“When you ask people if they’re team ramen or team udon, they typically say they prefer ramen. So here at Team Udon, our vision is to introduce udon as the new staple, the new rice.”

Upon stepping out the grab and onto a one way TTDI street, the bold sans-serif “TEAM UDON” sign welcomed us upstairs. After climbing a stairwell furnished with stylised posters and pushing past the glass door, we were graced by the current dinner crowd: children running circles around their dining parents, dinner dates, and cozy friend groups. Beneath the fluorescent lit restaurant, enjoying their night time within the pleasant grey interior. Hospitably hosted by Isaiah Henry (Team Udon’s operations manager), we sat down to review Team Udon’s bestsellers.

Traditionally, udon is eaten with dashi. Plain wheat flour noodles paired with a salty stock. Team Udon swerves from convention and continuously curate their menu with both typical udon dishes and udon dishes with flavours familiar to the Malaysian eye. As a part of our bespoke menu, we were served their chili crab udon with shrimp, buttermilk chicken udon, spicy niku udon, sikit spicy smoked duck udon with a side of sambal fried corn ribs. 

Itadakimasu! Let’s dig in! 

Glancing and sniffing the fragrant array of spicy dishes (Malaysian bestsellers = spicy, go figure), we started with the spicy niku. A simple soup and udon equation with a crescent of beef slices and pools of green onions and chili sauce. The chili sauce sparked a slight shock with its lime-y and light profile. It was as though chicken rice wished to become an udon dish, only with the protein swapped out for its fattier, beefy contemporary. 

Buttermilk chicken udon, the coupling of a Malaysian favourite condensed into a Japanese noodle dish. Truly, it was love at first bite! Their rempah chicken, our very own chicken tempura, crispy bits and all, slathered over a smooth butter sauce with the cushion of udon. A complication many run into whilst eating buttermilk chicken is that it gets sickening after a few heavy bites, and a complication absent in this dish. After gleefully chewing on this beloved chicken dish, one thing became absolutely apparent: Team Udon’s union of the Malaysian with the Japanese was not simply a reskin of Malaysian dishes with a Japanese plot twist, it was an intentional marriage of two parties. A sauce adjusted for the medium of a neutral noodle dish that adopted rempah chicken into their coaxing, creamy arms. 

Almost like an intermission, we each nibbled on the Sambal fried corn ribs. The strips of corn allowed for a much neater manner to consume in comparison to the typical cob of corn. With a shrimpy, chili oil interweaved between the teeth of corn, it felt like a swift shot through the milkiness of the previous dish, and a hint as to what we ate next. 

With every ingredient in its place, the mise-en-place of the sikit spicy smoked duck udon striked through with its tender duck slices and delightfully chewy, oily udon. As we hummed our praises of the texturally cohesive dish, the crunch of the sliced cucumbers decorating the dish provided a clarity to the weighty dish. Personally, it felt like a wink to Peking duck: roasted duck slices sitting within a salty reduction sauce with slices of cucumber, all swathed by a thin pancake. The blank canvas of udon was proving to be the perfect backdrop for a colourful palette of colours, endlessly lending its malleability to whatever the sauce demanded, an asymmetrical yet reciprocal relationship of the two achieving flavourful filling meals. 

Chili crab udon with shrimp, making up for its lack of crab with a mini mantou atop a hill of udon circled by shrimp, won best dressed in my heart. Its unmistakable fragrance of chili bolstered by the neutrality of udon, although more chilli than crab, it made up for its mixed identity by unabashedly standing on its own as an arranged marriage. 

While debriefing with our side of pandan and red bean mochi, we went around the table with our takes on the dishes. The debate of the nature of these dishes arose. Did it feel like a tourist attraction to enjoy just once? We ended our internal discussion with the agreement that without Team Udon’s innovations, we would not be able to enjoy Malaysian flavours with such mellow noodles.

Before the restaurant’s 9:30 pm closing time, I sat down with Henry for a chat. He painted the multidisciplinary background of the three owners of Team Udon with none of them possessing any previous Food and Beverage business experience. What they lacked in experience was made up for by their prioritisation of customer experience and the melding of Malaysian cuisine with an iconic Japanese noodle. Team Udon’s company mantra says: “Make Udon your new staple”, and with their focus on research and development, their scientific method to foster an udon loving community sounds like a recipe for success. As a fun tidbit, Henry explained that the industrial minimalism of their TTDI outlet intends on immersing diners as though they were sitting in a fridge, allowing the warm udon dishes to warm them up. 

Leaving with an enriching experience and a round of shaking hands and a quiet night street. We basked in the collage-like experience we had with Team Udon. Local passion that embraces the need for the modern day lunch times, or the lack thereof, and the restaurant’s aim of serving customers within a 5 to 10 minute timeframe aids in providing yummy unconventional bowls of udon. 

Team Udon does not fail to leave an intriguing impression, give their friendly freezer a check out! Support local; savour udon neuvo. 

Atmosphere: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Drinks: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Interior: ⭐⭐⭐

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Article by Celeste Sia

Photos by Wai Foong