Ukiya Pontochō Main Store — Restaurant in Kyoto

Established in 1929, Ukiya is a popular handmade soba restaurant in Kyoto. This original location is right in the center of the city in Pontocho, between Shijo and Sanjo Kawarachi.

The exterior is very photogenic and although there are only a few tables as soon as you enter, they also have seating upstairs and downstairs. Whether it's soba, ramen or udon, noodles spots in Japan tend to be quite small with limited seating, but Ukiya has large tables and spacious seating, which was a nice surprise.

I came here for lunch today and although it was already past 1:30pm, customers continued flowing in. I ordered the Soba Set (JPY 1,100), which includes soba, mixed rice and pickles. It generally comes with cold soba, but they kindly accepted my request to change to hot soba. Everything was delicious and they also came by several times to refill our tea. At the end of the meal, they also brought us sobayu, which is the hot water used for boiling soba, said to have nutrients.

We had a wonderful experience overall and I would recommend to anyone who is looking for an authentic, delicious soba...

I ordered the Tenzaru set a few days ago. Was blown away by the food and variety offered, the taste of the soba was delicate, and the tempura although with no sauce, was refreshing and tasty when eating it together with the soba. The side dishes were also equally tasty.

They surprisingly offered a soup that can be poured into your soba sauce, which is offered after your meal. It actually tasted pretty good, and enhanced my dining experience. The soup mixed with any sauces used in the soba or udon are quite tasty, and can be enjoyed regardless of any soba or udon dish ordered.

I recommend those interested in sobas, udons, tempuras and rice dons to...

They forgot to bring me the hot soup to dip in my soba noodles until I had almost finished the noodles with the tempura. The whole time I thought I had made a mistake with my order and was wondering how I can eat cold soba noodles on their own. The funny thing was the lady came and brought the hot soup after I had almost finished the noodles (15 minutes late) and was very happy to point to the noodles to say you need to dip it inside! I was going to make a fuss but decided not to embarrass them as there were other guests in the restaurant. They were very hapoy to charge me the full bill. The portions were too small. Its over rated on...