In the early 2010s, when Daikokuya was still gaining traction, Marugame Monzo opened up a few steps down to little fanfare. Over the years, those crippling lines for Daikokuya’s ramen started to filter over to this curious boutique udon shop a couple doors down, and the rest is history. At Monzo, thick udon noodles are made in-house before diners’ eyes. Diners can slurp up on everything from wonderfully minimalistic kama age udon, or sauce it up (and doin’ too much, ain’t enough) with the uni cream.

When Hawaii’s Marukame Udon propped up on the mainland and dropped the k for a g, the uninitiated might have mistook it for the Honolulu favorite throwing down the gauntlet to Marugame Monzo on the other side of town. In reality, Marugame is a town in Kagawa Prefecture, and the prevailing style in the region is the chewy noodles diners in the Los Angeles area have come to love. Marugame Udon ushers customers through an assembly line-like experience, but still delivers on the basics as well as anyone in the city — including an amazing curry udon.

The unassuming Gardena restaurant goes wild on polish woods and is dead serious about its udon. Sanuki Province is an old Japanese province with the same borders as modern day Kagawa Province, and it is during this era that the square-cut udon noodles first earned their popularity. Sanuki No Sato claims to be the best udon in the United States, and one look at their menu showcases some varieties not commonly found in the States. Kuzukake udon takes corn-starch thickened broth with egg (resembling Chinese egg drop soup) and tops the proceedings with spiced cod roe, one of the restaurant’s specialties.

Raku’s known more for their skewers, foie gras bowls, and Instagram-worthy sizzling stone steaks with Hennessy flambé. Don’t let the flash distract from the restaurant’s clinical execution in the fundamentals, including a fantastic green-tea soba that’s seasoned just right and topped with a runny egg and a healthy smattering of Raku’s incomparably smoky katsuobushi. Uni udon fans need look no further than Raku’s iteration, which serves the chewy noodles inside a hollowed-out sea urchin topped with some of the best sea urchin roe available.

Honda Ya’s menu runs roughly the size of the Old Testament, but there’s a hidden gem in there — the kitsune udon uses a dashi stock that’s a little heavy on the anchovy. Supplant udon noodles with soba to better appreciate the broth. With thinner buckwheat soba in the mix, the stock gets to take more of a central role gets very refreshing, reminiscent of Korean janchi guksu (festival noodles).

Tsurumaru Udon Honpo takes the cafeteria-style approach in a similar way to Marugame Udon on Sawtelle, but it lays claim to being the OG in Los Angeles. A simple kakiage udon is workmanlike, a primer on the chewy noodles and refreshing hot broth. All things considered, it makes a case for udon to be taken seriously in a city that’s been overrun with ramen options.

Kotohira holds the distinction of serving one of the rarer dishes in LA: Okinawan soba. Termed Nikuyasai Soba on the menu, Okinawan soba is more like an udon. The toppings include kakuni (slow-braised pork belly) and kamaboko (fish cake) and the noodles are more akin to udon than soba in the mainland Japanese sense, insofar as they are thicker, wheat-flour based noodles.

Oumi Sasaya’s udon noodles run a little thinner than their competitors’, but it’s not running thin on esoteric applications. Check out the curry udon, which can come with mochi, shrimp and vegetables, or the tororo udon that takes sesame seeds and grated yam for an interesting combination of flavors.

Are the displays of stair-steps of tempura, udon, and sushi a little extra? Sure, but it’s West Hollywood and Kochi plays to the crowd. This WeHo Udon outpost specializes in all the standards while also venturing out to Carbonara udon and mentai cream. With a solid selection of tempura and some intriguing specials (Salad udon with avocado, anyone?), Kochi seems right at home playing to the crowd.