot and more was placed there as we were ordering. Also, they were getting enough customers that they were constantly adding freshly fried items. The staff were very helpful and friendly in explaining and answering questions. We will definitely be trying more choices and combinations in future trips to Chicago. read more

Mugimaru - Udon with Egg; Tempura Shrimp, Sweet Potato, and Onion; Aji Fry and Croquette - Japanese Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

I still come here for lunch every time I shop at Mitsuwa. Yesterday I strayed from my usual kake udon and tried the tonkotsu udon (interesting that the ramen place in the food court didn't offer a tonkotsu option...), along with some tempura (lotus root, sweet potato, and my favorite, kabocha pumpkin). Gotta say, this was good but I prefer the kake udon. The tonkotsu (rich pork) broth is very creamy, but it gets pretty salty halfway through, and wasn't super hot either. My boyfriend fared better with the spicy version, though beware because it IS spicy! The spice seemed to cut the saltiness, though. Service was fast and friendly, and they do take credit cards here, unlike much of the food court. I will definitely be back, but likely won't stray from my old favorite again. read more

Mugimaru - Tonkatsu udon and spicy tonkatsu udon with tempura veggies - Japanese Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

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first time trying udon so i'm not expert by any means, but i loved what i got. ordered the fried tofu udon and the flavor of both the tofu and the broth were great and paired perfectly together. again, not sure how the quality of the noodle is relatively but as a first timer i thoroughly enjoyed the taste and texture. the ala carte fried sides i got were lackluster. however it is an udon place after all. also very very affordable. highly recommend. read more

I had the sweet potato tempura a la carte and two pieces of shrimp tempura. Nothing extraordinary - the sweet potato tasted better because it had just been made, whilst the shrimp had obviously been sitting under the heat lamp for too long. This is an interesting place with menu items and then tempura by the piece. I suppose if you visit right after they're freshly made then it would be great. read more

Mugimaru - Japanese Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

Amazing Udon noodles, but completely incorrect hours on both Mitsuwa's site and Google has ultimately wasted a lot of my time. They have been closing at 5pm lately despite claiming to be open til 6/6:30. I will remove my 1 star review when they fix their hours online. read more

Just okay. I had high hopes and expectations about the food in the Japanese market. But overall I'm disappointed. From this udon stand, we ordered a lot of tempura (fried vegetables) because they were very cheap, average 80 cents a piece. But, the fried stuff were not crispy, and very cold to begin with. And the batter was not thin and crispy, either. read more

Mugimaru - Japanese Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

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A good place to eat after grocery shopping! We tried almost all their fried items and it didn't disappoint. Great way to try different dishes since you can opt to just get as little as you wantB read more

Not much to say about this -- reasonably priced, filling, and gets the job done but I wasn't a huge fan of the broths or ingredients used. For a place that specializes in udon, the texture of the noodles wasn't really that great (and you can get very good frozen udon in the grocery area that rivals this). Even though this is fairly cheap, I'd spend a few more dollars to get noodles at one of the more famous ramen places nearby (which may also have better udon). read more

Mugimaru - Tonkotsu Udon - Japanese Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

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Half boiled eggs make a party in my mouth! Wait I can get half boiled and a tempura egg from the same place? I freakin LOVE eggs--and just the eggs alone attracted me here. Quick udon noodles with a great tasting broth. We had the beef udon and it was AWESOME! Lots of different choices for tempura to add (pay per piece)---interesting selection of items--some I've never had deep fried---eggplant, egg, shishito peppers, lotus root, 2 different kinds of shrimp, pumpkin, sweet potato, and chicken karaage. Highly recommend this yumminess! Glad this new food stall opened up! read more

This new udon place took over the old tonkatsu place which closed a couple months ago. We were very sad at the moment but this place is pretty promising. You don't see a lot of dedicated Udon places in Chicago (is this place the only one?). There's a good selection of udon styles and also a 'buffet' of tempura and fried food items (croquet, fried shrimp, etc.) to choose from. Each piece is at an extra cost, but the udon itself is priced very reasonably so it's not too bad. My husband and I opted for the 'Kake Udon', the most simple one out of the rest and 'shrimp tempura'. Both were quite good. The udon noodles had a good chewy consistency and the broth was just right--not too heavy or light. Tip: We decided to complement our udon experience with a 'spicy salmon over rice' from the grocery store. So worth it! read more

