TANAKAYA Japanese Soba Restaurant — Restaurant in Tustin

I can't add much else to what everyone else has already said except that good food takes time and that's definitely what you're getting here. Take a deep breath and just enjoy the moment.

For those not familiar, Udon noodles are thicker and thus more chewy. There's a nice substance when you bite into these noodles. Soba noodles are much thinner and closely resemble what you find in Ramen. On the day I visited Tanakaya, I was really craving a nice hot bowl of a clear broth soup. I really enjoy Ramen but being sick and not wanting to eat something fatty and rich like my favorite Tonkotsu ramen, I opted to explore and look for a new restaurant. Thanks to other Google reviews I found Tanakaya in my backyard!

I had a difficult time choosing from the great variety of udon/soba they had. After talking with the waitress, I decided on the Kamo Nanban (Duck meat) with udon and it was perfect. Incredible umami flavor and a very generous portion of noodles. I was really hungry and ordered the half-sized serving of their curry rice which was good as well. Not as flavorful a curry compared to dedicated curry houses but a nice side dish to go along with the bowl of udon if you find yourself particularly hungry.

Itching to go back! If you're looking for delicious, authentic Japanese soba or udon, Tanakaya will be a great addition to your...

My boyfriend and I decided to give Tanakaya a try for dinner, arriving just 10 minutes after they opened. We waited for about an hour to be seated and an additional 10 minutes just to place our order. It appeared that the staff were more focused on cleaning tables than taking orders.

When our food finally arrived after another hour of waiting, it was disappointing. The cold soba sampler was the best of the worst. The kashiwa soba was overly salty, and the kaarage soba was a major letdown. The chicken kaarage that came with it was dry, flavorless, and came without any sauce. Even the broth for the soba lacked flavor. We used a lot of pepper flakes, but even they lacked any kick.

The service was friendly, but it was incredibly slow and somewhat neglectful. The ambience was boring, with plain decor and no background music to create any atmosphere.

In the end, our experience at Tanakaya was underwhelming. It's hard to recommend this restaurant when the overall dining experience was ruined by long waits and bland, uninspiring dishes. We left feeling that our time and money could have been better...

As authentic as it'll get. If you've never had Soba before, this would be the place to try it out.

The soba noodles had a very light springy texture which was surprising compared to boxed Soba that was almost gritty/mealy. So this was a little closer to ramen, which was right up my alley.

I ordered the Oh Zaru, the double stack of cold soba. I really liked the dipping sauce with green onion and wasabi. It felt refreshing, similar to a Vietnamese bowl of vermicelli, where it makes eating noodles feel like eating a salad, lol. Personally, the Oh Zaru was too much, but I had to get a double stack to get the experience!

I also shared an order of tempura, lotus root, okra, green bean, shrimp and a few others. I liked the change up.

Our waitress was super friendly. She seated us knowing we'd be there after closing. They closed at 8pm on Sunday, we got there 7:10 and seated maybe 30 minutes later. Highly...