Dashin Soan — Local services in Tokyo

An experience we'd like to forget. Had a friend who speaks Japanese book a table for us for valentines day since the place looked nice and had good reviews.

What we did not know was that for some reason they thought we wanted their valentines set menu. It was on our table in Japanese when we got there. I asked for the English menu and then the problems started.

Suddenly the owner came out and there was a very insisting vibe that we ordered their fixed menu. I was polite and said well one of us is a vegetarian. Then the problems continued and they were very pressing. This felt very unpleasant and to avoid further conflict I said okay let's do that then even though we wanted to pick our own choise of foods from the English menu.

The food was to be honest not good at all. I was struggling to get it down. And I have lived in Japan. Further: they did not attend to us. Our glasses of complimentary water were empty most of the time.

We also noticed that we were the only ones in the restaurant who had that awful fixed menu everyone else got to choose from the menu:

why did we not get to do that? We are two people and they forced a menu on only us? Why? I would understand if that was the only thing they served that day. But it was not. Literally No one else had that menu. Only us.

And All we wanted was a table booking. Not a menu consisting of foods we did not like.

I guess our friend who booked for us did not care to explain he had agreed to some weird special valentines booking instead of a regular table booking. And I guess the restaurant was desperate to try to pin their fixed and overpriced menu on foreigners and our friend was an easy target.

Price was: 17.000 yen for food we did not want nor like.

And: the toilet stank so much of urine! In a place you pay 17.000 yen for very little food in Japan - the place with the best and cleanest toilets in the whole world: the toilet must be pristine. This one stank of urine! Disgusting.

Worst experience we had in Japan. For that price we would have liked to be allowed to at least pick our own food and not forced to get some awful valentines menu. All we wanted was a table! Not a menu we could not choose ourselves.

And again: with that bill in the end I truly feel the service with empty glasses of water was terrible.

Terrible experience. Only good thing was that the place looks nice and has a nice garden. Except for the dirty and smelly toilet the place is quite beautiful. But many restaurants are beautiful in Japan. So again. Can absolutely not...

I really appreciated that the chef/service were friendly and welcoming. They have English menus which is very helpful. Ordered the grilled scallops which were grilled to perfection, umami, sweet and worth every bite, followed by cold soba with yuba (tofu skin). The soba noodles had a slightly rougher texture, indicative of a higher level of buckwheat ratio which I enjoyed. Noodles were al dente and the yuba was creamy and thick - truly excellent and comforting. Also ordered one dish of tempura burdock root (gobo). Expertly fried and not one bit oily. The soba tea afterwards was thick and starchy, the way it is supposed to be. All in all, I'd say a really wonderful and immersive experience, as dining should be and well worth the trip across town. There were two couples there as well, one provided the typical background appreciation/slurping/humming noises which was quaint. The other was a bit rowdy, interspersing loud smacks of beer appreciation with camera shutter clicks (I too was guiltily snapping photos when I felt no one was watching but my neighbors had no such inhibitions and snapped away with abandon). The overall restaurant's ambience is very calming, you can see their soba making machine behind a glass wall and both sides of the restaurant are flanked by a...

On location in the quiet neighbourhood of non descript Setagaya in a little soba restaurant aptly opposite a traditional Temple/Shrine overlooking it. The meal was quiet n the soba smooth without making it overly el dente and the Dashi was somewhat bashful, in my opinion, but adequate to compliment my green onions selection. Side dishes of coutured veggie tempura, plump bouncy home made tofu with a dash of bonito flakes, scallop n lotus root/leaf tempura n aubergines, the quintessential tamagoyaki but done ever so delicately n fluffy (also not overly sweet) are recommended n were tried by yours truly. Accompanying dry sake or Ume (fruity) sake would be ideal or if one prefers then a simple Asahi would do. Service was prompt n attentive with English language menus as well as a patient lady who explained dishes n recommendations succinctly. Prices are slightly above average but then one must account for ambience, attention and the pervading atmosphere of a traditional soba meal in a quiet zen setting. Recommended indeed for...