Taiko Udon

Most of their dishes are great, I always come here for Bo Kho, Mi Nam Vang and Bun Rieu. The only weird thing is I dont know why they serve Bo Kho and other soup items in dishes instead of bowls. Sometimes I found it inconvenient. Plus they tend not to serve Bun Rieu for some weird reason such as they have no ong-​choy at the time (?!).
They close pretty early compares to restaurants around but I think bcuz they are more for breakfast and lunch type of restaurants.
Parking can be crazy on weekend and lunch time since it right on Bolsa st.

Love it here… great customer service! The food is good, everything on the menu is delicious!

This place is filthy, has horrible customer service (typical Vietnamese style) and fake Japanese udon noodles. I came twice and had same experience. Won’t come back.

I don’t like this place either, h tiu ís not hot enough, service was really bad bad…, and dirty inside… they are listening really cheap VN music and really loud (I am not deaf) I will never come bck again !! Also all of my friends too !! By the way we gave them one penny for TIP.

My favorite Vietnamese fusion Japanese udon! I always get the crab meat & shrimp udon, and my boyfriend always get their beef curry. Both are delicious! Typical Vietnamese Bolsa restaurant, so don’t expect 5 star service. But the food is definitely worth it. I’m sad they close so early!

First of all, this review is in no way indicative of Taiko Udon overall as a restaurant. This review is just for their banh canh cua.
You know, I really need to start being skeptical whenever my mom tells me to try a new place that supposedly has good banh canh. I really think all Vietnamese moms listen to the same radio that suggests places like this.
Taiko Udon is a small togo shop that’s next to a French restaurant located in Ha Noi Plaza. Parking is pretty bad and so I suggest you take your time and be patient. There’s not much on the menu and obviously I gravitated toward the banh canh since my mom recommended me this place because of it.
I don’t know if its because I read the reviews beforehand, but I had a poor experience for multiple reasons. First of all, the broth smelled like the soup in bun rieu. That’s already a mistake, but at least it was red? The broth really didnt taste anything that spectacular. There were like three shrimp that just wasnt cooked well and the only thing that made the noodle soup edible was the lime I squeezed in. I’m not going to bash on the choice of noodles because this is an udon restaurant.
Overall, if you want banh canh, don’t come here; there are truly better alternatives. I’m sorry, but I just didnt like this place.
Eat well and prosper,

The food was less than average. We got the shrimp tempura udon, bo kho, hu tieu nam vang, and banh canh tom cua (shrimp and crab). The soup was mediocre. There was waaaay too much pepper in the banh canh. The meat in the bo kho was too chewy.
The service was also crud. We came into the store and stood around awkwardly for five minutes or so until a waiter hurriedly told us to sign into the waitlist. Other waiters had noticed us but decided not to do anything and stand by the cash register chatting. The bo kho came first (within five minutes) and the rest came 20 minutes later. The water came after the food.
The restaurant was also very dirty. They gave us a spoon that had some weird white gunk on it.

I will briefly summarize the horrible experience at lunch here.
1. Extremely dirty
2. Waitress extremely rude.
3. They only offered about 20% of the drinks listed on menu
4. Extremely stingy and refused to hand over 2 more spoons.
5. Gave me scissors that were dripping brown liquid. Then came back 2 minutes later asking for the scissors and stood right next to me as i cut the food until i gave them back
6. The food was average to below average.
If you decide to come here for some reason, bring lots of cleaning material so you dont catch a disease.

Crazy as it may seem, this place serves Vietnamese noodle dishes made with Japanese udon. Apparently, they advertise on Vietnamese radio that they trained in Japan to learn how to make udon. Unfortunately, their udon is not that good. The noodles are not uniform in width and not very precisely made — something about it seems shaggy or messy. In any case, the «seafood udon» is essentially bun rieu, with peppery pork meatballs, crab meat and a tomatoy broth. There’s a pork udon too, which is kind of like a hu tieu maybe. This restaurant is attached to Le Croissant Dore.

I was here today and I saw this girl with a layered bob cut and I asked her to take my order and she said nah I clocked out sorry but then she said she liked my nail polish and asked if I wanted to sleepover and i was like yeah sure you’re so friendly HAHA down. now we’re homies. good food + nice employees

Haven’t tried their udon but their Hieu tieu kho (dry noodles) is delicious! They super stuff the bowl with noodles, meat, and shrimp. Also, it comes with a bowl of soup and a big bone with meat. For the price, this is a very good deal.

Love the broth. This is NOT a Japanese udon place, so don’t expect anything like it. I had #14 and the broth is similar to bun rieu, but packs more punch. The udon noodle itself is not great, we replaced the udon with mi which is yum! Love the broth and rieu!

