Haisai! It’s CULT.
Originally Cultravel was a blog created specifically about Okinawa, but when I returned to Korea it changed from Cultravel Okinawa to simply Cultravel. I’ll share stories about the various countries I’ve lived in.
Today I’d like to tell you about a restaurant called Menya Dougen that I loved most and thought was the most delicious while living in Okinawa. I really love this shop’s tsukemen, and if someone asked me to choose just one restaurant to visit while in Okinawa, I would of course pick this place. That’s how confident I am that the tsukemen is truly the best.

Location

Menya Dogen is located on Maejima (前島), a little way off Kokusai Street.
Open for lunch only on Sundays and closed on Mondays, and regular hours are 11:30 AM–3:00 PM and 5:00 PM–9:30 PM.
There are coin-operated parking lots nearby, but this is a residential area and the parking spaces are very small and tight, so finding a spot can be difficult. For that reason, I recommend parking at this spot (Google Maps) and walking a short distance to eat — it’s very spacious and easy to park there.

Menya Dogen

This is the entrance to Menya Dogen. It has a slightly timeworn, old-shop feel and mostly caters to locals. It’s about 500m from Kokusai-dori, one of Okinawa’s main tourist spots, so it’s a bit less convenient to walk from there, but the tsukemen here is really delicious, so I definitely recommend stopping by to try it.

The interior isn’t particularly flashy. Nevertheless, it’s one of the restaurants I visited most often while living in Okinawa. I went so often that I ended up chatting with the owner. The last meal I ate before leaving Okinawa was also here at Menya Dogen. Personally, I really love this place.

Ordering from a Meal Ticket Vending Machine

This restaurant accepts PayPay and other QR-code payments. Unfortunately credit cards cannot be used, so unless you’re Japanese or Chinese, assume you’ll need to pay in cash. QR payments from Korea are possible, but I don’t recommend KakaoPay because of past personal data leak issues.
The ticket machine is an older model, so it won’t accept new 1,000-yen bills; if you give new bills at the counter they’ll change them to older ones. Large notes won’t be accepted either, so you can exchange 5,000-yen or 10,000-yen bills at the counter.

And the menu I most recommend is the No.1 Tsukemen, the top-left button. The No.13 Special Tsukemen comes with extra chashu and nori, but at Menya Dogen the point is the noodles and the sauce, so choose according to your taste. I usually ordered the No.1 Tsukemen.

Tsukemen

All the photos were taken one per visit whenever I went to Menya Dogen. I like Menya Dogen’s tsukemen that much. Tsukemen is similar to zaru soba, where thick, udon-like noodles are dipped into a sauce. This place serves the noodles cold with a warm sauce, and personally I find cold noodles much more delicious than warm ones.

The way to eat it is that the noodles and the sauce come in separate bowls — take a small portion of noodles and dip them into the sauce. Some people eat very slowly, and in that case the sauce can get quite cold before they’re finished. There’s a microwave under the ticket machine where you bought your meal ticket, so you can warm it up there and finish enjoying it.
I don’t take even three minutes to finish a bowl, so I never needed to use the microwave.

You dip it lightly like this before eating. Just imagining it makes my mouth water. A taste that makes you want more.

This is how it looks after I’ve finished eating. I always tidy up like this after a meal before I leave. Maybe it’s a way of showing respect for a delicious Tsukemen? I wiped up every last bit of the sauce. I think people in Korea who enjoy kongguksu might find it to their taste.

Other menu items

This is the Special Tsukemen.
It’s menu number 13 — a version with extra chashu and toppings. But as I mentioned earlier, the heart of Menya Dogen is its noodles and sauce, so I don’t really prefer the #13 Special Tsukemen. Of course, it’s tasty.

And this is Tantanmen. The reason I ate it was… lunch service is until 3:00 PM, and if you go around 2:00 PM, Tsukemen often sells out. Even if you go around 8:00 PM, it often sells out. So I had no choice but to try another dish, and the Tantanmen is delicious. It’s spicy. There’s also a special, very spicy Level 10 Tsukemen — if you like spicy food, give it a try. For the record, I managed to finish it.

Wrapping up…

People have different tastes and preferences. So I’m not sure what I can strongly recommend, but personally, while living in Okinawa, the most delicious thing I ate was the Tsukemen at Menya Dogen. I hope it suits your palate too. I really, really love this tsukemen. I hope you get to visit and enjoy a delicious meal there!