Kineya Mugimaru - Cambridge in Cambridge

Really poor and slow service. The place was half empty and there were 4 people working. It took 4 staff 25 minutes to serve 1 bao bun which is ridiculous. I was in Cambridge for a day trip and picked this place specifically for a quick lunch. The staff wasted a lot of my time which would have gone to sight seeing.

I just love it here. Quick and tasty food, and DELICIOUS crispy sides. What more could you want?

Nice place for a quick dinner. Good quality and choice of food.

Amazing zaru dipping udon at Kineya in Cambridge!

Really great atmosphere, cambridge chicken katsu yaki udon

Cambridge one is great. Katsu curry is good

Very nice spacious and bright place with roomy seating. Self-service was quick and friendly. We ordered laksa prawn udon, gyodon, and rice chicken jajang. Was very disappointed st the food however :( Awful marinated egg, way too overcooked and the marination is not even across the egg. Doesn’t look like they’ve made it fresh, I’ve made way better eggs at home. Jajang sauce tasted too salty and grainy like it came out of a package. Gyudon meat was dry and does not have the tender juiciness that we expect of the dish. Laksa was most okay and comforting but the taste could be more flavorful and stronger.

Great taste! Many delicious choices for all, today I tried the Chicken Katsu Curry Udon, and the mini Pork Chashu Don.

The best Udon and tempura in the town! Branch & dish is great!

Cambridge branch, chicken laksa

Amazing tase . Highly recommend when you next visit Cambridge

Lovely food, nice and quick ordering process and clean and friendly place. We regularly eat here when in Cambridge.

The food is clean and the menu is diverse. In particular, the manager is very friendly. I ate well^^

I usually couldn't eat because there were so many people. I had a table during lunch time on Monday so I ate quickly. I liked the chicken katsu curry rice bowl because there was a lot of rice, and it tasted just like I imagined. I couldn't finish the meal. lol

This is now our favourite go to for lunch any time we visit Cambridge. We would highly recommend.

Ordered the Laksa Chicken Udon and sweet potato tempura in Kineya Cambridge, all were good :)

Amazing food! Been waiting to try this for a long time - didn’t disappoint!

Cambridge Branch Always a delicious tonkotsu ramen and chicken

perfect place! Ordered beef curry rice and tastes great!

Good range of options, the tempura is a tad too expensive, but tastes good 👌

Wecameherefor the second time.The foodhereis awesome.It eemindsme the authentic Japanese cuisine which i usedto enjoy in Japan for three years.Its amazing

I ordered the classic curry udon and takoyaki tempura balls at the Cambridge branch. The food was great! Would come back again👍

Lovveeedd the karage chicken don!! Ate at the Cambridge branch!

I went to the Cambridge branch and got the Kake Udon and tempura. Recommend 👍👍👍

Ate at the Cambridge branch and had the pork tonkatsu noodles.

Kineya Mugimaru in Cambridge offers freshly made udon, rice dishes, and tempura with a touch-screen ordering system. Reviews praise the authentic flavors, reasonable prices, and vegan options, though some note occasional crowding and disorganization. Despite this, it’s a popular spot for quick and satisfying Japanese cuisine in the city center.

It is one of the amazing noodles at this place

It is less than your average Japanese/Korean restaurant. The food is sub par compared to other Japanese/Korean places I have tried. You will expect more for the price you pay and end up being disappointed. Good ambience.

Feels warm and comfy for a cold weather. Really loved the broth and sides

Best japanese food I ever had! The Chicken Katsu udon noodles were amazing! I will eat here everytime I come to Cambridge.

Location near to town centre. New mini pork rice bowl, really mini. Classic curry with only veg/carrot with sauce, no mince meat or anything else.

It was super amazing food. Amazing staff. Highly recommend

I had an amazing experience at Kineya in Cambridge! The food was absolutely delicious, with standout dishes like the sushi and katsu chicken. The katsu chicken was perfectly crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and packed with flavor. It’s also great to note that the food is halal, which is a big plus for many. The service was top-notch—quick, friendly, and attentive, making the whole dining experience even better. The best part is that it’s also incredibly affordable, offering fantastic value for such great food. Kineya is the perfect spot for a casual meal that’s both tasty and budget-friendly. Definitely a must-visit for anyone in the area!

Hearty dishes, great vegan options

The authentic Japanese food is really nice, but it does sometimes lead to the place being quite busy. Definitely the best place for Japanese food in Cambridge!