Mugimaru - Kake Udon (w. Spicy Salmon over Rice from the Mitsuwa grocery store) - Japanese Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

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I was glad to find a place inside the Mitsuwa foodcourt where I can eat. They said they cook the noodles in fish broth. We tried the plain kake udon noodles and topped with green onions and tempura crunchies. Pretty good. I also liked that the tempura fried items were a la carte, so I picked a few different things. The items weren't fresh and hot, but everything was tasty. I imagine it would be even better fresh. read more

i have only tried the udon here, so i can't come to an ultimate conclusion about this place. and the tempura displayed infront of the stall looks like it has been chillin' out all day, so never bothered to purchase any. but i thought the beef udon was quite good. and the price was a bargain, so totally worth it. service was friendly too, which is always a plus. read more

Mugimaru - beef udon (generous amount of beef) - Japanese Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

Choices surprised me. They offer a good variety of soup bases, and tempura to to add to your meal. Ben here on several trips and tried their tonkotsu, beef base, and spicy curry soups with udon noodles. The curry has been my favorite. Also like I don't have such a wait as with other food choices in the food court. As for tempura I have been surprised with the egg and pumpkin , yumm. I look to to return as I am At Mitsuwa every week. read more

Mugimaru is the fast casual udon stall in the Mitsuwa food court. I appreciate that it's dedicated to udon and inexpensive, but the food is basic and cafeteria quality. Udon noodles are limp and don't have any bounce. The broth is warmed in hot water warmers, which only keeps the temperature lukewarm. Kake with tempura is the classic dashi soy sauce broth, and it's the best option here. I've also tried Beef and Tonkatsu, and they had beefy and porky broths respectively, but the meat itself was tasteless and dry. If you're in the mood for good noodles, the neighboring ramen shop is much better. read more

I got the beef udon with sweet potato, lotus roots and fish tempura. This was the second time I got udon from this place. Their udon noodles were really good but the beef was a little bit too salty and dry for me. The sweet potato tempura was really good. The lotus roots tempura was a little dry too. But overall I loved the udon and will definitely come back. read more

Mugimaru - Japanese Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

This place accepts cards, that's why I decided to dine here. However, it was a waste of money and over priced. The udon noodle needs to be cooked much longer, they were hard. Tonkatsu broth was not that great, the ramen place in the same food court is better, but only accepts cash. The tempuras are very overpriced, $1.80 for a shrimp tempura? Dang! I saw that they were just pouring water into the broth to dilute it, rather than making a fresh batch. read more

I've eaten here several times, and ordered large curry and rice 4 times. The sauce is very tasty but the portions are hit and miss. So far, I've had a very satisfying portion of vegetables twice, and sauce only the other two. $9 for rice and sauce is very expensive. I give them 3 stars and not 2 because they are consistent with the udon and the tempura. Beef udon and vegetable (mostly potato) croquettes are always a good choice for us. read more

Mugimaru - Curry and rice is hit and miss. Today I got sauce and rice. Other days I've gotten a very nice portion of vegetables in the curry. - Japanese Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

Great addition to the Mitsuwa food court. They have a fun menu that lets you add your choice of tempura while in line. I tried the tonsoku ramen with 2 prices of pumpkin tempura. The porky broth was sweet and they are generous with the noodles. read more

i would give 4, maybe even 5 stars, but the hours are very inconsistent and there is no clear information on when the place closes. one day, they close at 5:30 PM, another time at 6:00 PM, another time at 6:30 PM. It's hard to support a business when you don't even know if you'll be able to purchase from it. read more

Served terribly low quality chilled food from few days leftover. Worst food ever!

I was there on 12/12/2018 at 7:31pm. The noodles were little salty but they were not bad. The problem is the bill. We charged $16.80 and now my credit card shows $17.80. HOW COULD IT HAPPEN? i would like to have a discussion with them, so i gave them a call but no one answers the phone. i want my $1.00 back and hope to hear from them. read more

I love how they have tempuras as toppings! You can choose as many as you want (order by piece but each pieces are decent price) For today, my soup wasn't as hot as I wanted but it's pretty good udon noodles! read more