Soba-Ya

Cuisine	Japanese
Price	$$ (16-30)
Rating	3/10
Last Visit	July 18, 2019
Location	New York: East Village

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General Notes

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Soba-Ya is an interesting traditional Japanese restaurant in East Village specializing in home-made soba noodles. I appreciate the intricacy of the dishes and the commitment to traditional Japanese food, but unfortunately the food was somewhat bland and uninteresting. This is actually my first time having an actual soba dish, and unfortunately the flavor doesn't mesh well with my preferences; it has a bit of an oddly unpleasant taste that I can't get used to. Some items were underseasoned and could use a bit more complexity in flavor, but the individual items were prepared with precision, and a couple were done quite well. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this restaurant, but could be worth a try if you like more traditional flavors.

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Negatives

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> I ordered the $22 early bird special for dinner. It sounds good in theory, but realistically you're probably better of ordering a lot of different dishes and sharing amongst a group. The early bird dinner items are fine, but not particularly noteworthy,

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Dishes Tasted

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• ★☆☆☆ Tempura -- The shrimp and vegetables were fried well, but it was badly lacking in seasoning. This dish needs more salt, or some kind of sauce to go with it.
• ★★☆☆ Vanilla Ice Cream with Strawberry Sauce -- Okay vanilla ice cream and the strawberry sauce was pretty tasty, but it felt a bit out of place after a warm noodle soup dish. Not particularly noteworthy.
• ★★☆☆ Inari Sushi -- In general, I don't really like tofu very much, and especially not inari. But this was actually pretty good; the rice had a great texture and flavor.
• ★☆☆☆ Hot Soba -- The texture on the noodles is okay, but I'm not at all a fan of the broth. It has quite a bit of acidity, which I like. But it also has a strange, unpleasant taste to it. Overall, the dish felt bland and I had a hard time finishing it.
• ★★★☆ Seasonal Vegetables -- Four small portions of vegetable dishes as an appetizer. The dish was intricate and delicious - each component was well seasoned, had good texture, and was flavorful.