The Japanese udon is truly authentic and consistently high in quality. They also offer a variety of soup bases and ingredients. The chili miso is amazing too, especially if you enjoy spicy food!

Great place for noodles and tempura- gets very busy and a bit chaotic but food is excellent

Absolutely yummy! What at find at St Pancreas international train station! Reasonably priced - especially for London and totally delicious- bought lunch and dinner as lunch was so yummy!

A tiny, over-salty portion of udon with a sauce that consisted mostly of MSG, and gyoza that were overcooked to a dry crisp. This is not Japanese food; it is the kind of cheap slop you would expect from a run-down Chinese takeaway. I paid £15 for my "meal" and I'm really angry. AVOID.

Nicely decorated interior, food is okay! Gets very busy though.

Best Japanese restaurant in town. hands down. tried a handful and they don't really compare to this place

I ordered a Chicken Katsu for delivery and there wasn’t a single piece of chicken. Just sauce and rice. Very disappointed

Food was great and fast, staff are nice and professional but be warned the seating is a little all over the place , as long as its not too busy its a really nice place

We chose it for Saturday dinner. It is difficult to find a place to sit. Also the service is very slow. Noddle is very delicious. More attention should be paid to the cleanliness of the place.

Having lived in Tokyo almost a decade, I've been bemused by the number of Japanese restaurants that have popped up over the last 5 years or so in the UK - most of which of very questionable authenticity. However, this place is Japanese-owned, the food is pretty good, and in particular the look/ambience of the place is spot on. Surprised by some of the negative reviews - perhaps expecting a Wagamama dish with a slice of lime on top?

Went in around 11:00am. Lots of people behind the counter but they seem so unorganised that lots of people were waiting for the food. They should have stuck to one person per station. Ordered tonkatsu pork udon, I saw the girl cooking the pork and she drop one on the counter but didn’t replace it. So some bowls have 3 pork pieces and some only had 2. Which me and my friend only had 2 pieces of pork. I also got tempura prawn, chicken kaarage and takoyaki. All seems cold and looks like food from yesterday and not fresh. The chicken doesn’t even looked cook that it’s still pink and some bloods. I stopped eating cause I felt sick and I’m pregnant and it’s my first baby. This is very risky. Overall I’m disappointed cause it used to be my favourite restaurant back when it first opened. Now the quality & quantity of the food is not what it used to be.

Ordered a rice and chicken dish. Rice was stoggy and chicken dry. Rather disappointing. Sometimes it's ok.

2025 Update: I had to update this review to take out 1 more star, sadly. In the last 3 times I visited, the udon has gotten worse (e.g. undercooked, rushed, soup isn’t as nice/hot anymore) and the serving might have been adjusted to smaller amounts (e.g. the beef udon is no longer generous like before). They do have more choices in their menu now but the supposed star, their udon, is now not worth the visit. —— Older review: I give this 4 stars considering that within Cambridge, a ‘decent’ Japanese Restaurant is very rare. Decent is the best you can get here when it comes to Udon and Ramen. They use the typical assembly-line ordering where you order your base dish via a till then pick toppings by hand. Their tempura selections are quite nice and varied. The udon noodles though are often a little under cooked. The soup is nice but it could be hotter. The place is quiet nice with a ton of seating! It can get crowded at times but shouldn’t be a problem. Staff are busy but they are always friendly and helpful. My suggestions: Please cook the noodles maybe a minute more to make it perfect! Also, please keep the soups/broth hotter as it gets too cold quickly. Finally, the flat wooden spoon doesn’t really work with soups!

Awful seating. Because it operates like a food court, and seating is extremely limited, it’s often the case that you have a tray full of food, but have nowhere to sit and eat it! Hopefully in the future they’ll operate a more traditional sit-down service to fix this. Food tasted great though :)

Really good food, but are these sparrows thighs or chicken wings?

Ordered sushi and miso soup and was thoroughly disappointed. The sushi was soggy and mashed down and warm(it had raw salmon in it) the miso soup tasted like cheap instant noodle soup and had no tofu in it. Everything tasted old and off. What a waste of money.

