You would think finals quickly approaching would mean buckling down and getting some work done but not for me. When stress hits my flight response is totally on board and I go into complete denial about how stressed out I am. Cue aimlessly walking around target and going out to dinner with Christel (who's already finished defense) while I avoid my final projects.
LOCATION: 730 S CLARK ST, CHICAGO, IL 60605
I've heard about Umai a little before and I'm not one who likes to be left out of new things so I asked Christel if we could go since we were both down for some dinner and she agreed because she's great at humoring me. I've actually heard more about sushi and Umai but when we looked at the menu a bunch of the udon/ramen dishes looked pretty great to us so we decided to skip the rolls and go straight for the noddles.
I decided to order the nabeyaki udon which is an udon noodle in dashi broth that comes with a piece of shrimp tempura, a poached egg, spinach, fish cake, shiitake mushroom, and chicken (although I don't recall a piece of chicken in mine but instead for sure had imitation crab and what seemed like two pieces of tomago which I'm not mad about). After much deliberation Christel went with the udon kare which is udon in a Japanese curry and she went with beef and added a poached egg as well. Honestly I think we both ended up wanting a ajitsuke egg instead but poached was alright. We also ordered an ika butter which is just squid sautéed in butter with mushroom and lemon as our app and it was so worth it I'm pretty happy about that decision.
I love udon more than ramen just because of the chewiness and texture overall so I'm always happy to find a bowl because it's not as common or popular. Since my dad is a chef he usually just throws in udon for me into whatever soup he's making and I'm always happy but an actual udon dish just warms my soul... and my stomach. This dish was super hot coming out which is great, I just had to give it time to cool before I burned all my tastebuds off. I also regret not taking my tempura out as soon as it got to me because by the time I picked it up to eat it was super soggy and the batter was basically mush, but again that's my fault. The tempura flavor was actually really great and well balanced to me. I love shiitake's and tomago felt like a better sweet substitute to chicken which struck me as odd on the menu. The broth was well balanced, a little sweet but super savory without being salty. I'd say if any gets umami, it's Umai. I would totally go back again for this udon or to try their sushi which looked pretty great from where we sat at the bar. Christel seemed happy with her udon too and even had curry and beef leftover to cook with some rice for lunch tomorrow. Overall, it was a successful outing and I'm happy I got to get some udon in my belly.