{"id":2622,"date":"2024-08-30T22:05:18","date_gmt":"2024-08-31T06:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/?p=2622"},"modified":"2024-08-30T22:12:58","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T06:12:58","slug":"new-and-only-soba-shop-in-sf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/new-and-only-soba-shop-in-sf\/","title":{"rendered":"New (and only) Soba shop in SF"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My iPhone has a “helpful” feature called the Journal App<\/a>. Basically, if I take pictures of something, somewhere, it will prompt me to write something about it. Of course, since I have this blog, I don’t need to journal on the Journal App. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot\"
Screenshot of a “helpful” prompt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s not perfect; this is not a mailbox, although the soba restaurant I was at was next to one so I guess it’s accurate. And about soba in San Francisco Japantown…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had a go to place for freshly made soba called Mifune<\/em> inside the Japan Center for years. I remember it from high school days. Was the place named after the actor? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"mifunenoodles\"
This is Toshiro Mifune, the actor having lunch. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This was<\/span> Mifune the soba restaurant<\/em>. I don’t see a resemblance. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mifune was a go-to for a quick dinner or lunch special. Freshly made kake soba (soup noodles) or zaru soba (cold noodles with dipping sauce) was the specialty here and was the place to go for a noodle fix since ramen wasn’t a big thing yet. They’re no longer around, having closed due to the plandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, many ramen shops have opened up in Japantown to sate the need of noodle slurpers but sometimes you want noodles that aren’t overloaded with toppings and rich sleep inducing broth. You want noodles that are freshly made. And are healthy. You want soba. And there’s a new place where you can get it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The queue for Sobakatsu. From Yelp because I forgot to take a picture of it. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sobakatsu.<\/strong> A very low key, very small (4 tables with 2 seats each and a 3 seat counter) soba shop. It’s so low key, it doesn’t have a website of its own and to find information about it you go to Yelp<\/a> or DuckDuckGo<\/a> to do the internet search. Here’s a review<\/a>; read for some background of the place and a hint of something upcoming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"img
Wasn’t kidding, those are the eight seats and four tables<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Because of the size of the restaurant and their hours, you will encounter a queue for lunch and dinner. They’re open from 12:00 until 19:00 (or when they run out of soba). I showed up at 13:00 on a Thursday and I waited for 30 minutes before being able to order and then be seated. Your options are cold or hot soba and variations on same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Menu from Yelp<\/a> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wound up getting an order of cold soba, the Ten Zaru<\/em> with tempura (because soba and tempura ALWAYS go together). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"img
The Ten Zaru<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"img
Why I’m here<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yes, it’s freshly made soba. It tastes as good as it looks. Snappy, firm and springy all at once. And although I usually associate soba with soup, the cold soba is better for warm days (of which it was when I went). The tempura was bite sized as was the token green vegetable which was also coated with yummy tempura batter which made it edible. Will I return? Yes, but maybe later in the afternoon. And for the promised katsu in the SF Standard review earlier. I still hate queueing. But this was worth it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sobakatsu<\/em>
1700 Laguna Street<\/em>
San Francisco, 94115<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My iPhone has a “helpful” feature called the Journal App. Basically, if I take pictures of something, somewhere, it will prompt me to write something about it. Of course, since I have this blog, I don’t need to journal on the Journal App. It’s not perfect; this is not a mailbox, although the soba restaurant … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “New (and only) Soba shop in SF”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[71,91],"class_list":["post-2622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","tag-san-francisco","tag-soba"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2622"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2628,"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2622\/revisions\/2628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}