Kazokutei Japanese Udon & Soba

We passed this new Japanese udon & soba restaurant the other day while we were shopping on Thonglor. It was packed with people and the place looked interesting so we decided to try it for lunch the next day.


When we arrived the place was packed and lucky for us we got the last table. The atmosphere is noisy with conversations and the decor is simple wood tables & chairs (almost IKEA like). The place has an unbelievable number of staff in the open kitchen as well as in the dinning room. For sure you will not have to wait too long for your service & food. We were very wrong!


We ordered Japanese ice tea. When they served Oishi green tea in the bottle; which we found strange, but immediately knew who was behind, sponsor, owner, investor, etc. for Kazokutei...Oishi group. Kazokutei is probably another Japanese udon & soba chain from Japan that has been sprouting out all over Bangkok. I have not tried them all but so far; but for sure, some are better than others.


We met people we knew when we arrived at the restaurant. It was a man who was married to a Japanese woman. We asked how the food was and her reply was "Stay away from the fried food. It's awful. Stick with the udon or soba only!" We got scared.

We should have taken their warning. First of all; for the amount of staff they have in the kitchen, we were very surprised how long it took to get our food. The first dish was Japanese fried chicken. When it was delivered; it was shocking to see how oily & greasy the chicken was. I had to take some tissue to soak some of the grease off the chicken. I am no chef; but I can deep fry food better than this restaurant. Once we bit into the chicken; it was not even crispy, it was soggy as a baguette in a swimming pool (ok, I know that is weird but that was the first thing that came into my mind). That means the oil was not hot enough and they did not cook the chicken long enough. The chicken had no taste. This dish was absolutely disgusting!


The next dish was the udon set with tempura. We were not very happy with this dish as well. The udon noodles were clumped and glued together. We could not even believe that they could not even get cooking the udon right. The tempura was not as crispy as it should have been (probably again due to their mis-understanding about how to deep fry food). Very disappointing.


The next dish was recommended in the menu as the most popular and best selling; so I took it. The dish was dry soba with minced seaweed, diced egg & cucumber and a large prawn tempura. There was a sauce that came with the dish and it had be to pour over the soba noodles to add flavour. This probably was the best dish of the lunch; but, it was bland. No acidity, sweetness, saltiness...nothing. It was weird; I could see the food but there was no taste when I put into my mouth.

Overall...never again!!! There are too many delicious Japanese restaurants in Bangkok to suffer through that again.

I did not even ask for a business card for their address. However; just to let you know, Kazokutei is on Thonglor very close to soi 10 and across the street from Starbucks. But, believe me, its not worth looking for.