Dining in at St Pancras at 9.30pm. The chicken katsu was so dry, it had obviously been cooked a long time before. Wouldn't recommend eating here after 7.30pm

Always a mediocre experience—their tonkotzu broth doesn’t taste like pork, tempura are unreasonably pricy, and the Bentos taste dry—but it had been an okay experience for me to keep coming back in the past three years to get something resembling Raman in Cambridge. But this time it’s wild… Both the laksa and zaru udon(supposed to be cold) are lukewarm, and the noodle in laksa is very soggy. The whole laksa doesn’t look freshly made Who knows how long they’ve kept the noodle boiling…

Great find in Cambridge. Lovely and crispy chicken dish along with few sides to try out. The sauce is super sweet to my liking but it’s a nice change. Comes with either rice or noodles depending on the taste. The chicken is halal so that’s also a very good point. Would definitely go back for another round 🧚‍♀️

Food was fine, had the curry katsu which tasted great. However, restaurant was dirty, no one had put away their trays and staff hadn’t cleaned it up, there was a lingering smell of body odour and toilet was dirty. Not recommended.

Edit: sadly I have to change my review as the last few times I've been have been worse and worse. It would be nice if there were better vegan options, the tofu and pumpkin are just ok. Last time I got tofu it was still frozen in the middle which was really disappointing eating it on a cold day. Meat eaters get freshly fried chicken in panko breadcrumbs, why not the tofu as well? Buying premade frozen fried tofu is a shame. As for the pumpkin, it's just mush inside. Not really a proper alternative.

Terrible! This is nothing like authentic Japanese food. The noodles and bao are chewy and stodgy, the favours are not balanced and the chicken is really just deep fried. The tempura is not light and crispy but heavy. Very disappointing for the amount of money it costs.

I have been by Kineya Mugimaru several times and wanted to visit and have a bite, all I can say it DID NOT dissapoint! Very delicious food,yummy green tea, and very friendly staff! All I ask for in a restaurant! Cherry on top is a winter cozy atmosphere.

Cleanliness is very important here. Dirty cutlery. Preparing food in unhygienic conditions. The taste of the food was also a flop Toilet looked worse than a train station toilet.

The time before last that I was there, the meals we wanted were sold out, unfortunately the system was not updated. So I had ordered the food only to find out at the till that it was not available- they ran out of chicken! To be fair, it was a fee minutes to closing time; would have saved me the trouble of ordering and paying for the meal if the system for ordering was accurately in sync with the kitchen. The last time I was there, I got the meal you can see in the photos- not sure I'll get those again. For one, the noodles were quite cold; I guess the curry was meant to make it hot. The side noodle was fridge level cold and I struggled to eat because I prefer sizzling hot meals.

Looks nice on the outside, but this place is the *peak* of dystopian dining. Filthy tables, absolute chaos with service, no clear instructions. Constant queuing, Your ticket being printed means nothing other than a pre-order, you then have to wait in a queue for payment looking at the filthy trays with oil still on them. Then after confirm your order with payment, you wait again in a crowded area, where people are collecting food, returning food, adding condiments. When you finally get your food after hearing a person shout out numbers like it’s the lottery or a McDonald’s on a Saturday night, not your order? Who cares! Then you get the pleasure of battling for tables, If they’re not being reserved by people who haven’t even ordered yet, they’re filthy and completely unclean or horribly cramped and so close to the next table that you may as-well sit in their lap. All this, whilst others who have hot food are also stood around struggling to find tables. Certainly won’t be back here at all and wouldn’t recommend this place, period.

The food is great, but the service handling is bad. There isn't much of a process after the order is placed at the self-service machine. The time it takes for the food to serve is long and out of order, means there is a long standing queue waiting for the food to be collected. It is hard to get a table as well as a lot of people are just sitting down waiting for their food to be ready while people who had their food ready don't have a table.

Super fast service, and really nice food

Stale sushi with hard rice, dirty water with tons of flakes floating around in it and lipstick on the rim of the glass.

Fantastic food, tasty and fresh!

The system of standing at the counter with one dish whilst waiting for each additional dish, leaves you with cold food. Won't be back anywhere near a lunchtime, that's for sure

When we went we were very much impressed with the overall quality of the resteraunt. The food was extremely filling and tasty, honestly a ten out of ten. There isnt much i can say that is bad :)

Kineya Mugimaru in Cambridge is a fantastic spot! The food is fresh, fast, and perfect for when you want a medium-quality, satisfying meal. The glass bar is ideal for people-watching in the lively Cambridge setting, while the tables work great when dining with friends. It does get busy, so be ready to grab a seat quickly! Overall, it’s an enjoyable, convenient place to savor Japanese flavors like

Awesome place. Living up to the delivery of expected fast food standards.

