Soba-no-Mi Yoshimura — Restaurant in Kyoto

I recently visited Kyoto with my family after spending time in Tokyo. We were excited to try Soba-no-Mi Yoshimura, especially since it was right next to our hotel (The Blossom Kyoto) and had great reviews online. After saving up for this trip, I was looking forward to treating my family to a nice meal—and sadly, this restaurant was a huge letdown.

Despite the high ratings and the beautiful photos of the food, the reality did not match expectations. The service was confusing from the start. Our server got nearly every order wrong—each person at the table received the incorrect dish, and the staff had to return multiple times to fix it. One or two mistakes I can understand, but this was across the board.

The food itself was even more disappointing. If you’re coming for soba noodles, I’d strongly suggest skipping this place. The soba was completely bland—lacking any depth or flavor. I ordered hot soba and was given cold soba instead. Everyone at our table agreed their dishes were just not good.

To make matters worse, it was difficult to flag down staff for basic things like water. We had the American menu and tried menu items #3 and #4—both of which failed to impress.

While it was nice to see the handmade soba preparation at the entrance, the actual dining experience was disappointing, especially given the high prices. For a restaurant that presents itself as high-quality, this felt like a letdown in both taste and service.

If you’re a tourist visiting Kyoto and looking to try great local food, I would recommend skipping Soba-no-Mi Yoshimura. There are far better options nearby the Blossom Hotel that offer better flavor, value, and...

True handmade soba! We found Sobanomi Yoshimura when we were looking for well rated food near our hotel The Blossom Kyoto. When you walk in, you can see multiple chefs making the soba from scratch: mixing, rolling, stretching, cutting, weighing. Seating is upstairs. We arrived late around 1:30pm and were seated in a shared room in the back – no waiting but this is a weekday in February (non peak season). The menu has hot or cold soba and tempura – no sushi or sashimi. You cannot customize and get only shrimp tempura even at an upcharge so you get the full platter of 2 large shrimp with a bunch of fresh seasonal tempura vegetables. Costs range from ¥1,400 or USD $10 tempura to ¥1,860 hot soba with beef to ¥3,000 or USD $20 hot soba with beef tempura set. Once ordered, the food came out quickly 10 minutes later and we enjoyed our meal. The hot soba was freshly made and in a rich broth with tasty shaved beef. The tempura was also freshly made and not too greasy. It was a little difficult to find a waitress to order rice, order a 2nd helping of tempura, water refills or get the bill. We returned the next day for lunch as we had difficulty finding well rated food anywhere nearby – there was plenty of choices but they had 3-3.5 out of 5 ratings. So we returned arriving around 12N. We were seated in a large private room in the back. Service was significantly better and the food is high quality. Ultimately, my rating is based on the fact that I’m not sure I’d return. I prefer ramen to soba and while I enjoy their soba, it’s only once in awhile and I was disappointed there was no sushi sashimi. Even with my own personal bias, we wouldn’t...

We ate at Sobanomi Yoshimura on our first night in Kyoto. We had a large party of 6, so we waited a little bit outside of the restaurant. It wasn’t a long wait, all things considered. Once we got in, we were seated in a private room very traditionally decorated. I really enjoyed that about this restaurant. Our group had a variety of dietary restrictions, and the staff was happy to accommodate everyone to the best of their ability.

We each ordered the cold soba set. To accommodate our vegan diets, they were able to substitute veggie tempura in place of any fish ingredients. The tempura was delicious, and had a really great texture. It wasn’t overly greasy or fried. They did a really nice job. The cold soba was really refreshing after a long day of travel. An older man was serving us, and he was really friendly and helpful.

It was definitely a delicious place to eat, and if I were in Kyoto I...