Hi there. I’m a Japanese local, sometimes lurking in this sub. I recently took my friend from Canada to a soba dinner experience and they absolutely loved it. Then it occurred to me that while most foreign tourists would think of soba as a quick lunch, they probably don’t know how to enjoy it as a full-course dinner. It’s especially great if you like sake, as its a really great way to enjoy a variety of sake. So I thought I’d share how to order and enjoy soba for dinner.
First of all, there are different kinds of soba restaurants. Some restaurants are only intended for quick meals. They typically only have soba menus and not many side dishes. The ones that are more higher-end will have a great selection of side/main dishes and sake to be enjoyed with soba. My favourites are a chain called Dosanjin and Naraya in Ikebukuro.
So here’s how to order:
First, order sake (or any drink you like, sake and soba is a classic combination) and some side/main dishes to enjoy. Soba restaurant will usually have staples like “soba miso” (baked miso with soba seeds, it’s meant to be enjoyed in small portions like good cheese together with sake) or “itawasa” (fish cake eaten like sashimi). They will also have things like grilled chicken, sashimi, tempura etc. Just order as you go along like as you would do at any izakaya. The key is soba has to be enjoyed at the end of the meal, so don’t order one yet. (FYI, these side/main dishes are called "sobamae", literally "before soba".)
If you’ve enjoyed all these side/main dishes, go ahead to order soba to finish your meal. The most common type to order here is “seiro”, simple cold soba. But You can order whichever one you like. My personal favourite is cold soba with warm duck and leek dipping sauce. Personally I don’t recommend soba bowls with warm soup because soba is best enjoyed when it’s cold, it looses the texture. But everyone has their own taste.
If you order seiro, you should know how to eat it because there’s an art to enjoy seiro in a way. You can find guides online for sure but to put it simply:
– Mix the condiments (spring onions, ginger, wasabi etc.) of your choice into the dipping sauce.
– Take strands of soba noodles and dip it into the sauce and enjoy. The key is you do not dip the noodles all the way in. You want both the part that is dipped and the part that is as is to enjoy the soba flavour. (This actually goes for sashimi too… you only want a bit of soy sauce)
– Around the time your finish your soba, waiters will bring you a pot. It has hot water that was used to boil the noodles inside. When you finish your soba, pour this hot water into the dipping sauce (to dilute it, because the dipping sauce is too salty to be enjoyed as is) and enjoy it like a soup to finish your meal. (You don't have to finish all of it, I usually only have some sips.)
If you fancy a dessert, many places have either warabimochi or ice cream on menu too.
That’s it! Hope you found this interesting, enjoy your stay in Japan!
by Jaded-Technician-511