I went to Little Saigon for the first time ever. I found it funny that it was a Japanese place, but didn’t count it out just because of that. Part of the reason why was because I was with family members who are pickier than I am at eating certain foods (also my dad has certain allergies).
I ordered #12. The shrimp was tasty and juicy just to my liking. I also liked the taste of their noodle and soup. I like my noodles with a little more bite to it– al dente which wasn’t the case, but it didn’t take away from the taste (obviously).
I only ordered water as my beverage, so I can’t rate them on that. I also tried out my sister’s tempura. I have a weakness for tempura. I give theirs a pretty solid 8 since I have to take into consideration how hungry I was at the time.
Overall, the experience was great. The servers were patient and understanding. I appreciated that since my family and I couldn’t really understand some of the stuff on the meny.

This place is simple with a simple menu but it’s about quality, not quantity. I like coming here because the portions, the price, and the quality is just right. I hate over paying for every day meals. Taiko is also associated with Croissant Dore so you can order from either side. Although they use the term «Udon» they technically only have 2 udon selections. The way its prepared, it’s more like «banh canh,» a Vietnamese version of Udon noodles. In my opinion, it’s yummier and healthier without all that fried batter. Another thing I have to have is their fresh made expresso café sua da. So good! Don’t expect them to roll out the red carpet but the staff is polite and friendly.

So good.
For starters, this isn’t Japanese udon. But it’s not trying to be! For all the complainers below. How is it their fault? They don’t advertise as Japanese udon or yakisoba. And they’re in the middle of Little Saigon! Of course it’s going to have a Vietnamese influence!
For those who like Vietnamese food. It may be more like Banh canh if that helps. But as a dish, regardless of what you want to call it, it’s really good.
I usually order the seafood udon and add some jalapeños and chili paste. The noodles are made in house and you can tell how fresh they are. Another great thing is if you order it to go the bowl they package it in is pretty solid (and reusable) and it reheats a lot better than most Asian noodles to go (like phở, which is impossible to taste right when you get it to go unless you order uncooked noodles and cook it at home).
Bottom line try it because it’s really good and fresh and the only reason I’m taking the time to leave a review is because I want them to do well so I don’t lose this as a lunch option!!!

Had the Banh Canh Seafood which has shrimp meatball and shredded crab meat. The soup is very flavorful, the shrimp meatball is to die for, and the udon noodles are freshly made. It’s very pack and there’s barely any parking.

First stop we went to when me and my friends went to los angeles. Parking is always always hard to find in this area especially on the weekends and the place was packed. We waited 30minutes to be seated and was eventually seated outside. The price is kinda high the service was below mediocre and the servers dont speak english. I ordered the bo kho and i ate off my friends curry plate it was just alright. Food tookawhile to come out too. Might come back here but maybe on a weekday. Oh and they charge for water (.75 $) ⁶⁄₁₀ but isupport my vietnamese people lol

I honestly don’t know why there are so many bad reviews… I didn’t use the restroom or anything but from when I walked in and to where I sat the restaurant seemed perfectly clean to me… I had good service as well but maybe that’s just me.
Anyways, I like how the prices here are very reasonable. This place is connected to the bakery next door so you can ask for the menu for both restaurants. I came here at 8 am on a Thursday and it seemed like there was a good amount of people already surprisingly. I ordered the bo kho with banh mi and oh my goodness it was really good. Definitely order this when you go here. I saw a lot of people ordering the hu tieu as well and they seemed to enjoy it so maybe I’ll get that next time. Drinks are super cheap as well and you can get an upgrade with the Unilocal check in. The café sua da is sooo good.
Even though it’s supposed to be an udon place it seems more like it’s actually banh canh so I would probably avoid that and just order their hu tieu or bo kho for sure!

Other side was packed so we had to sit on this side. Other menu is also available. Bf ordered banh canh and I said pâté sho for now. Comes back less than a minute later saying they ran out so I ordered Hu Tieu bo Kho. He ate his entire dish and mine never came out. Wtf? All she said was sorry and that’s it.
The banh canh was bland, super soft and chewy noodles, for that price, you should go find an authentic Japanese udon spot.
Walked out pissed and hungry. Never coming back to either location again.

My mom wanted to try this place during our weekly family lunch outting. It is located near the Asian Garden Mall but about 2 plazas down. Parking was ample and it was very easy to find from the street view. We got there around 11:30 AM and if we were just a few minutes late, there would be no tables for us to sit. Since this is a small store, they only had about 5 tables (about 4 chairs per table).
My parents got the shrimp tempura udon and the seafood udon while I got the curry chicken udon (it seems like the wildest one to get). My mom liked her shrimp tempura udon and really like the fried lotus and fried mushroom. My dad’s seafood udon seemed the yummiest (also the most expensive of the 3), he had a lot of shrimp and fishballs. I didn’t really like my chicken curry udon. I was intrigued so I decided to give it a try because I like curry and I like udon but I definitely don’t like the two together. Their hot tea was delicious and smelled very good. The bill came out to about $ 21 for 3 bowls + tea, which is reasonable for Bolsa standards.
They have a Unilocal check in offer for their boba. The store is unique in the sense that they’re trying to blend the vietnamese noodles with the japanese udon but I probably won’t be coming back.