Kurkku 3, is part of the Kurkku restaurant group that has several restaurants in this neighborhood. Located just as you enter the main entrance to Omotesando Hills is this sleek and bright shop. The lunch menu is simple and focuses on soba and seasonal vegetables. Here is the cold soba topped with pork and vegetables served with a tangy tomato dipping sauce. I was intrigued when the waitress described today’s special as it had a tomato sauce instead of the ubiquitous soy-based dipping sauce that soba is so traditionally served with. The tomato was refreshing and is something I will try to replicate this summer, when we often make the very thin, flour-based sōmen noodles that are always served cold.

One whole wall is of windows that faces the main street of Omotesando that is often compared to the Champs-Élysées of Tokyo. Grab a window seat for some of the city’s best people watching as shoppers stroll by.

Omotesando Hills, designed by Tadao Ando, is filled with over 100 shops for high-end fashion like Belgium’s Ann Demeulemeester. It’s a great place to meet friends for a meal as there are plenty of restaurants to choose from including one that I go back to time and time again, Yasaiya Mei. Yasaiya Mei offers a menu filled, but not limited to, seasonal vegetables.

Kurkku 3 offers some domestic Japanese wine and international beers.

Kurkku 3

Shibuya-ku, Jingumae 4-12-10, Omotesando Hills 1F

Phone: 03-6438-9603

Open daily