I had a chance to visit this nice Soba restaurant the other day, on the way to an onsen hotel in Shizuoka with a family of my husband’s.
Unfortunately the weather was terrible. It was heavily raining. Yet, there were already some people waiting before the restaurant opened at 11:30. (*0*)!! My father-in-law fell in love with their soba since he first visited there a few months ago. It’s everyday that people make a line to wait for the opening of the restaurant, according to him. We planned to be there before 11:30 so we should be able to join the queue to enter the restaurant for a lunch. That day was not exceptional, in spite of the terrible weather. What a surprise!
I was unable to take pictures from outside or the facade of the restaurant because of the heavy rain. It seemed like a typhoon or a storm. >_< I realized the building was a kominka (Japanese old folk house) only after I entered it. Wow! "I've got to blog about it for TKE readers!" 
Actually it's not common any longer in Japan to have a irori fireplace in a house we live in today. It might be the first time for me to see it. :p
As always, I tend to be more interested in the atmosphere and interior of the restaurant than the taste. haha! You see how many interior pictures I took there, compared with only a few food pictures. ^ ^;;
We were seated on the wood floor (not directly but on zabuton, or a floor cushion).
But there was also a large tatami room connecting from the wood floor + irori fireplace area. Whichever tables, we had to sit on the floor folding legs, you know, the traditional Japanese way. Men can sit with agura style (sit with his legs crossed in front of his body) but that’s considered bad manners for women. Women are recommended to sit with seiza style (sit on her heels) but that is not comfortable for me. I don’t like to sit on the floor in Japanese style.
Oh, but it’s possible this table has a space to place legs under the table. It’s called “horigotatsu” (掘りごたつ) in Japanese. In case of horigotatsu, we can sit on zabuton without folding legs and we can sit like we do on a chair. I like that. 
The menu looked so nice!
I ordered a set of 3 kinds of soba noodles. The normal one, thick one and the thin one in pink color. According to my father-in-law, the pink soba can be green when it’s Matcha tea flavor. This time, it was pink because it was shrimp flavor, according to the restaurant. But it didn’t taste like shrimp at all. Maybe the taste was too subtle but I put a little too much of wasabi and grated Japanese radish inside the soba dipping soup…
When I first saw this thick soba, I thought I wouldn’t like it. I’ve never seen or tasted such thick soba noodle ever in my life! But as it turned out, it was good especially when I kept chewing it for a while.
My husband ordered the same set as mine but with tempura (deep fried shrimp and vegetables). I was too busy eating my soba to take pictures of all the other family members’. But my father-in-law was eating a hot soba and told us that we would find out the hot one was better as we eat more and more.
I enjoyed the interior and the thick soba was interesting. But hmmm…the normal one didn’t taste very special to me. I didn’t like the thin one in shrimp flavor so much. So…I don’t know why this place attracts people that much. But if you have a chance to drive near this area, you can try it! 
Posted by: kirin on 
Dec 11th, 2011 | 
Filed under: Daily Life, Eat out in Japan
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