Tokyo Food - Honmura An Soba, Roppongi

Honmura An is a diamond in the rough of Roppongi. The chef, Koichi Kobari, started his career as a restaurateur in New York, and has now spread his hand-made soba to his home, Japan.

You can see Kobari's Soho legacy in the minimalistic design of the room, and the addition of sides such as a delicious avocado salad, and Californian wines on the menu.

But what you come to Honmura An for is the soba. My friends and I tried an array of cold soba with various dipping sauces, hot soba in broth, and inari soba (tofu skin wrapped around soba noodles). CNNgo voted Honmura An's Tenzaru Soba as the number one soba dish in Tokyo for 2010, and it was definitely a highlight of the enjoyable meal. 

What really struck me however was the friendliness of Kobari himself, who seemed delighted and relieved to have a party of six foreigners attend his restaurant so soon after the Tohoku earthquake in March, despite the restaurant being full. Kobari carefully explained each dish to us, and described the best way to drink our overflowing cups of sake (which symbolise abundance). 

A further plus was the very reasonable bill at the end of the meal. I rate soba in my top 5 Japanese cuisines, and this is without doubt one to try.

Abundant cup of sake - Silver dish is to catch any that gets away!

Avocado Salad

Soba Inari

Tenzaru Soba

Soba in duck broth

Honmura An website in English

Map:

View Larger Map