These days a lot of stuff of interest, on the food front, seems to be happening in the  burbs and the less “fashionable” (i.e. not Pontpangea) ones to boot. One such burb is Grangetown, with the likes of Lahore Kebabish (having moved to its shiny new premises since the days I stated eating there), the Grange pub and Matsudia Ramen, as well as a myriad of more “exotic” (such as Bab Al-Yemen, Al-Madina and La Mandela – presume the Specials at the latter are free) or less exotic (Merola’s, which amazingly still has fruit juice on the menu as a starter) options.

A recent addition to the area has been Hatsu Udon, with Hatsu meaning the “beginning/first” in Japanese (a touch late, if looking at Japanese noodles in general, with Matsudia Ramen already a few years in situ). The name probably has no real signicance bar from perhaps a new start for them or, maybe, it links in to the noodles here being udon rather than ramen (two different things).

The inside it is quite minimalistic, but  nicely functional with bar stools arrayed  behind a counter overlooking the open kitchen, as well as more conventional table and chair seating.

The menu is pretty succinct, with starters/sides/rice dishes

and udon noodle mains (both hot and cold)

With our glorious summer now official over (unofficially it never really started), I suspect it will not now (and for a while) be a case of build that bukkake bowl and they will come (sorry couldn’t help myself) with cold noodles definitely more a Spring/ Summer dish (at least to my mind) and we were no exception with us looking (now Autumn/HowlongbeforeIcaveandturntheheatingontunm is definitely upon us) for the warmth provided by the hot udon options

On the starter/sides front, J and I decided to share sides of the pork gyoza (£7) and the tempura set (£14). Actually she said that was what we should order and I simply acquiesced (generally easiest thing).

Before I get into what these were like, I do find the seeming default of five pieces (the karaage and the gyoza) here rather odd. I mean it is only divisible by 1 and 5 so your options in terms of equal apportionment are solo dining or 5 of you (an odd number, although saying that 5 of us went to Neighbourhood the other week). Past that you are talking 10, 15 etc. which bearing in mind the size of the place (and more pertinent the number of people I know whom I would actually want to go out for a meal with) is unlikely. I can only assume here it links into the fact that many odd numbers are lucky numbers in Japan whereas 2 and 4 is not.

I have never really understood hospitality seeming obsession with odd numbers, as I fail to see how an aesthetically pleasing 3/5 of anything appeals to a party of 2/4 as they fight over who gets the odd one (usually me, as is in being the odd one).

Back to the food, the tempura selection  was a delight.

consisting of two very juicy and on point cooked prawns, shredded carrot, sweet potato, oyster mushroom and aubergine.

Lovely, light, crisp batter, with the sweet potato the pick of the veg. and the crispy, yet succulent, prawns the pick of the lot. The only one that didn’t quite work (at least to my mind) was the aubergine, which was a little unyielding in nature under the crisp batter.

Fun fact as to tempura is the base idea behind it was brought to Japan by Portuguese Jesuit priests (who got everywhere in days of yore) back in the 16th century (their trek there was seemingly to little avail, as only 1.5% of Japan’s population are Christian as of 2024, with 95% being either Shintoists or Buddists – as case of reporting back of JCHQ with the conversion rate and being asked “What the bejesus did you Jesuits do over there, Friars explain yourself..!  Hang on a minute”).

The Japanese have certainly since then made tempura their own, with the dish here a fine example of how gossimer thin and light the batter should be.

Next up were a quintet of gyoza, of which I am a big “fan” regardless of whether they are full on frill or no frill.

Here a lacy frill connected them all together, although bar from the pleasing aesthetics I am not sure what it brought to the dish flavour wise.

Regardless of the frill being a bit no thrills, the gyoza themselves were very pleasant. Not thick flour dough wrappers encased a ginger heavy pork mixture, which included sesame, garlic and, maybe, mirin. Good soy dipping sauce added a salty zing. A more frilling crispiness on one side wouldn’t have gone amiss. J very graciously (I did ask if she was feeling alright!?) let me have the odd fifth element.

On to the main event in the form of my kake (as in from the Canton region of Japan, that includes Tokyo) beef udon (£14)

Thick wheat based (veggie and vegan friendly, as no egg, unlike most ramen) noodles, with a nice chew to them, slipped down the gullet rather easily. They sat in a generous pool of a delicate, yet flavoursome, broth (a kakejiru, with soy sauce and mirin added to a dashi, I would say).

Tender thinly slice beef imbued the broth with a meaty flavour, seaweed (wakame I think) add a salty umani hit and mellow alium notes came from the spring onions. Lots of subtle, yet nicely balanced,  flavours here

Really enjoyed this, with the only slight bum note being the tempura scraps that seemed like a good idea at first blush but quickly dissipated into a rather soggy mess.

Maybe that is how the Japanese like them, but it rather seemed to me a bit of a waste of  tempura batter, which lives or dies on its light crispiness. I mean I ate them, but don’t think dish would lose anything if they were absence.

J had the stir fried beef udon, which she enjoyed.

Nice mix of surf and turf here, with the same tender beef as in my kake and bonito flakes. The addition of kewpie mayo. may seem odd to us Westerners, but J was a fan saying it added a richness to the proceedings.

She did feel (for her tastes) it lack a bit of spice and as such she added a rather copious sprinkling of the provided seasoning in the form of S&B togarashi seven spice.

On the drinks front, there is no booze (we were both driving so not an issue – parking can be a bit of a pain, but Grangetown train station is an easy walk away if you dont want to drive).

Whilst I waited for J to arrive, water was bought over without prompt and I order a cup of the green tea with roasted brown rice.

Really enjoyed this, with the roasted brown rice adding nutty, almost popcorny, notes to the vegetal freshness of the green tea. It was surprisingly moreish for something seemingly so virtuous and a bargain at a pound a pop.

J went for the pineapple hata ramane (£4), which we (rather embarrassingly) had to get help from our female server to open.

It has a rather old glass ball stopper that you have to use a disassembled part of the lid to push in (with not a little force). Both J and I were too timid, fearing the bottle would break/shot across the table/result in the contents going everywhere. The rather petite front of house lady put us to shame with a very assertive thrust of the glass ball back into the bottle. All a bit of a gimmicky faff if you ask me, especially as the contents were a rather tamely flavoured pineapple pop (my green tea was much nicer).

The verdict

Really enjoyed the lunch here with the fat udon noodles making a nice change from the rather ubiquitous ramen variety.  Prices are a bit cheaper than Matsudia, but I think the dishes are less complex (so seems about right in comparison).

The sides were also good, with the tempura pretty much bob on, especially the prawns and the sweet potato. I have heard tell the karaage is top notch too.

Our lunch wasn’t cheap, mainly because we went large on the side, coming in at £55 san a tip for 2. I still felt it was decent value, as I didn’t need dinner that night.

They do, however, do a lunch offer

which, based on the table next to us, looked pretty good value (doesn’t skimp on the udon or the sides). In theory, with the veggie udon options, you could get away with £12 (udon, side and drink)  all in which is not bad at all.

I hope they succeed, as this place is a nice addition to the increasingly (foodwise) interesting burb that is Grangetown.

The details

Address: 164 Penarth Road, Grangetown, Cardiff, CF11 6NJ

Website: https://hatsu-udon.co.uk/

They do both eat in and take away.

Opening hours: