8 best soba restaurants in Tokyo – including a luxurious uni soba

Dashinsoan is one of the most beautiful soba restaurants around. Set in a traditional Japanese house on a quiet residential street away from the bustling epicentre of Shimokitazawa, the restaurant is fronted by a small but tranquil Japanese garden. And in one corner of the light-filled open dining area, you’ll find the room where the soba noodles are made fresh each morning, with the large granite grinder used for making fresh buckwheat flour taking pride of place.

We love the yuba (tofu skin) soba, with al dente noodles in a hot dashi broth. Other favourites are the bowl of fragrant mitsuba (Japanese wild parsley) soba, the duck and green onion soba, and the summer special sudachi (Japanese lime) soba served in a cold broth and topped with a layer of sliced sudachi.

For a creative and contemporary take on soba, visit Ryan in Shibuya. The soba menu ranges from plain chilled soba served with a rich dashi-based dipping sauce to more complex offerings like soba with anago (saltwater eel) and vegetable tempura. You’ll also find creative concoctions like soba with crab, salted fish roe and nori crumble or soba topped with fresh shirasu (whitebait), sea urchin and salmon roe. 

Owner Hiroshi Kouga has been making soba for over 20 years. The restaurant’s small size is deliberate as it enables Kouga to have better control over the quality and consistency of his food, while allowing him to pay more attention to his customers. The buckwheat is brought in from farmer mills in Iruma (Saitama Prefecture), and the restaurant uses a careful ratio of buckwheat to wheat flour to create that ideal texture. Popular items on the menu include the decadent uni soba; their lunch sets are also noteworthy.

Kyorakutei is a good place to get an education in soba. This old-school restaurant in the backstreets of Kagurazaka features a grinder in its storefront window, where the noodle master makes soba by hand. You’ll also get to compare the two different types of buckwheat noodles: the regular soba, which is made by cutting a small percentage of wheat flour, and the juwari soba that’s a craft by itself as it uses pure 100 percent buckwheat.

Darker in colour compared to the regular soba, the juwari soba at Kyorakutei is one of the best we’ve had. The texture is firm with a bit of give, and it has a beautiful nuttiness that makes it delicious even on its own. The best way to appreciate the texture and flavour is to eat it cold with a side of dipping broth.

Located in a quiet backstreet of Harajuku, Tamawarai is a one-Michelin-starred soba restaurant, known for its unique noodles of 85:15 ratio (85% buckwheat, 15% wheat flour). 

Try the soba set (hot or cold) with tempura and seafood; the tempura is crisp and light, with not a drop of oil in excess. The soba with tofu is a house favourite: a bowl of chilled soba noodles topped with a cloud of handmade tofu and a mound of bonito flakes. Served alongside the bowl is a small flask of rich soy-based sauce to pour over the noodles.

Located along the Meguro River, this quaint soba restaurant is open for both lunch and dinner – prepare to stand in line for the former, and ensure you make a reservation for the latter. They’ve got all the classics here, from your tempura and tororo soba to the refreshing sudachi soba that’s always a good option in the warmer months. The soba noodles are made from scratch, and depending on your order, are adjusted for the perfect flavour, texture and consistency.

Along with nearby Yabu Soba, Matsuya counts among Tokyo's most venerable noodle joints – it's been in business since 1884, and the current, gorgeously preserved building dates back to 1924. But well over a century of history doesn't translate to a stuck-up attitude here: on the contrary, Matsuya is a wonderfully down-to-earth place, always bustling with eager slurpers who come for the simple and unpretentious but flawless combo of handmade soba and power-packed dashi, which – we imagine – tastes almost exactly as it used to back in the Taisho era.

In operation since the 1780s, this widely acclaimed soba shop turns out two types of buckwheat noodles, one using ground buckwheat for a darker colour, and another using the polished buckwheat grain to create a whiter noodle that’s just so silky smooth. If you’re getting seiro or dipping soba, you’ll be given spicy and sweet soba tsuyu separately so you can mix to taste. The shop also offers dried version of their noodles and packaged sauces for you to recreate at home.