Teppei's Muslim-Friendly New Udon Joint Fu Men Is Sedap

Located in the newly renovated foodie basement of Hong Leong Building, the 37-seat noodle joint is designed to be an eat-and-run self-service outfit. It’s simply decorated with white-washed walls and dark wood accents.

An elevated open kitchen overlooks a self-service area where diners can help themselves to free-flow hot and cold green tea, and seven different condiments like ginger and yuzu chilli.

Japanese native Munemori Toshihiro — who trained with Teppei-san at the latter’s eponymous omakase restaurant for two years before Fu Men's opening — helms the kitchen here.

This Instagrammable dish features a mountain of golden-brown, fried burdock root (gobo in Japanese) strips, which tastes like a cross between a mushroom and lotus root. The sweet and crunchy burdock is lightly coated in tempura batter. The broth is super delish and comforting: the dried fish in it gives it a robust, somewhat meaty depth. Meanwhile, the skinny, flat noodles are incredibly soft and almost melt in your mouth as opposed to the more commonly springy udon. It’s the perfect vehicle to slurp up all that lovely soup. The noodles come in two portions: a regular sized bowl is 250g and the half portion is, well, half of that. Go for the smaller portion so you can try two different flavours out of the 19 available.

Burdock strips are tossed in tempura batter before taking a dip in the fryer.

What raw burdock root looks like.

Served either hot or cold, this is a simple dish with refreshing flavours. The dry chilled udon is topped with a luxuriously oozy onsen egg, and comes with a wedge of lime and a thick, umami sauce made with bonito, saba and seaweed that you pour over the noodles. The flavours are clean without being bland. The brightness of the lime also lends a summery note to it all.

While not as theatrical as the Gobo bowl, this beef udon is equally impressive flavour-wise. The beefy goodness of the thinly sliced Australian wagyu seeps into the broth and adds a satisfyingly hearty dimension. We recommend adding a dash of grated ginger and the fragrant yuzu chilli, made with salt, yuzu peel and Japanese chillies. They elevate the broth’s flavour profile with all that brightness and spice. Our only grouse: some bits of the wagyu are a bit too chewy.

While we like the salty clear dipping sauce with the udon, we’re not crazy about the dry and rather gamey smoked duck breast. We find it amusing that Teppei's otherwise very Japanese udon is adorned with slices of Singaporean-style fried fish cake.

There’s only one word to describe grated Japanese mountain yam: slimy. And this is dolloped all over the noodles here. It also has a sour aftertaste that doesn’t pair well with the salty broth.

Teppei’s slimmer, softer Hakata-style udon is unique and yummy. Plus, the eatery’s pending halal status means that Muslims may soon get to slurp on some really authentic Japanese grub here (most of the kitchen staff are Muslim).

Fu Men Udon Shop is at #B1-17/18 Hong Leong Building, 16 Raffles Quay, S048581. Tel: 6224-1134. Open daily except Sun. Mon-Fri 10am-8pm; Sat 10am-2.30pm. Last orders 30 mins before closing.