Category Archives: Soba

RAKUICHI, another gem of a restaurant in Niseko

by Bianca

Once again I will be straying away from Tokyo for this post. Just came back from another weekend of skiing in Niseko and it is slowly becoming a food mecca for me. I found another gem of a restaurant that I just have to share with you. This time it is a small soba restaurant called Rakuichi.

 

Finding this restaurant takes a little effort. It was practically hidden behind mountains of snow when we went searching for it. You had to walk over a wooden bridge until you arrived at a cozy little wooden hut. I’d imagine it to be really lovely in summer as well. A husband and wife team dressed elegantly in a kimono and yukata greeted us and showed us to our counter seats. The restaurant only has 12 counter seats and serves soba for lunch and a set menu for dinner that costs roughly about 5000 yen per course.

The first course was a shabu-shabu set :

I loved how graciously the wife served our meals while the husband cooked away in the small kitchen behind the counter.

The second set was small appetizers :

Followed by some delicious scallop and mackerel sashimi. I have never tasted raw scallop so sweet.

Then came the fresh and scrumptious oyster :

Followed by a plate of crunchy vegetable tempura with green tea salt on the side :

We watched how our soba was hand-made as we munched on our tempura.

Our soba being made...

And for the final course, a bowl of hot duck soba noodles with some onion tempura topping. Absolutely delicious and perfect to heat up the body on a cold day.

If you ever find yourself in Niseko and looking for a place to eat, I suggest you try this little gem. It might be a bit of a hassle if you don’t speak or read Japanese because there are no english menus and the english spoken by the husband and wife team is very limited, but still, if you eat whatever is offered to you, you’ll be fine.

RAKUICHI

431 Niseko, Niseko-cho, Abuta-gun, Hokkaido

phone : 0136583170

Ps. I’ll be going on vacation for the next 2 weeks. Will catch up on posts after.

A taste of old Japan at YABU SOBA

by Bianca

Update on April 12,2013.

Sadly this charming restaurant was burnt down in an unexpected fire a few months ago and is now closed. They say they renovating to reopen in a year or so. I really do hope so.

 

One thing I love about Tokyo is that everyday you have the chance to stumble upon something new, something unexpected. Today, I planned to have a soba lunch at a place called Muto in Nihonbashi but it was closed even when the website stated that it was opened for lunch on Saturdays. A quick google search for other soba places around the area brought us to Yabu soba.

I did not expect to find this old style little Japanese house surrounded by a wooden fence in an alley in Kanda (near Nihonbashi). It was the kind of restaurant you’d find in Kyoto, not hidden somewhere near the financial district of Tokyo.

It even had a cute little Japanese garden you had to walk through before entering the restaurant. There was a line waiting for tables but it did not take long before we were quickly ushered to our seats. The restaurant had a tatami section and a table section with low chairs, and was quite sizeable for Tokyo’s standards.

What immediate struck me when I entered was how the staff all greeted you and shouted out your orders in some sort of chant. It had a melody to it that was quite amusing.

They had an english menu available and since it was cold outside most of us opted for the hot soba. I ordered soba with fish cake and the rest of the group ordered soba with duck meat and the tempura soba.

The tempura soba

I have to say that so far, this is the best soba I have tried in Tokyo. The soba was delicious and the soup tasted just right. It definitely was much tastier than other soba noodles I’ve tried. The portions however are quite small, so if you enter this establishment with an empty stomach you should order two portions like most of the male patrons of the restaurant did.

The fish cake soba

We also ended up ordering two extra cold soba dishes which were exquisite.

I did a little research after our delightful lunch and found that Yabu soba first opened its doors in 1880 and their soba are served “seiro” style which means firm noodles made from ten parts buckwheat flour to one part wheat flour, which are then dipped in a tasty broth and enjoyed.

Well, for me, finding this place was definitely a pleasant surprise.

Address :2-10 Kanda Awajicyo, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Phone :03 3251 0287

OKINA : Soba that makes your soul smile

by Bianca

Once in a while, during my culinary journey in Japan, I would stumble upon restaurants that simply makes your soul smile. This small establishment called Okina in the Ebisu area is one of those places. The food is so delicious it is a spiritual experience. You walk out feeling like you have just finished a meditation retreat, with a full tummy. I accidentally found this restaurant while looking through the Tokyo Michelin star book, trying to find a good soba restaurant. I went there thinking that I would have a nice bowl of soba, and then I noticed that it said 15,000-26,000 yen fixed menu price for dinner. A bowl of soba can’t cost that much. I went anyway. (thank God).

A very friendly and talkative ‘older lady’ greats you as you enter and immediately makes you feel at home, throwing compliments left and right, putting a smile on your face even before the food arrives. There are a few choices of fixed menus, starting with 15.000 yen and going up to one that doesn’t even have a price on it. We chose the one with the truffle soba that cost about 26,500 yen.

We were given a box of sake which you drink tequila-style with some salt. First time I tried it, and I thought it was absolutely delicious.

Sake with salt

The first course is some baby ginkgo nuts, perfectly arranged in a bowl of salt. I have to say, they were the best ginkgo nuts I have tried, ever. They were soft and had this heavenly taste, I could have finished a whole bowl if they’d let me.

Baby ginkgo nuts with salt

Then came the plate of sushi with some shrimp, scallop and squid brain, which despite of what it is, actually tasted delicious.

The sushi platter

Next, came another highlight. Shark fin tempura dipped in a bowl of Fugu (blowfish) soup. This was heavenly. The shark fin was marinated in a special sauce for three weeks before being fried with tempura batter. The Fugu dipping soup was otherworldly.

Shark fin tempura

Then came the freshly made cold soba. The noodles where scrumptious and delightful, but i didn’t finish the whole lot, leaving some space in my tummy for the truffle soba to come.

The cold soba

Last, but definitely not least, came best part of the whole meal. The truffle soba. We were asked to try the freshly made soba before it was boiled and you could taste the summer truffle in them. The soba was served hot, with a chunk of butter melted in the soup. Maybe this is the Japanese version of pasta with truffle and butter sauce, and it was absolutely and conclusively delicious.

Truffle soba

A pot of soba soup is served at the end and you are supposed to mix it in your cold truffle sauce. This soup with the essence of the soba we ate before we are told is what makes or breaks a soba restaurant. The soup has to be perfect and ours definitely was.

To close things, a bowl of home-made vanilla ice cream was served.

Like I’ve said before, I am so glad we stumbled upon this lovely little restaurants. We left with a smile so huge, it would definitely last us the whole week.

OKINA

Five Annex B1 Floor

1-3-10 Ebisunishi,Shibuya-ku

Tokyo

Phone : 03-3477-2648

 

 

 

 

Sarashina Horii soba in Azabujuban

by Bianca

We’ve been looking around for a nice little soba restaurant for awhile and finally decided on this restaurant in Azabujuban after browsing the internet. It had an english menu on its website which made things a lot easier.

Tempura soba

Oyako soba

I had an oyako soba which is a soba with chicken and egg which I thought was decent and the tempura soba my husband had with extra kakiage on the side was very good.

Tamagoyaki

Definitely order the tamagoyaki or japanese egg omelette which was extremely delicious. I think I would go back to this restaurant if whenever I’d find myself in the mood for soba.

Price : $

SARASHINA HORII
Address: 3-11-4 Moto Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Tel: 03-3403-3401
Website: http://www.sarashina-horii.com/en/
Credit Card: No
Open: 11:30am-8:30pm