A simple and satisfying bowl of buckwheat noodles at Kyoto Suba Soba. The simple shop only serves hot bowls of soba with a variety of toppings ranging from meat with a soft-boiled egg, steamed mussels with watercress or these enoki mushroom tempura. The bare bones shop is popular. Lots of young Japanese quickly came and…
Tag: soba
Jingoro
Local noodle shop for handmade udon and soba. This hearty serving of thick Musashino style udon and soba is less than $6. Jingoro 甚五郎 Tōkyō-to, Kokubunji-shi, Honchō 3-12-2 http://www.jingo6.com/sp/menu.html
Kaoriya Soba
Had a fantastic soba meal at Ebisu Kaoriya. Started with a flight of saké. Included a half-order of dashimaki tamago savory omelet, soba yaki miso, and tsukemono pickles. All very good. My favorite is always the miso with buckwheat groats. This one included julienned ginger. These three dishes are lovely with the nihonshu. The otameshi…
Metoba Soba in Matsumoto
Metoba is a soba shop on the Metoba river that flows through Matsumoto in Nagano. Nagano is famous for its harvest of buckwheat grains for soba. I asked if there were any local dishes we could try and was recommended the soba pancake called soba usuyaki (literally thin and grilled). A bit thinner than Western-style…
Travel – Shirakawa-go Nomura Soba
O Shirakawa-go is a world heritage site in Gifu, near Takayama, known for its wooden buildings with thatched roofs. It’s not easy to get to as trains don’t run here directly, so a bus is necessary. It’s a romantic village and pretty in winter, I would love to come back in summer. Grabbing lunch in…
Soba-ya Amongst the Love Hotels
Fukudaya is a traditional soba-ya on a narrow pedestrian street in the love hotel area on the Shibuya backstreets. The clientele is smart, ranging from fashionable youth to elderly warmly welcomed as regulars. The soba is light and the serving size is generous. Just minutes from the station on the 2nd floor above a 7-11. The…
Tomiya Soba in Suwa, Nagano
While in Suwa in Nagano we happened upon this local soba-ya near Suwa station. The noren (curtain outside the shop) that said teuchi (handmade) soba caught our eye. Nagano is famous for growing soba buckwheat so we try and eat as much soba as we can while in Nagano. During our visit in spring there is…
Atami Mugitoro Doji 麦とろ童子
Atami is a seaside resort south of Tokyo. If you have access to a car, then put Mugitoro Douji on your radar. I believe you could also come by bus, but best to look into the details. Mugitoro is a dish made from rice cooked with barley (mugi) that is topped with grated yamaimo (mountain potato),…
Asagaya Kakizawa 柿ざわ
Asagaya’s shōtengai is a covered street filled with many small shops for food, confectionaries, and essential items for daily life. It is a great neighborhood to visit if you are looking for an insight to how suburban Tokyoites shop. Just off the main shopping street is a gem of a soba shop, Kakizawa, named after the owner….
Toshikoshi Soba – End of Year Soba
Our last meal of each year in Japan is soba, buckwheat noodles. We call this toshi koshi soba (年越し蕎麦), literally crossing into the new year soba. At first I didn’t get the ritual. Why such a simple meal, either for dinner, or if you are up at midnight, as a small snack late at night? Shouldn’t…
Ogikubo Takahashi Soba 高はし
Takahashi is a about a ten-minute walk from Ogikubo station on the Chuo line, but worth the journey through the residential area west of Tokyo. I was meeting a girlfriend for lunch on a Tuesday. For whatever reason, many soba shops are closed on Tuesdays. But my friend had been to Takahashi before and we…
Kyoto Honke Owariya Soba 京都本家尾張屋
Owariya is a Kyoto soba shop with a rich history, that can be traced back hundreds of years. I love the branch in Takashimaya as it is near many popular sites such as Nishiki Market and Gion. As the shop is in a department store, it is also kid-friendly. The vegetable tempura soba (1620 JPY)…
Nihonbashi Soba Yudetaro 日本橋ゆで太郎
For the longest time I avoided the tachigui soba shops and other casual dining soba restaurants. Tachigui are restaurants without chairs. Diners order a bowl of noodles and stand and slurp quickly. Tachigui can be near train stations or even on the platforms. When I first lived in Japan in the late 80s I wouldn’t even part the…
Nagano Ohmachi No no Hana Soba 長野大町 手打ちそば 野の花
No no Hana in Ohmachi is a quiet soba shop where the master makes the noodles from scratch. It is far from the station so a taxi would be needed if you don’t have a car. Here is the kamo seiro, soba with a duck and leek dipping sauce. The menu (Japanese only) was quite extensive and…
Nobu Tokyo
I remember my first visit to Nobu, in New York City, a long time ago. The restaurant was buzzing. The miso cod was better than I imagined it could be, especially after reading about the dish for so long. The table next to me was a film crew from Tokyo making a commercial for Dunkin…
Soba at Honmura An
My first introduction to Honmura An was in New York City back about 15 years ago. A friend who loved soba wanted to share with me his favorite soba shop in the city. I was mesmerized with the stone grinder for crushing the dried buckwheat and impressed that the noodles were being made fresh daily….
Marunouchi Raku Soba
The guy sitting next to me said to his friend regarding the soba at Raku, “you’ll love it or hate it”. I had already started slurping away and I knew what he meant. It’s not your typical bowl of buckwheat noodles. These handmade noodles are thick cut and the densest soba I’ve ever had. The…
Omotesando Hills Kurkku 3
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…
Tokyo Cheap Eats
Tokyo is a great city for eating well on a budget. The first thing to look for is restaurants that specialize in a dish, like ramen, tonkatsu, or soba. Also, remember the word “teishoku” which is like the daily special or set meal. It is often includes rice, miso soup, pickles, a main dish and…
Tokyo Soba Restaurants and Soba Menu
Here are some of my favorite Tokyo soba restaurants. This first appeared in Metropolis magazine. Soba is in the midst of a renaissance. The humble buckwheat noodle has been receiving an increasing amount of attention from local TV shows and lifestyle magazines, and a further boost has come from the Slow Food movement, which emphasizes…
Food Sake Tokyo 