StB and I were wandering around considering our options for dinner the other night when I blurted out “Oh did you read this week’s TONY? Soba Totto!” and she finished with, “I want to try! Let’s go!” and off we went.
We’re both fans of soba… her a little more so than I. Despite the fact that I’ve had soba only a handful of times, I do like it and enjoy it a lot…
We walked in pretty early for a Saturday evening, but sadly, the place never filled up. We sat at the bar… and I delightedly noted the “coasters”:
Bunnies on my mine (how fitting!) and hot peppers on StB’s. Funnier still was when I noticed that all the coasters around us had bunnies, but hers had the only peppers we could see. (I think those are Sichuan peppers, too, one of the spiciest peppers, right?)
We opted to split the wasa tako (raw octopus with wasabi) appetizer. Oddly, the waitress didn’t comment on our choice (that it wasn’t that large an appetizer nor perhaps meant for sharing), but she did proceed to explain every choice I made- this one was “It’s cold, and it’s salty, a little spicy,” were her words. It was yummy, but probably not for everyone, as it was more like tartare than I’d expected, and therefore a slimier texture than you might expect. It definitely had a kick to it, but it was not so much I couldn’t endure it.
My plain soba (since I was still recovering from food poisoning, I didn’t want to exacerbate any problems by ordering all sorts of crazy stuff) came after a bit of a wait; the broth was much saltier than I expected but still good. The noodles themselves were obviously really fresh- perhaps the wait was because they were being made on the spot? The noodles broke apart easily in my mouth, with little to no chew to them despite being cooked al dente; very interesting. I wouldn’t say these were the best I’d ever had, but that could also be in part due to my liking the toppings of my soba as much as the soba itself. And I discovered I prefer cold soba to hot soba.
There was a bit of a wait before StB’s soba appeared. Her opinion can be found here.
Overall, it was a pleasant experience, but the waitstaff is clearly very inexperienced and learning the ropes. I think the language barrier might be an issue at first as well; I must say though that the pleasant demeanor, and quite bluntly, the good looks of the staff didn’t hurt matters at all (our waitress was fairly pretty and one of the grill chefs was a cutie as well). They made the wait times bearable and they really were quite nice. As my favorite toppings are currently not on the menu as choices (duck, uni, roe), I don’t think I’ll be back; the soba definitely wasn’t exactly the kind I like texture-wise.
Yvo says: A solid contention for yummy soba, but the lack of choices for toppings puts me off and may put you off as well. But the delicious smelling skewers that you can watch being made may just be what gets you here: order plain soba and a bunch of skewers and who cares about toppings then?
middle of the road recommendation; perhaps don’t go out of your way
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