O'CHAME, AN EXPENSIVE BOWL O'NOODLES

A while ago Tom and I decided to head out to lunch at a local Japanese restaurant in Berkeley which is highly regarded for it's simple and delicious Japanese noodles. I figured it wouldn't be too expensive since it was just for lunch, and it was just noodles. So when we headed over there we found a restaurant that had just opened for lunch. The exterior of the building was this sort of Spanish/Mediterranean look with modern touches. When we entered, they had these really cool mural actually carved into the plaster on the walls. The entire space was really light and calming, and there seemed to be a lot of local entering to dine there. We snagged a seat right away.

After perusing the menu, we each decided to get one appetizer and one entree. Tom's appetizer was grilled eel on a bed for endive. I'm not a huge fan of eel, but I found this to be pretty good and Tom really enjoyed the pairing of the eel and the endive.

For my appetizer, I got a bowl of fried tofu. It wasn't really what I expected. Rather than dry pieces of fried tofu, it was actually a fried tofu served in a broth. It was pretty mild and tasty, but nothing super special.

And for our entrees, we each got a bowl of noodles. I ordered udon with tofu, mushrooms and vegetables. It was allright. The veggies were nice and fresh, but I found the udon to be kind of overcooked, and it didn't have the nice springy chewiness that you normally expect. Plus, the noodles weren't homemade, so it certainly wasn't worth the prices they were charging.

Meanwhile, Tom had ordered a bowl of noodles topped with shrimp. He also felt it was pretty good, but nothing spectacular. But we were both pretty surprised when the bill arrived, it was $50 for two appetizers, two bowl of noodles and two cups of tea. Ouch. It was a lot for a good, but not particularly spectacular lunch.

We might be back to take my parents one day, but I don't think we'll be back on our own. Frankly, I could make a bowl of noodles just at good at home.