A few days ago I went to get a Soba lunch at Yabu Soba. Yabu Soba is a venerable institution — it opened in the 1880s.
The restaurant is located very close to the Kanda subway station (Ginza line). Despite this, I had a heck of a time finding it. Somehow the maps in the restaurant guides never look like the street maps near the train stations. Fortunately, two Japanese took pity on me and my pidgeon Japanese and pointed me in the right direction.
I finally found the restaurant and as I’m getting ready to walk in, a huge, black Ford Explorer pulls up in front, parks and four sun-glassed guys get out. The driver throws the truck in park and just leaves it there, blocking the narrow street that the restaurant fronts. I don’t know from yakuza, but these guys sure looked spooky to me.
Once inside I ordered tempura soba. It was delicious, served with hot tea and some of the water that the soba is cooked in (not quite sure what this was for — I figured it was for thinning the broth to drink after you’d finished the noodles, but I saw some folks drinking it straight). The soba had some definite tooth to it, which I love, and the broth was great — deeply flavored and not too salty.
Apparently one of the hallmarks of this restaurant is the sing-song fashion that the orders are called out in. Not quite singing, the high-pitched chanting kept my attention throughout the meal.
