It’s not hard to find a nice bowl of udon at a Japanese restaurant—but a good bowl of authentic Japanese curry udon is relatively hard to come by these days. Tucked away on the third floor of The Central (where else) and backed by a 100-year-old curry recipe, Wakashachiya was quite packed on a weekday evening. Young, bright and very helpful staff greeted us with huge smiles as we made our orders. Starting off with the deliciously addictive negi-shio tebasaki, which is chicken wings marinated with lemon juice, salt, pepper and green onion, we proceeded to the mains of curry katsu udon, ebi tempura curry udon and hitsu-mabushi ($18), the marinated eel rice bowl. Both curry udons came covered with thick, flavorful curry gravy and the udon was suitably thick, chewy and very filling. Fans of eel rice should try a bowl of it here, as it can be enjoyed in four fun ways and even comes with an instruction card. This is a good place to enjoy some solid Japanese grub (especially if you love curry and udon) and enthusiastic service.
