I found Manpuku purely by chance the day my mom and I ventured the underground PATH systems, I kind of expected a bigger restaurant however it was cozy. The restaurant sold ramen and a variety of udon noodle soup. This would be my first time eating Udon outside of our house so I was both excited and scared of the outcome.
There wasn’t a huge selection of Udon or ramen available, there was roughly 5 different Udon bowls you could order and I believe 2 ramen bowls which isn’t on the menu on their Yelp Page. Of all the selections I chose the Wakame Udon which is a vegetarian Udon and has an option of their regular broth or veggie broth. My mom chose the Niku Udon and we passed meat and seaweed back and forth to share.
We also ordered a plate of Takoyaki to share, which are fried batter balls that contain a piece of octopus inside. The dish is typically topped with a brown sauce (teriyaki maybe?) and mayonnaise and dried fish flakes. I will say that normally our meal would cost roughly $25+ but it wasn’t really that expensive. The most expensive dish of them all was the Niku Udon which was $5.99.
If you are near McCaul street while downtown, find this place and give it a try. It won’t break the bank and it will be sure to fill you up before you head off, and if it doesn’t fill you up you can also grab a chewy candy pack before paying.
At the end of the day, I would recommend checking this place out and trying their food, the Udon is cooked to perfection and the Takoyaki was savory without the odd gooey filling from some places. The prices are relatively cheap as well, so it’s a big bonus on that part. Have you eaten from here before? How did you like it? For those who haven’t visited this place, would you give it a try? Let me know in the comments!
