Let's Talk Soba

WHAT? SOBA AGAIN? You say?

I got one word and some numbers for you. 190YEN!

Yeah, that shut you up alright. Now that I got your attention, here are some more words and numbers.

Location: 5
Wait Time: 3.5 
Atmosphere: 4.5
Price: 10000/5 ? 
Taste: 3.5

The Waseda Soba place (yeah, we are going to call it that. Problems?) is tucked away in a sleazy back alley of Waseda next to the coop. It’s the kind of post card perfect places whenever you picture some badass master of cookery serving some kickass cuisine that will blow your mind. The decor of this two store restaurant is modest but clean. Downstair is Japanese style, upstair is Western style. Alright, Fusion!!! It’s even got a f ing large piece of "soul stone" that you can look at while you slurp down your bowl of Soba. Go eat there and you'll see what I mean.






There is a pictured menu outside the restaurant so that you can actually see what you are about to order. Let me just repeat that again for all of us Gaijins, there is a PICTURED MENU outside.  No surprises here. Soba only, 190 Yen. Like a boss. Hot Soba, 200 Yen, Like a boss. Soba with a big piece of heavenly fried vegetable goodness, 290 Yen, Like a boss. Fried Tofu Soba, also 290 Yen, Also Like a Boss. I think you get the picture here.

Once you get into the restaurant, there might be a line depending on the time of the day you visit. If you weren’t smart enough to know that lunch times at Waseda is one of the busiest times for all restaurant from here until Baba and didn’t think about your exit strategy from your second period class, then Hell, you deserve the wait.

When you first walk into the restaurant you are going to be greeted by the ojiisan with a smile and a genki irashiimase. Do not be fooled by his friendly I can be your grandpa demeanor. Because underneath all of that standard politeness crap, dude is a badass who can serve up a fine bowl of soba. Make no mistake, this is a family business. The obasan takes the orders and gets the cash. That's a plus. They got their daughter doing the serving. That's a plus. The daughter is hot. That's a plus plus.

Now onto the food. We ventured into the realm of the Tempura ebi soba and the kakiage soba. That means it was the soba with a fried shrimp fried to crispy perfection and a soba with an out of this world sized fried vegetable cake. It was a cold day. So we had hot soba.

You know what, this is not just a bowl of noodles. This is a bowl of love. This is the kind of flavor that you get from your mother’s cooking. Eating lunch here was like coming back home from school after being bullied by that self absorbed fat kid and find that you mother had made you a bowl of soba with what the rest of the world would consider unimpressive ingredients using unimpressive techniques. Yet, the taste and the feeling of eating it is nothing less than extraordinary.

This is more than noodles. This is home made love.


THE VERDICT


The Bearded One: Now don’t get me wrong. I love home cooking and I love hot daughters in the family business. This was cheap soba, but I wasn’t really blown away by the flavor, and my deep fried shrimp pal was sadly soggy. But I also disapprove of fat bullies, so this is a tough call. All in all, 3.7 out of beards. Sorry I be sippin’ on that haterade mom’n’pop, but one day we may meet again.

The Beardless One: Yes, the soba itself is nothing to be impressed about. It’s not going to get anything of those really really shinny Michelin Stars. However, studying aboard for most of us will be challenge at one point or another. Let’s face it, you are going to miss your mommy no matter how badass your beard is. The fact that this place brings that home taste is worth all of the stars in the world in my books. I give it 4.5 emotional beards out of 5.