Kobayashi Soba — Restaurant in Matsumoto

Kobayashi Soba - Awesome food and warm ambience. It’s not just about eating some noodles — it’s about the whole experience: the setting, the flavor (especially with fresh soba and wasabi), and the warm people. For anyone exploring Matsumoto, especially near Matsumoto Castle or Nawate Street, this is one of those places that makes the trip more memorable - even considering the wait. We went there for lunch on both our days here. Make sure you have the time - the first day wait was about 1.5 hours and we were almost planning on cancelling our reservation. But we are glad we didn't.

We ordered the vegan versions of Tempura, Tenzaru, Inaka, and Kake. Both the hot and cold soba are beautifully made. Their dipping sauce hits differently - balanced flavours with a burst of freshness. The tempura is crisp and veggies were crunchy. They serve complimentary soba tea when you are seated. And at the end of the meal you are served with Soba water (in which the noodles were boiled) for mixing with the dipping sauce and drinking it. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S.

While this place is costlier than the other options around - I felt it was worth it. Special shout out to the ladies handling the customers - tried communicating in the best possible ways despite me not understanding Japanese. The servers were clearing the tables and serving food - all smiles throughout - without even a wasted minute.

Highly recommended if you love soba, appreciate good service, and don’t mind planning around...

We had two soba dishes: the warm soba with eggplants and mushrooms, and the cold mushroom soba, plus a portion of vegetables tempura (deep fried ingredients covered with a crispy dough).

The tempura was really crispy and didn't "feel" oily - although they were undoubtedly so given the pools of oil left on the empty plate.

The cold soba was definitely something I had not tasted even after living in Japan for many years: a mixture of sourness, a hint of spiciness from the grated radish, and sliminess from the mushrooms made it feel and taste quite unique. I would go back for it and recommend it to my friends.

However, the warm soba with eggplants and mushrooms was disappointing. The soup was plain, and the noodles were slim and crumbled in the mouth, making me miss that resistance that "al dente" noodles usually offer. It's quite possible that this is exactly the specialty of this restaurant, but I personally didn't enjoy it.

For these three dishes we paid a little over 5,000 yen (about a little over 50 USD). The tempura was exceptional but the soba noodles and their respective soups were somewhat underwhelming. It makes me wonder if they are more fluent in deep frying than noodle making. If like me you'd like to eat at a very old Japanese soba restaurant then sure, go for it, but don't expect to have a...

This restaurant has been around since 1889, and for good reason. It's very popular so there can be quite a long line during peak hours - however, you can write down your name and wander around the many nearby sights (a shrine, traditional shopping streets, the city museum, etc.) while waiting.

The interior is very serene and traditional, with beautiful wooden tables and large windows facing greenery. The menu is very vegan-friendly; dishes that can be adapted to be made vegan are clearly marked with a star. The kitchen will happily replace the regular dipping sauce (which contains dashi, i.e. dried bonito) with a vegan mushroom-based sauce. Their tempura batter is vegan too!

I ordered the soba with vegetable tempura, and it was delicious and came in a generous portion. You will be served a fragrant complimentary tea. At the end, you will receive a pot of soba water to thin out your dipping sauce and then drink it like soup! Everything was so beautifully presented as well - a real feast for your eyes!

Staff are very friendly, and the food came rather quickly despite it being busy. It was a bit pricey (2,200 yen for the soba with tempura) but well worth it for this amazing...