We’re excited to try a little something new on the site by sharing the photos I took for a recent Down East Magazine shoot at the restaurant, Anju. We’ve featured this noodle bar in Kittery Foreside on the site once before in 2014, but after such a great shoot and meal there for the magazine this January, I convinced Michael to stop off in Kittery the following week for a longer than usual road trip lunch at Anju on our way to Vermont. Although we haven’t tried everything pictured below, we’ve sampled enough of the menu in our combined three trips to recommend that Anju needs to be high on any must-try list of restaurants to visit in New England.

The Seafood Yakisoba, the noodle dish pictured above with shrimp, is really what brought me back to Anju a mere week later, and being the creature of habit I am, I didn’t think twice about ordering it again. My second experience eating this hearty bowl of scallops and shrimp atop coconut creamy noodles was just as delicious as the first time around. During the shoot, I had my eye on the sweet and spicy Gochujang chicken wings, but opted to shy away from them while working because of the mess I knew I’d make. We ordered these during our lunch together, and of course made a huge mess, but it was more than worth it. I steered Michael in the direction of the Duck Yakisoba because it also caught my attention from the week before, and lucky for me, he was willing to share plenty of his tasty duck confit noodles.

If I can resist the temptation of the Seafood Yakisoba on my next trip to Anju, I’m hoping to try the Harvest Bap – a vegetarian rice bowl of maple roasted vegetables and fermented kohlrabi with a fried egg on top, pictured below with brussels sprouts and pomegranate seeds. Even if the Harvest Bap is no longer on the menu by the time I make it down to Kittery again, I’ll be happy to order anything on the menu – having spent a good amount of time in and around Anju’s kitchen and many of their dishes, I’m confident I’ll be well-fed on my next visit to to Anju.

Photos by Meredith Perdue for Down East Magazine.