A lot of rice and not much more for £25

So good I had to back twice, chicken katsu was lit

Nice food, too bad room temperature high enough to keep customers never come back again

I ordered the beef gyudon. But didn’t get the poached eggs. They don’t answer the call

Absolutely delish and healthy. Go for it!

Don't think it's a Japanese kineya. The noodles are soft and fluffy, and the soup stock has little effect. If I could take home just the noodles I made, I could boil them myself at home!

Very nice atmosphere, amazing food, would be nicer if green tea was free

Lovely and quick, lots of tables to eat at. Vegetarian friendly nice portion size and good for sharing with friends. I had the udan yaki dish.

This restaurant has various delicious & affordable Japanese dishes. Their freshly made Udon is exceptionally good and chasue dishes are must have! Also enjoyed freshly deep fried prawn tempura & karaage.

Ordering at Kineya is incredibly easy and quick, making the dining experience hassle-free. The taste of every dish is outstanding, from the fresh Tempura to the rich noodles. This place is a must-visit!

Yummy!The Japanese staff is so nice!!

Honestly it's good value for money it's good quality food very filling and the staff give excellent service.. it's concept is new to me as you order a main then help yourself to many differnt options of fried stuff and it's been belly busting you will not go hungry at this place it was the perfect spot to celebrate my one year anniversary with my gf thank you for making it a wonderful experience

Amazing quality of food and a very good experience for a first date or anniversary

Avoid until they fix the air conditioning. The noodles are nice, and the service is swift, but you can’t finish a bowl without feeling lightheaded and overheating in the restaurant. It’s a shame to not get through half a bowl of noodles because you are overheating. It’s at least 10 degrees warmer the restaurant inside than out.

Food was lovely. But it was sooo hot inside, it wasn't even a that hot day. The lights were too close to the table which makes it warmer.

Their tonkotsu ramen was ok, but the chilli paste should have been optional. Service was very good and the food was served quickly. The restaurant was large and roomy, was not busy on a weekday lunchtime. Overall an ok experience.

I really like the food here—everything I’ve tried has been great! The prices are reasonable too; I could eat here every day! Unfortunately, the place isn’t very clean, and it’s quite hot inside.

Popped in at the Cambridge restaurant, looked amazing very busy and smelt wonderful. Purchased our food whilst eating checked out website noticed all chicken dishes were halal! Unfortunately as per my religion we do t eat halal but staff were polite and so helpful - I explained and they graciously allowed me to change my dish without a fuss - thank you so much, for a fantastic experience xx

It is insanely hot there, and it is definitely very unpleasant on hot days. I feel sorry for the staff who the owner obviously doesn't care about. I like the format, though, but why not have a bigger space for waiting for food?

It was 22°C outside today, but inside the restaurant, it felt uncomfortably warm! I couldn't help but sweat throughout the entire meal. I can't imagine how it would feel on hotter days. The udon, as always, was delicious and authentic, but I really hope they fix the air conditioning soon.

Visited today food was fantastic, all enjoyed ordered at front and by the time paid at the till the food was ready. Same couldn't be said for the bubble tea it was undrinkable we left two newly full cups, sad as not cheap. Recommend the food but not the drink !

The food was bad and there isn't AC or even a fan

The gyudon was nice. The sitting area is a bit tight but the food is very good.

Absolutely tasty Udong noodles 🍜 . Fair prices, freshly made and many other fancy food. Eating-in and takeaways in Cambridge . Really instantly available Take-away dish of classic curry Udon (not on the photo! ) .

The peanuts served in the noodles were somehow rancid.

Good quality of food. Terrible operations. Basically neither kitchen nor the case can meet the workload that comes from the ordering screens. This translates into a very slow service and desperate queues. It is extremely hot inside.

No air conditioning! Super hot in summer 🫠 The table is crowded🫠 Toilet clean! But love the food，good potion! will visit again when weather comes cool…. Chili oil super nice!

The staff at the tills are friendly. I've eaten here a few times, and there's a bit of inconsistency in the quality of food. The cleanliness of the seating area has improved during my more recent visits. Overall, it's a decent stop for Japanese food if you have a bigger budget while still seeking fast service.

Chicken was DRY, it had been sat on the counter all day, the noodles were stuck to the bottom of the container - definitely not worth £9

It's delicious. I love chilli sauce as well.

Mouth watering experience . Super friendly staff and amazing waiting times terrific.