Naze-Soba-ni-Rayu-wo-Irerunoka Shinbashi — Local services in Tokyo

Best niku soba I’ve had so far.. It’s a tiny narrow shop that can only fit 10 or less customers at a time. The soba was cold and the broth was hot, it’s very refreshing to eat especially in summer.. We ordered the pork niku soba and the beef niku soba. Both were delicious but the beef niku soba was unforgettable.. They serve unlimited fresh eggs and plain broth which are self service. The special rayu they have was really good as well! It compliments the flavor of the broths.. For first timers, you eat it by dipping the cold soba to the broth.. You can also put the egg to the broth but I prefer to have a separate bowl for the egg. Cold soba dipped in the broth then dipped in to the egg 🤯 It’s so good.. I’d like to come again. Minus one star because they don’t have English on the ticket machine all are in Japanese. It’s a guessing game 😂 .. They have English menu on the poster though. You can definitely ask for help.. If you are a foreigner going alone and you don’t speak Japanese, it’s a little overwhelming because the staff are busy and they can’t accommodate non Japanese speakers so much as they don’t speak English. Another thing is, the soba noodles they gave me were so HARD 🪵 I felt the crunch 😂 . They said it was standard I tried to ask if it’s possible to buy extra men but have it cooked softer but they said it was standard noodle firmness What I did instead was put the noodles in the hot broth and let it sit until it softens. It was effective 😝 I’d definitely come...

Stopped here because it was the first 'busy' restaurant we saw after hoping off the train at Shimbashi station. This tiny little soba noodle joint was packed with locals enjoying the noodles - always a good sign.

Despite us speaking no Japanese, and them speaking no English, the obviously friendly staff managed to help us order 2 bowls of noodles using the automated ticketing machine (small, medium and large are the same price, and we found small was enough for lunch). Staff also went out of their way to get a couple of forks from storage.

Noodles were nice (served cold, ready to be dunked into the warm broth), however the sesame flavouring in the broth was too much for us (our first experience, so don't knows how traditional the flavouring is). We needed a bunch of chili powder and oil to balance the flavours.

Raw eggs are waiting to be cracked into your bowl, and extra broth is available.

A fun first experience, a bit let down by...

I used to think soba was boring, until I stumbled onto this spot.

For ¥1000 (medium) you get a massive bowl of soba noodles with pork to dip into an umami-bomb broth. On top of that, there are free raw eggs that you can add to your heart’s desire, though I topped out at two. What really stood out to me here was the special garlic chili and the fantastic sesame oil flavor in the broth. Visiting here was an accident for me, but clearly luck was on my side.

If you want to eat where the locals take their lunch in an unpretentious diner-like setting, check...