On the radar for quite some time is this Shina Soba place in the northern reach of Kanda – the same area I always go on about, yes. It gets pretty good scores for the area.
It’s dark and moody inside – not dirty, just dim and artfully-lit. Which is funny because the customers are very much in the dim, sad camp. And all men.
Minor fillip of interest is that they give you a digestive aid, small hard pickled plums, to start the meal.
And cool from my perspective is the wall decorations, which include an old map of the Ogawamachi area. You can see how the old palace moat ran through, and the names of the various estates. It’s always arresting to look at all the gating on maps like this and remember that in Edo you needed permits to move between area of the city, to say nothing of wanting to leave it.
For a shina soba, this was pretty oily. Nothing wrong with that. I got the pork, which was decent, a sweetish glaze. And even though it’s only been a couple days, I’m struggling to remember much about it, other than the soup being quite good, in the simple, brown style that makes you want to pick up the bowl and drink, drink, drink.
The noodles were cooked nicely as well. I like thinner noodles, it’s true. Thin and firm. Fat and chewy does less for me.In this style and in the neighborhood, I’d tell you to walk a few more blocks to Isono, but this was enjoyable. A man’s gotta lunch.
There is no comments section on the Ikejiri place so this is for it.
Nicely written. I think the addition of the dialog fo recent posts adds a lot to the interest and understand of the places.