It’s more than just a style of cooking It can also be found served at Zen temples as part of Buddhist vegetarian cuisine, with Kyoto-style soup — rich in umami from kombu dashi — bringing out the best in the soba noodles. Many soba restaurants in Kyoto occupy historic machiya townhouses — some featuring tsuboniwa inner gardens that exude traditional Kyoto charm. Enjoy a refined moment over a bowl of soba in these deeply atmospheric spaces.
五／Itsutsu
This soba restaurant is run by WAKUDEN, a high-end Kyoto-based kaiseki (traditional multi-course) restaurant group. The thin soba noodles feel refreshing going down. They are not braced with cold water, letting you take in their aroma. Hot soba options include kake soba, spicy daikon radish, and Pacific herring. The soba goes incredibly well with their speciality mackerel sushi.
権兵衛／Gombei
Gombei is registered as a soba restaurant but serves its signature udon and rice bowl dishes along with soba. Menu items such as keiran, deep-fried tofu, and Nagasaki-style shippoku are available with both soba and udon. Visit in the mood for soba and you might find yourself going with udon instead.
茶寮哲心／Saryo Tesshin
Creative, thoughtfully prepared soba dishes are served here. Thinly cut juwari soba — made entirely from buckwheat — is paired with ingredients like cheese, wagyu beef, and dried mullet roe. The counter features washi paper and a gold foil painting of a tiger and rabbit. The lavish interior design is also part of the experience.
十五／Juu-go
This soba restaurant with counter seating is located on Kyoto’s Philosopher’s Walk. Thick juwari soba noodles, made with 100% buckwheat flour, are kneaded fresh with every order. Home-grown shin-soba (new harvest soba) is a seasonal delight. Reservations are recommended, as this restaurant is quite popular.
そのば／sonoba
Their Japanese-modern space has a stylish feel. Start with soba-mae — light bites like mackerel sushi and rolled omelette — paired with Japanese sake or soba shochu, a buckwheat-based distilled spirit. Try their seasonal varieties of soba, including fresh sea lettuce in spring, sudachi citrus in summer, maitake mushrooms in autumn and oysters in winter.
蕎麦 ろうじな／Soba Rojina
Their cold mori soba can be enjoyed with light Kansai-style or rich Kanto-style dipping sauce. During the day, enjoy it as part of a set meal with seasoned rice, while in the evening, full-course menus featuring tempura are available. The plentiful side dishes will put you in the mood for sake.
竹邑庵太郎敦盛／Chikuyuan Taro no Atsumori
This restaurant draws attention for its nutritious soba, made from whole buckwheat ground with the husk. The signature dish is atsumori soba — freshly boiled noodles served with a hot dipping sauce. For cold soba, they offer okkake-sara soba, where the noodles are served separately on small plates. The chilled dipping sauce is enriched with grated yam.Top image: Ⓒ Saryo Tesshin
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