Udon for breakfast, anyone?

The latest début on London’s breakfast scene is also perhaps its most inventive. Japanese-born, globally renowned noodle concept Marugame Udon has made its entry into the breakfast market, less than two years after its UK launch. Customers making their way through London’s Waterloo station can now opt for a range of udon breakfast specials, breakfast tempura, and sandos in place of their usual pastry and coffee.

Described as a Japanese twist on traditional breakfast dishes, Marugame now serves up a ‘Benedict Udon’ – a bowl heaped with its handmade noodles, hollandaise sauce, poached egg, and streaky bacon. Also on the menu is bacon, sausage, and egg tempura, along with the comparatively more traditional sando rounding off the breakfast offer.

For a nation only tentatively moving away from the Full English, the launch certainly sounds like one for more adventurous palates - though it has enough familiarity to satisfy those who demand bacon and eggs for breakfast. 

Marugame Udon launched in London with the ambition of making the humble Japanese favourite a mainstay in the UK fast casual market. A carefully curated menu, most popular among central London’s office workers at lunchtime, combined Western favourites such as katsu curry with lesser known Japanese dishes like kake udon for a localised yet authentic offer that managed to retain its Japanese roots.

The brand’s latest menu additions offer a bolder mash-up of East-meets-West cuisine, and how consumer will receive them is difficult to predict. One could just as easily imagine the udon bowl being an ill-fated fusion flop as it could be a novelty hit, popularised by bloggers and Instagrammers. A sneaking suspicion remains though, that noodles for breakfast might be a step too far beyond many British consumers’ comfort zones.

Data from Lumina Intelligence shows that nearly 10% of eating out occasions in November 2022 were breakfast, demonstrating the importance of this day part. NPD in recent months, however, has followed trends for more classic dishes, with brands like Bill’s and Slug & Lettuce launching new pancake flavours, and Pret tweaking its menu to add porridge toppers, reflecting premiumisation and driving spend.

While Benedict udon sounds unusual, Marugame is not the first Asian specialist to enter the breakfast scene. Wagamama serves breakfast bowls and Japanese omelettes at some of its travel hub locations. Its Asian-inspired touches are more conservative, featuring pancakes with goji berries and eggs Benedict served on an Asian steamed bun rather than a muffin.

Hop Vietnamese offers brunch bánh mì – crusty baguettes filled with egg, bacon and Vietnamese garnishes, again showing a pattern of East Asian dishes that are sufficiently westernised to cater to more conservative morning palates.

Dishoom’s naan bacon roll has become an iconic dish in a market dominated by poached eggs and avocado toast, the Anglo-Indian fusion managing to be both innovative yet familiar. 

Meanwhile Antipodean operators like Caravan have injected a “well-travelled”, experimental and worldly ethos into their brunches, its menu including Japanese and Korea-inspired items, such as miso oyster mushrooms on toast, and kimchi pancakes.

Marugame’s brunch offers a mix of indulgence for those with some time to kill with the Benedict bowls, and on-the-go convenience with the sandos. The Florentine Udon and tofu sando caters to vegetarians and vegans, while the breakfast tempura might appeal as a hangover fix.

And despite the cost of living crisis, Lumina Intelligence data suggests consumers are still gravitating towards more experimental cuisines in increasing numbers. Marugame Udon will certainly be hoping to leverage this trend with their breakfast noodle bowls - and they certainly win kudos with their bold addition to an often conventional brunch category.